Canada - Lucas Fowler, Chynna Deese, and Leonard Dyck, all murdered, Alaska Hwy, BC, Jul 2019 #16

[cartman]

When they found the bodies of KM and BS the police said they would be offering help to the Port Alberni families. I really hope that AS is included in that offer and that he has accepted the help.

 

[NJSleuth91]

Even without knowing what is in it, I think if AS watched that video, it probably destroyed him.

I think a lot of his talking to the media was a need to process what had happened to him and his life and what he thought he knew about his kid. I know people on here have speculated he would give interviews and leak the footage--and maybe he will--but I suspect seeing it with his own eyes broke him and he's in no mood to talk right now.

MOO

I suspect you're right that it destroyed him Even for a mentally healthy person, seeing a last goodbye from their son before they killed themselves would be devastating. Especially if the police have said anything about a confession being on the rest of the video. I really hope someone is looking after him.

Just my theory - after the opportunistic murders of L&C they travelled to Dease Lake and hung around for a few days to make the timeline of travelling to Whitehorse and back fit, to make it appear they spent a few days in Whitehorse before deciding it wasn’t for them. Aka - an alibi. What happened on the 19th, I can’t even guess but it seems something caused them to realize their deception wasn’t foolproof.

“Schmegelsky’s grandmother, Carol Starkey, said McLeod and Schmegelsky left Port Alberni on July 12 to find work in Whitehorse. When they arrived in Whitehorse a few days later, they decided it wasn’t what they had expected. Starkey, who was last in touch with her grandson on July 13 or 14, isn’t sure what their plans were after that.”
RCMP not ruling out link between missing Vancouver Island teens, body found near truck, double slaying

It still doesn't make much sense though because people would have seen them in the area, so if the police went investigating, it would look suspicious that they didn't go where they said they were going. The better alibi would have been to actually continue where they said they were going.

 

[NJSleuth91]

DBM

 

[Zella]

I suspect you're right that it destroyed him Even for a mentally healthy person, seeing a last goodbye from their son before they killed themselves would be devastating. Especially if the police have said anything about a confession being on the rest of the video. I really hope someone is looking after him.

SBM

I sincerely hope he has been in touch with Victim Services and is getting help. This whole ordeal would be devastating for anyone to go through, and he seems especially vulnerable. And yeah I imagine that any of the relatives who viewed that video were shattered by it.

 

[JuneBug67]

I think it’s region-specific. Alaskans definitely seem to have a lot of guns but so do Yukoners. Alberta is up there but likely depends on region as well. I would suspect BC folks carry more guns in the rural areas and north.

I think gun ownership really skews north/rural across the country as a whole. Pulling together various stats previously shared here, with a couple other ones added:

-Canada is 7th of 230 countries in the world in rates of guns per capita at 37 guns per 100 people
-About 17% of Canadian adults own guns
-With the exception of Calgary, urban gun ownership is around 3%
-About 82% of the population lives in cities

It’s the 18% who don’t live in cities who make up the gap between the 3% urban ownership and the 17% national average. That paints a picture of guns being very common in the vast geography outside the cities - population distributions that likely echo Alaska, the Yukon etc.

 

[cartman]

I also think about Bryer’s grandmother. This must be quite a shock for her
Obviously it’s shocking for everyone but thinking of his grandmother living alone makes me sad.

 

[kmclaren]

I also think about Bryer’s grandmother. This must be quite a shock for her
Obviously it’s shocking for everyone but thinking of his grandmother living alone makes me sad.

What makes you think she lives alone?

 

[Esprite]

Sure, but they could have stayed in Port Alberni and accomplished the same thing. In Canada, mass shootings are very uncommon, and one would have been front-page news for years (see other Canadian mass shootings).

With all due respect, I work directly with victims of family violence, and other family members involved. Statistics indicate that mass murders and associated suicides, are very common in domestic situations, both in Canada and the US.

As an aside, the trauma involved for family members of the perpetrator is often very deep because of the guilt involved for them that their loved one was capable of committing such violent and senseless acts.

What I appreciate about this forum is that those family members are also recognized as victims, according to the Rules that we are all expected to abide by.

 

[sprucetip]

Maybe in the US, but Canada’s different. Suicide notes (or videos) are not public documents. Can you imagine how that would go over with the families of the accused or the families of the victims? It would serve no useful purpose whatever other than to add notoriety to a situation that’s already devastated five families. B&K deserve no “last words” from beyond the grave. JMO

Agreed. I can’t see any of that footage coming out. Especially the goodbyes to the families, it should be private.

I could see the RCMP sharing the info in general but that’s about it.

 

[10ofRods]

Yeah that is a weird thing, now that I think about it. If the whole thing was planned as a murder trip, why pack all their belongings? Why not just say they wanted to travel light, bring just a suitcase each, etc.? I didn't even pack all my belongings when I went away to college for the semester. Packing everything indicates to me that they were planning to go somewhere (somewhere in civilization, since they brought the gaming computer) and not come back for a while if ever.

Also if the murders were planned, why did they start going in the opposite direction after Lucas and Chynna's murders? You would think the plan would be to get out of the area ASAP and continue to Whitehorse so as not to arouse suspicion.

Excellent points. And they didn't shoot up their school. They chose completely unknown (but happy and self sufficient) people.

I agree that packing all their belongings speaks to a different set of expectations than "we're going to go get ourselves killed/kill ourselves."

 

[Schmoosh]

With all due respect, I work directly with victims of family violence, and other family members involved. Statistics indicate that mass murders and associated suicides, are very common in domestic situations, both in Canada and the US.

As an aside, the trauma involved for family members of the perpetrator is often very deep because of the guilt involved for them that their loved one was capable of committing such violent and senseless acts.

What I appreciate about this forum is that those family members are also recognized as victims, according to the Rules that we are all expected to abide by.

I'm not sure why you're intimating that I don't recognize family members as victims from a post where I said someone could burn a vehicle without leaving far from home. <shrug>

 

[sprucetip]

I’m a few hours out of Vancouver, but taking a firearm along would be completely normal in my family. At the very least ya just never know when you will find a good place to target shoot.

Even made the six hour round trip to Vancouver to visit more than a few of the many stores offering firearms for sale.

Interesting, thx for sharing. Do you find the anti-gun sentiment in Vancouver that someone mentioned here to be accurate? I have some relatives in Van and they are not into guns at all but who knows, maybe that’s an inaccurate generalization?

 

[MistyWaters]

<snipped for reply> The families of the accused here are being harassed by the public to the point where they had to leave town...not sure what the author thinks is going on....

Do you remember what gave you the impression the accused families were being harassed by the public? I thought it was due to the media?

 

[NJSleuth91]

Do you remember what gave you the impression the accused families were being harassed by the public? I thought it was due to the media?

Have you seen any internet comments on this case? Also, the media does the bidding of the public.

 

[JuneBug67]

I was really expecting to hear something from AS today. He’s been so forthcoming about everything to this point, the silence is odd.

If he was paid for the 60 Minutes thing, does anybody know how long their “exclusive” rights might last? He may still be prevented from talking to other outlets at this point.

 

[KR72]

Do you remember what gave you the impression the accused families were being harassed by the public? I thought it was due to the media?

My impression was that people in the town were being supportive and were annoyed by the media presence too. I could be misremembering though...

 

[kmclaren]

Interesting, thx for sharing. Do you find the anti-gun sentiment in Vancouver that someone mentioned here to be accurate? I have some relatives in Van and they are not into guns at all but who knows, maybe that’s an inaccurate generalization?

I have lived in several major cities in Canada, including Vancouver, Regina and Winnipeg. I'm not a particularly sheltered person but I have only ever met 1 person that owned guns, I can't think of anyone else I've crossed paths with that was a gun owner. It was my ex's father so my FIL, he had a huge collection and sadly my DH inherited many of them... I have had exposure to and used a few different types as being a member of the military, even the many guys I knew at that time I don't know that any owned their own weapons (maybe they did, I obviously didn't know everyone's personal inventory of assets).

 

[MistyWaters]

Have you seen any internet comments on this case? Also, the media does the bidding of the public.

That doesn’t answer my question. Where is it stated the Port Alberni families were being harassed by the public so they had to leave town?

 

[webbie]

Here goes nothing….

phones: If you want to avoid being located through your phone, all you need to do is disable it ie take out the sim card. In order to do that, all you need is a paper clip. Your phone can then still be used as a GPS through offline apps as well as a camera, video, making notes. I suggest that B&K were aware of this and took the precaution, at some point, to remove the sim cards. There’s got to be lots of selfies and videos on these phones, not just their last wishes.

<modsnip: removed drug discussion as there is nothing to substantiate drug involvement>

guns: wherever they got them, I’m sure they target practiced first and had plenty ammo. They knew they were going to use those guns. Probably didn’t know how many people they were to kill but I doubt they skimped on the ammo.

 

[scrappinkat]

Interesting, thx for sharing. Do you find the anti-gun sentiment in Vancouver that someone mentioned here to be accurate? I have some relatives in Van and they are not into guns at all but who knows, maybe that’s an inaccurate generalization?

I think that sentiment was a little too over generalized yes. There’s indoor ranges that hold well attended open nights for example, people can go and shoot in a controlled supervised environment with handguns provided. The ranges that are around Vancouver have long wait lists to become a member. I don’t think it’s something discussed generally, but when/if you do it’s surprising to see just who else is into shooting sports. It’s almost always someone you wouldn’t have guessed just by looks.