No need to be discouraged, experts say, as expansive hunt for B.C. fugitives drags on

It's been a week since the last confirmed sighting of two B.C. homicide suspects, but law enforcement experts say the trail hasn't necessarily gone cold.

Keeping details of the investigation quiet is in the best interest of police, said Rob Creasser, a retired RCMP constable.

"It's not only good people that monitor the media," he said.

The suspects, Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, are probably keeping tabs on the coverage as well, "so you don't want to tip them off," he said.

And if it's not them watching the media reports, it may be someone else. There might be friends, family, or neighbours — coerced or not — who are helping them, according to an expert in tracking fugitives.

Lenny DePaul said there is more to the police pursuit than officers combing the bush around Gillam, Man., about 740 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, on foot.

"You've got a fugitive investigation behind the scenes — they're looking at everybody," said DePaul, who once led the U.S. Marshal Fugitive Task Force, which hunted the worst U.S. fugitives.

It appears a week in a desolate stretch of northern Manitoba has turned up no leads for the Mounties, who are seeking arguably the most wanted men in Canada.

The Port Alberni, B.C., men are suspects in the shooting deaths of a tourist couple in northern B.C. earlier this month, and have been charged with second-degree murder after a man's body was found days later near Dease Lake, B.C.

An apparent break in the case emerged late Sunday when police officers rushed into York Landing, Man., 90 kilometres southwest of Gillam, on a "credible" tip that men matching the suspects' description were rummaging through a dump and ran away once approached.

Within 24 hours, police were returning to the Gillam area after a "thorough and exhaustive search" turned up nothing.

The police appear to be back where they started — a week after the last confirmed sighting of the suspects. The lifelong friends were still considered missing persons at that time.

Creasser said the police wish they were further along.

"The frontline folks that have been traipsing around for hours in the bush with really nothing to show for it, I'm sure they're frustrated," said Creasser, a spokesperson for the Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada.

"Your job is, as a police officer, to get the bad guy, and we haven't got the bad guys yet and that's what we want to do."

But any disappointment from officers cannot interfere with the task at hand, he said. They are looking for two men suspected of killing three people, and that isn't changing.

Darryl Davies, a criminology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, is convinced the police are doing everything they can.

Heavily armed officers have established checkpoints, scoured abandoned buildings, flown drones and used thermal imaging over the last week.

'Needle in a haystack'

"I think the police have a huge challenge of trying to find a needle in a haystack," he said.

Davies said it's incumbent upon law enforcement to chase every lead, such as the tip in York Landing, while simultaneously concentrating on searching the areas of highest probability, like Gillam.

If Davies had his way, the military would join the ground search, in addition to the aircraft they have already deployed. The Canadian Armed Forces are more trained in rugged terrain than police officers who tend to be confined to cities, towns and long highways, he said.

Kim Watt-Senner, a retired Mountie, said the longer the hunt drags on, the harder it is on the officers whose personal lives have been put on hold.

She said the public shouldn't be discouraged by the perceived lack of progress. Police know more than what they've let on.

"Regardless of how extreme this case is, police are following standard procedure," said Watt-Senner, who worked as a Mountie for 19 years.

"It's important that the public knows that we're appreciative of [their tips], because at the end of the day that's probably how the suspects are going to be caught is through public awareness."

She has no doubt the suspects will be found eventually, as the duo, while seemingly adept at hiding outdoors, become more of a target the longer they try to hide.