Wanted teen Bryer Schmegelsky was Nazi-obsessed and would threaten to cut off the heads of schoolmates.
A former schoolmate of wanted Bryer Schmegelsky has revealed the Nazi-obsessed Canadian teen wanted for triple murder would tell her and friends that he was going to decapitate them.
Speaking on Nine News from Canada, Madison Hempstead said the 18-year-old "would tell us how he was going to cut our heads off".
Ms Hempstead said Schmegelsky had a firearm and would "put a gun in his mouth".
The dark secret life of Schmegelsky has begun to emerge as he and his best friend Kam McLeod are on the run from a massive manhunt by Canadian police in the Northern Province of Manitoba.
Schmegelsky and McLeod are wanted for the murders of Australian man Lucas Fowler, 23, and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese, 24, were found in a ditch by the side of the lonely Alaska Highway last Monday.
The two men have also now been charged with the second degree murder of Leonard Dyck, whose body was found near their burnt out truck on the same highway.
Photos of Schmegelsky's Nazi memorabilia including a swastika, a knife inscribed "blut und ehre" (German for "blood and honour" and the teen posing in military fatigues have emerged.
Canada's Globe and Mail revealed he praised Hitler's Nazi Germany via digital games marketplace, Steam.
Since deleted online accounts linked to the two wanted men reportedly feature far-right politics, Soviet imagery and hentai, Japanese anime pornography and the survivalist video game, Rust.
Bryer's father Alan Schmegelsky his son will not surrender to police.
"He wants his hurt to end. They're going to go out in a blaze of glory. Trust me on this," Mr Schmegelsky said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have tracked their movements across three provinces — from British Columbia to Manitoba.
As police now close in on the pair in the tiny Manitoban town of Gillam, a distraught and weeping Mr Schmegelsky issued a chilling prediction.
He told the Alberni Valley News that he suspects his son will go down shooting.
"Basically, he's going to be dead today or tomorrow. I know that," he said.
"Rest in peace, Bryer. I love you. I'm so sorry all this had to happen. I'm so sorry that I couldn't rescue you."
Mr Schmegelsky said the teen had a troubled upbringing and was in "very serious pain". He also said that video games and YouTube had been his biggest influences since his parents divorced in 2005.
"A normal child doesn't travel across the country killing people," he said. "A child in some very serious pain does."
McLeod's father has not yet fronted the cameras. He says he is too distraught to do so. But in a statement issued to several media outlets, Keith McLeod said: "To all the people who truly care I'm sitting at home worrying about my son."
He then heaped praise on his teenage son, calling him "caring".
"Kam is a kind, considerate, caring young man and has always been concerned about other people's feelings," Mr McLeod told Canada's public broadcaster CBC.
"As we try to wrap our heads around what is happening, we hope that Kam will come home to us safely so we can all get to the bottom of this story."
The comments come as the teens' links to far right extremist content online are exposed.
The Globe and Mail reports the teens from Port Alberni are part of a video game network that worships the Third Reich and whose platforms include profile pictures of the infamous imperial eagle from Nazi Germany.
The newspaper published photographs yesterday, supplied by users within the Illusive Gameing (sic) network, showing Schmegelsky dressed in a gas mask and army fatigues.
In other photos, there is a Nazi knife and armband allegedly owned by the teen.
The knife has an inscription "blut und ehre", which is German for "blood and honour".
New: Photos believed to be sent by Bryer Schmegelsky, one of the two homicide suspects, to another user on a video game network https://t.co/pguPDVereZ pic.twitter.com/vvCa9ygjnJ
— Andrea Woo | 鄔瑞楓 (@AndreaWoo) July 24, 2019
We've published the photos that appear to show Bryer Schmegelsky posing Nazi memorabilia. The knife in the picture reads "blut und ehre" — or, "blood and honour." It was the knife issued to Hitler Youth. https://t.co/StlraNoJKJ pic.twitter.com/aCSQ3hClz9
— Justin Ling (@Justin_Ling) July 24, 2019
A user, who did not wish to be named, told the newspaper he often spoke with Schmegelsky on the platform Steam, and McLeod joined some of their conversations.
Schmegelsky and McLeod's Facebook pages both show links to Illusive Gameing, but the network's Facebook page has been shut down after the Globe and Mail report went live.
Port Alberni locals also say the teens had links to far-right extremist content. Lisa Lucas, who lived next door to Schmegelsky's grandmother, told the CBC British Columbia her son went to school with the 18-year-old.
She said Schmegelsky's friends felt "uncomfortable" after he showed them pictures of himself wearing the Nazi armband.
"After a while he started making people feel uncomfortable, just with the comments that he would make and how much he was into video games, a little bit more on the violent side of the video games," she said.
"Bryer seemed to take it very seriously … My son told me that he would mention things like, 'What if this was real? Can you imagine if this was real?' when playing video games. He'd get a little too excited about it.
"Everybody just got a little bit uncomfortable around him. He seemed to have less and less friends as time went on, later into junior high."
Schmegelsky and Bryer were obsessed with video games, according to Alan Schmegelsky.
"My son, he's like, they're huge into video games — all kids are — and two Christmases ago he asked me for an Airsoft gun, which is a replica gun, right?" Mr Schmegelsky told CHEK News earlier this week.
"So he was telling me: 'Well, me and the fellas, we like to go in the woods and play war', right?"
Mr Schmegelsky told reporters the teens were "good kids" before the news broke they were officially being viewed as suspects by police.
He said he thought their disappearance was strange, but if they were threatened they would know what to do.
"So knowing that the both of them are totally into (war games), if there was any threat, they would have done what they've actually trained themselves to do, and they would have camouflaged themselves in the woods."
The teens had travelled almost 3000km when they were last sighted near Gillam in Manitoba province on Monday local time.
They purchased petrol from a town called Split Lake, which is two hours by car from Gillam. There, they spoke with an attendant who described them as calm.
Mychelle Keeper told CBC News McLeod paid for $20 worth of petrol but Schmegelsky asked a strange and very casual question — whether he could consume alcohol in the dry community.
"The guy who paid for the gas — he was quiet, he didn't say anything, he was just looking down," she said.
"They seemed like, I don't know, normal. I'm just so nervous right now thinking about it."
Police today confirmed they believe the pair burnt out a second car after their red and grey Dodge pick-up truck was found a short distance from where the third body was found on Friday.
They are also believed to have travelled in a grey Toyota Rav-4 that authorities found burnt out near Gillam.
Mr Fowler and Ms Deese were on the trip of a lifetime to Alaska when their blue Chevrolet van broke down on the side of Highway 97, 20km south of Liard River Hot Springs on July 15.
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