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vancouversun.com

Double homicide victims had just begun to explore Canada
The bodies of Chynna Noelle Deese of the United States and Lucas Robertson Fowler of Australia were found south of Liard Hot Springs Monday.

GLENDA LUYMES & TIFFANY CRAWFORD Updated: July 19, 2019

The van was parked on the shoulder of the Alaska Highway, hood propped open, prompting mechanic Curtis Broughton to stop and ask the travellers if they needed help.

The young man and woman, sitting in lawn chairs on the grassy verge between road and forest, were friendly and seemed happy. The engine of their van had flooded, the man told Broughton, but he knew how to get it running. They had food and water — and they were only 20 kilometres south of Liard Hot Springs, a short distance to go in the middle of the vast wilderness on B.C.’s northern border.

“It’s an area where there’s more trees than people,” said Curtis’ wife, Sandra, who observed the couple from the passenger seat as her husband briefly engaged in “a little truck talk” with the young man.

It was about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, and the Broughtons were headed south, returning home to Fort Nelson after a week of camping in the Yukon. The couple in the van appeared to be driving north in the direction of the hot springs. They didn’t need help, so the Broughtons carried on.

On Wednesday, Sandra came across an RCMP press release on Facebook. Two adults had been found dead on the Alaska Highway. Police wanted to speak with anyone who had seen a blue van with an Alberta license plate.

“I was shocked when I heard,” said Sandra. “We saw no other people around, no animals.”

On Friday, RCMP confirmed they are investigating a double homicide and identified the victims as 24-year-old Chynna Noelle Deese of the United States and 23-year-old Lucas Robertson Fowler of Australia. They believe the couple was killed sometime between 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon and 8 a.m. Monday morning.

At a press conference, Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said she could not reveal how the couple died, or if their bodies were found inside or outside the van.


Police, including investigators from the Lower Mainland, are still on scene and are trying to determine a timeline of events, as well as “all the details related to the van,” including whether it was being driven by the couple, she said. They are also working to determine if the couple’s deaths were targeted or a “crime of opportunity.” There is nothing to indicate they are linked to any other ongoing or previous investigation.

“We’re absolutely committed to this investigation and it’s a priority for us,” said Shoihet when asked what she’d like to tell the families of the victims, including Fowler’s father, a high-ranking police officer in the state of New South Wales.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the Fowler family said they are travelling to Canada “to be with our boy and to bring him home.” They are being accompanied by several Australian police officers, who are coming to Canada to offer support to the family, not to aid in the investigation.

“To lose someone so young and vibrant, who was travelling the world and just enjoying life to the full, is devastating,” said the family’s statement. “To know his beautiful girlfriend … also lost her life in this violent event is too cruel.”



On his Facebook page, Deese’s brother, who goes by the name British Dwayne, said his sister left home to see the cattle branding at a ranch where Fowler was working and to “travel through the top half of the globe.”

Dwayne said he tried to text his sister earlier this week, but she didn’t reply. He learned of her death after the “most chaotic day of my life” and several hours on the phone with the U.S. Embassy and investigators.

“Chynna and Lucas’ lives were abruptly taken from a random act of violence while starting their road trip through Canada,” said Dwayne. “She is so deeply woven as a piece of my childhood and everyday life.”

Deese’s sister Kennedy Deese also posted a tribute on Facebook, saying the couple were “bright and beautiful souls.”

On her CouchSurfing page, Deese wrote that her “current mission” is to travel the world. She was a student at Appalachian State University, where her sorority sisters remembered her as a “kind and adventurous soul.”


The area where the couple’s bodies were found is remote and doesn’t have cell reception. The largest community in the area is Fort Nelson, about four hours south of Liard Hot Springs along Highway 97 through dense woods punctuated by lakes, parks and tiny settlements. Most businesses close before dark.

Because the homicide happened along Highway 97, Australian media speculated the deaths could be attributed to a serial killer and the Highway of Tears investigation. RCMP reiterated they have no evidence to indicate the homicide is linked to any other investigation.

A person who answered the phone at the Liard Hot Springs Lodge did not want to comment. A person at the Northern Rockies Lodge in Muncho, about an hour from the homicide scene, said she had no information about the couple.

RCMP are asking anyone who saw Fowler and Deese, or the blue van, or anyone with dashcam footage, to contact the Northern Rockies RCMP detachment at 250-774-2700. Police appealed in particular to people who may have driven the Alaska Highway last weekend and continued on to Alaska, Yukon or Alberta and may not have been aware of the homicide

Very sad , hate to see folks lose their lives , especially young people . RIP .

As long as killers know they'll be given an attorney 3 hots & cot they'll keep on killing . If they knew [and got to see] what a murderer deserves - that being years of torture & hard labor - they'd think twice .

Chynna?

Didn't she used to wrestle?

No that Chynna died - she took too much pot .

The deceased Lucas Fowler, is son of currently serving NSW police chief inspector Stephen Fowler.

NSW Police said it had deployed two detectives from the State Crime Command's Homicide Squad
to liaise with the family and Canadian authorities.

being a cop of such rank, you get more help on the tax payers purse than would an ordinary grieving family.

Yeah , they're special people - above the common peasant .

...and Im pretty sure Canadian LE can handle such homicide cases without the need for foreign detectives.

being a high ranked cops son, Canadians probably already have allocated more staff on the investigation than usual..

Cad. LE brass will likely also get a friendly phone call from NSW police commissioner himself, 'to see how things are going'

UPDATE:



New York Post

Murdered couple, missing teens in Canada could be linked: cops
By Tamar Lapin July 22, 2019 | 11:34pm
Enlarge Image
Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesperson Janelle Shoihet said it was "unusual" to have two major investigations "of this nature" happening at the same time in northern British Columbia.

The brutal killing of an American woman and an Australian man could be connected to the disappearance of two teenagers in British Columbia and the remains of a man found near their burning car, Canadian police said Monday.

.

“We recognize the possibility that these could be linked,” Shoihet said during a press conference.

SEE ALSO


During the presser, the RCMP also provided a composite sketch of a bearded man wanted as a person of interest in the murders of Chynna Deese, 24, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and her boyfriend, Lucas Fowler, 23, of Sydney, Australia.

The mystery man was spotted having a “heated exchange” with the young couple the night before they were found July 15 shot dead on the side of a remote highway, 12 miles south of Lilard Hot Springs, a popular tourist destination.

The RCMP believes the pair — who were wrapping up a two-week road trip through Canada — were murdered sometime between 4 p.m. on July 14 and 7 a.m. on July 15. It took three days for their bodies to be identified.

On Friday, four days after the bodies of the couple were discovered, police launched a search for Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18.

The missing teens were believed to have been driving a vehicle that was found in flames about 310 miles from where the couple was murdered.

Just over a mile from the burning car, police found a man’s dead body. The man hasn’t been identified yet but cops on Monday released a composite sketch of him in the hopes of figuring out who he is.

“It is unclear at this time how this deceased male might be connected with [the] vehicle fire or the two missing men,” the RCMP said in a statement.

Authorities urged the public and tourists in the area to be vigilant.

Is it possible that the two young "missing men" murdered the couple and the dead man at the burning car??

Just wondering.

L.W.

Thinking that same thing

You don't think it was more related to the alcohol and opiates? Pot's pretty benign by comparison.

Won't know that until we know. By all accounts they were/are(?) decent young men.

Canadian serial killer

An NAA mini revolver in.22 magnum,...that's about as bulky in your pocket as a pocket knife, would have prevented that situation.

Possibly. Whenever we travel up north there's a short shotgun within reach. For snakes and such.

I think that pistols are just about illegal in Canada.

I do remember the good old days, in 1973 my two buddies and I went up to Canada for 3 months of wilderness adventure. Ironically we went up on the Alaska Highway near where these murders happened.

As we crossed from America into Canada, we pulled in to Canada customs, we had a .22, a shotgun, a T/C Hawken in .50, and a .38 in the trunk.
Canadian cops didn't say a thing about the guns.

Handguns are not illegal (yet), I own many. I cannot carry them for self defence. I can only shoot them at a registered range.There are wilderness carry permits for trappers, exploration geologists, timber cruisers etc. Of course judges can get carry permits. I suppose that in remote areas, a person could decide that it is better to be tried by 12, than carried by 6. YMMV

Do you have to leave your pistol at the registered range, or can you keep it at your home there, Johnny Canuck?

They sit at home locked in my safe.

They may be changing this, it is currently up in the air. The election can't come fast enough.