Mounties say they are investigating a photograph of Nazi paraphernalia allegedly sent by one of the suspects in three British Columbia deaths to another user on a video game network.
Sgt. Janelle Shoihet says RCMP have received the photos that a Steam user says were sent by 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky, who is also pictured in military fatigues brandishing an airsoft rifle and wearing a gas mask.
Alan Schmegelsky, father of Bryer Schmegelsky, poses for a photo during an interview with The Canadian Press in Mill Bay B.C. on Wednesday, July 24, 2019. The father of a suspect in the deaths of three people in northern British Columbia says his son is in “very serious pain” and he expects a nationwide manhunt will end in the young man’s death. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Laura Kane
The nationwide manhunt for Schmegelsky and his friend, 19-year-old Kam McLeod, continues today as police say they're suspects in the deaths of Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese.
Police charged the two young men yesterday with second-degree murder in the death of University of British Columbia lecturer Leonard Dyck, whose body was found near the teens' burned-out truck in northwest B.C.
The two men most recently logged onto their Steam accounts 13 days ago, around the time they told family and friends they were leaving their small Vancouver Island community of Port Alberni, B.C., in search of work.
Schmegelsky's account shows he was a frequent player of a shooting game called Russia Battlegrounds, and both young men's Facebook pages were connected to an account called Illusive Gameing, which had a modified Soviet flag as its icon.
Alan Schmegelsky, the father of the 18-year-old, says he purchased the military fatigues and airsoft rifle for his son so he could play "battle" with his friends in the woods, and says the teenager loved strategy video games.
There was no answer at the homes of Schmegelsky's mother and grandmother in Port Alberni yesterday, and McLeod's father Keith McLeod has released a statement saying his son is a "kind, considerate, caring young man."
A burned-out car the teens were travelling in was found near the community of Gillam in northern Manitoba this week and police have set up a checkstop at an intersection on the only road leading into the town.
