- Canadian police are searching for Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, who are suspected of killing a backpacking couple and a university lecturer separately this month.
- Police have narrowed down their search to Gillam, a town in the northern Manitoba province.
- Authorities say Gillam has a tough terrain and is swampy, dense, and full of insects.
- TV footage showed heavily-armed police patrolling Gillam, and using dogs at least one drone to comb search the dense greenery.
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The days-long manhunt for two Canadian teens wanted in the killings of three people has been narrowed down to a swampy, wild town in the north of Manitoba province.
Canadian police are focusing their search for 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky and 19-year-old Kam McLeod in the bushes, swamps, and forests surrounding the town of Gillam, The Globe and Mail newspaper reported late Thursday.
The teens, who are childhood friends, are suspects in the deaths of two backpackers and a separate killing of a 64-year-old Canadian man 310 miles away.
Officials have been scouring the country for the suspects, and on Tuesday found in Gillam a torched 2011 Toyota RAV4 that they believe the teens were driving.
Julie Courchaine, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told a Thursday news conference: "We can now confirm that there have been two established and corroborated sightings of the suspects in the Gillam area."
"These sightings were prior to the sighting of the burnt-out vehicle," she added, suggesting that the teens have been in the area for several days.
"At this point in the investigation, we believe they are still in the area."
'We have sandflies, black flies, mosquitoes, horseflies'
Gillam is a swampy, inhospitable place, surrounded by wildlife and insects.
"We have sandflies, black flies, mosquitoes, horseflies," said John McDonald, Gillam's deputy mayor, according to CNN.
"Let me say if we were parked on a side street and we were having a conversation outside, and you didn't have any insect repellent on, or any long sleeves — let's just say that we would cut our conversation short."
"And in the bush," he added, "magnify that by 10-20 times. Forget it."
Footage from the area showed heavily-armed police patrolling Gillam, and using dogs at least one drone to comb through the dense greenery.
"It's tough," Courchaine, the police spokeswoman, said Thursday. "It's tough. It's a challenging terrain, it's vast, dense, so obviously I think a lot of challenges."
The town itself has a population of 1,265, The Globe and Mail reported, citing the country's 2016 census. The atmosphere there also tense, now, thanks to the manhunt.
Residents are keeping their children indoors to avoid the two teens, The Globe and Mail reported.
American, Australian, and Canadian deaths — all linked
The two slain backpackers — 24-year-old American Chynna Deese and her 23-year-old Australian boyfriend, Lucas Fowler — were found by their van on the Alaska Highway with multiple bullet wounds on July 15.
The body of Leonard Dyck, the 64-year-old university lecturer from Vancouver, was separately found along a highway near Dease Lake, four days later.
His body was found near a burned-out Dodge truck belonging to the teens near the lake.
Click here for a full timeline of the deaths and investigation.
Canadian police have since suggested that all three deaths are linked, and that McLeod and Schmegelsky are the sole suspects.
They were charged on Wednesday with second-degree murder for the death of Leonard Dyck, and are wanted, though have not been charged, over the other two deaths.
Schmegelsky's father, Alan, told the Canadian Press news agency on Wednesday that he believed his son was on a "suicide mission," and was badly affected by his 2005 divorce from Schmegelsky's mother.
Alan Schmegelsky also suggested that his son and McLeod are "going to go out in a blaze of glory."
Earlier this week The Globe and Mail also reported that a gaming account used by the two teens posted Nazi symbols last year.
Schmegelsky's former schoolmate also told Australia's Nine News network this week that the suspect "would tell us how he was going to cut our heads off."
Madison Hempstead, the schoolmate, also told the network that Schmegelsky had a firearm, and would "put a gun in his mouth."
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