CCTV shows final moments of couple shot dead amid Canadian serial killer fears
This video shows the last moments before a young couple were found shot dead on the side of a remote highway in northern British Columbia.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have released heartbreaking CCTV footage of the couple's final movements in hopes it will jog the memory of someone who can help detectives trace their killer.
The footage captures Australian Lucas Fowler, 23, and American Chynna Deese, 24, embracing at a service station at Fort Nelson, within the northern Rockies, as they fill up the van with gas for what was to be a three-week-long Canadian roadtrip.
Just days later, the young lovers, described by their parents as ‘kindred spirits’, were found dead 186 miles away on the side of a remote northern BC highway.
Police released a sketch of a man who they say interacted with the couple moments before their death.
Fears are mounting that a serial killer is on the loose as police say there is a ‘possible’ link between the couple’s death, another man’s body found in a nearby burning car, and two others who remain missing.
Searches continue for Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, after their truck was discovered in flames near the town at Dease Lake. The two youths had been travelling to Whitehorse in the Yukon in search of work.
During that investigation, the body of a man who was neither McLeod nor Schmegelsky was found two kilometres down the road, the RCMP said.
The RCMP provided a composite sketch of the dead man at a Monday press conference. They have not released information about the manner or time of his death.
“It’s unusual to have two major investigations undergoing of this nature in northern B.C. at the same time,” RCMP Sgt Janelle Shoihet said during the press conference. The police are proceeding with the knowledge that there’s a possibility the investigations could be linked, she said.
Shoihet cautioned the public and tourists to the area to have “heightened vigilance” in the remote region where there is little or no cellphone coverage. Notifying others of a planned route and periodically checking in are important safety steps, she said.
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Some media speculated that the deaths could have been the work of a single killer or that they may be linked with the “Highway of Tears” – the remote stretch of road where at least 40 Indigenous women have gone missing or been found murdered since 1970.
But so far, there is no indication that the crimes are at all linked to the Highway of Tears investigations, Shoihet said. Several murderers are believed to have been responsible for the crimes along the notorious section of British Columbia’s Highway 16 – which is approximately 1,000 km away from the current investigations.
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