[Dion]

Les Stroud, the Canadian survivalist known as ‘Survivorman’ and Terry Grant, a cowboy known as ‘Mantracker,’ think the reason the search for Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, who would’ve turned 19 on Aug. 4, has dragged on is because the suspects aren’t hiding in the woods in Manitoba.

“I haven’t heard anyone say we’ve seen them go into the woods with an axe and banana, no one ever said that,” Grant said.

“I’m half thinking they met someone in a big town … and they’re long gone to Texas or the Bahamas.”

The RCMP have admitted they don’t know where the triple murder suspects are, but their efforts have zeroed in on Gillam, Man., a bog-ridden, isolated town with roughly 1,265 people — the last place they were seen.

The most recent search was Sunday when a dive team scoured the Nelson River but came up empty. Police revealed on Tuesday they had found items linked to the suspects on the shore Friday but would not say what they were.

“We have to be open to all possibilities,” read a statement from Cpl. Chris Manseau, a media relations officer with the B.C. RCMP.

“As for me to speculate on them crossing an international border, I would suggest that it’s a possibility, however we have to continue searching near their last confirmed sighting.”

Grant also said McLeod and Schmegelsky could have gone south but believes the chances of them entering the U.S. are a “two out of 10.”

Grant noted the rush of phone calls to police about alleged sightings of McLeod and Schmegelsky in Northern Ontario but thinks it’s too late for them to be in the province.

“Either they’ve been helped by someone, maybe they got to Winnipeg and stayed there, out of sight and now they’re heading east now that the heat is off,” he said.

“But if I was them, I would’ve been heading east about two days after the army moved into Gillam because that’s where the police and the whole army thinks they’re up there, so the last place they’re going to look for them is Northern Ontario … how they’ve got anywhere is beyond me.”

If the suspects died in the woods, Grant says their bones may not ever leave the dense Manitoban brush.

“If they’ve gone in there, four to 10 km deep and expired, they may never be found,” he said.

“All those guys had to do was go eight kilometres in or around the lake, expire over there. The animals would make most of them disappear and their bodies would just go back into the ground.”

Grant hopes the duo are still in the woods, where the RCMP are searching.

“If they’re not in that bush, we have to wait for somebody else to get hurt,” he said.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/canad...4-e814b1b7a71f