Police in Canada said on Wednesday that they had found two bodies that were believed to be the fugitive teens who went into hiding after allegedly killing three people.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy said she was confident that the bodies were 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky, but said an autopsy would provide final confirmation of their identity.

"The manhunt in Manitoba is over," Canada's Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said on Twitter.

A three-territory manhunt

McLeod and Schmegelsky were wanted in connection with the murders of an Australian man and his American girlfriend, as well as that of a Canadian professor of the University of British Columbia.

Authorities had conducted a wide search for the men that spanned three territories and some 3,000 kilometers (1,860-miles). It began on July 15, after the couple were shot dead in British Columbia.

Then, the university professor was murdered on July 19 and police later discovered a torched vehicle that belonged to the fugitives.

Last week, police found items linked to the suspects, including a battered aluminum boat, on the shores of the Nelson River, near the town of Gillum, in the northern part of Manitoba.

The men’s bodies were finally discovered within a kilometer from where the items were found and some eight kilometers from the spot where their vehicle had been burned.

'Suicide mission'

McLeod and Schmegelsky grew up together on Vancouver Island and worked together at a local Walmart. Their parents believed that the two had set off together on a trip to Yukon territory for work.

The pair were originally considered missing persons and only later became suspects of the murders.

As the manhunt was underway, Schmegelsky's father said in an interview to Canadian Press that his son was deeply troubled and had never recovered from his parents' divorce in 2005.

"He's on a suicide mission," Alan Schmegelsky said. "I'm so sorry all of this had to happen," he added.

MacLatchy said the end of the manhunt provided a sense of relief for the victim’s families and the communities in the area.

"It's huge to be able to hopefully give some people the opportunity to exhale and to hopefully go back to being normal and not be afraid of who is out in the woods," she said.

amp,jcg/kl (Reuters, AFP)

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