Roadside Killers Had Weirdest Escape Plan

Sad, but true: Two triple homicide suspects in Canada believed they could escape by hijacking a boat to Africa, the National Post reports. On Friday, the RCMP revealed how they identified Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod as roadside killers and tracked them down in the swampy terrain of northern Manitoba. "Schmegelsky states that they are responsible for the three murders" in a video the pair took, per a police report the CBC quotes. "They were going to march to Hudson Bay where they planned to hijack a boat and go to Europe or Africa." Authorities began pursuing the teens—McLeod was 19, Schmegelsky 18—after a couple was found fatally shot by a British Columbia highway July 15. A third victim soon turned up about 300 miles away, shot near a burning truck.

By then, evidence was mounting: Surveillance video showed the pair driving the same Dodge pickup truck in the area, and McLeod's Walmart employee ID card was found at the second murder scene. By late July, hundreds of officers were pursuing the pair with dogs and drones around Gillam, Manitoba. One of six videos by Schmegelsky and McLeod later showed they had hit a dead end; indeed, their bodies were found Aug. 7 with two SKS semi-automatic rifles believed to be the murder weapons. McLeod had shot his friend before turning a gun on himself. "They were cold. They were remorseless, matter of fact," says Asst. Commissioner Kevin Hackett. "If there was in fact a motive, it's gone with the accused." (Schmegelsky had bought Nazi memorabilia and "thought he was Russian.")