YORK LANDING, Man. - A massive police manhunt for two British Columbia homicide suspects has ended without success in a remote Indigenous community in northern Manitoba.
Mounties have pulled their heavy police presence out of York Landing.
"Policing resources in the community will return to normal," the RCMP said in a tweet Tuesday.
"The RCMP thanks the community for their patience and understanding."
The York Landing search was triggered by a tip from the Bear Clan Patrol, an Indigenous-led neighbourhood watch group, that two men matching the descriptions of the 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky and 19-year-old Kam McLeod had been seen rummaging through the local garbage dump.
The duo is charged with second-degree murder in the death of University of British Columbia professor Leonard Dyck near Dease Lake in northern B.C.
Police also consider them suspects in the fatal shootings of Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese, whose bodies were found on the Alaska Highway near Liard Hot Springs, B.C.
The RCMP, backed up by dogs, helicopters, drones, a police boat patrol and a military Hercules aircraft, said Monday that they were unable to confirm the Bear Clan sighting.
Leroy Constant, Chief of the York Factory First Nation at York Landing, said on Facebook that the RCMP started pulling out of the community late Monday.
He said the force's emergency response team has returned to Gillam, 90 kilometres northeast of York Landing, where the last confirmed sightings of the suspects occurred a week ago.
The Bear Clan Patrol was to remain in York Landing, Constant said, and police have asked residents to report any further tips or information that could help in their search.
York Landing is only accessible by air or a two-hour ferry crossing in the summer. There's also a rail line that runs 25 kilometres south of the community.
Constant had said he would be surprised if the pair made it to his community on foot because the northern terrain is treacherous.