Two NSW homicide detectives will act as family liaisons after the son of one of the state's top officers and his girlfriend were found dead along a Canadian highway.
The bodies of Sydney man Lucas Fowler, 23, and North Carolina woman Chynna Deese, 24, were found on Monday in the far north of Canada's British Columbia region.
Authorities believe they were murdered, suffering gunshot wounds, after their van broke down on the Alaska Highway, 20 kilometres south of Liard Hot Springs.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Jones told reporters in Sydney on Saturday that two homicide detectives, including Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Walpole, would act in a liaison-type role.
"The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) are an outstanding organisation, we have the utmost confidence in their capacity and capability to run this investigation but our commissioner has made a great decision to send over two officers ... purely to assist the families," he said.
"Just breaking down some of the communication and just really keeping us appraised and them appraised of what's going on."
He thanked Qantas for arranging flights for Mr Fowler's siblings, mother and father - Chief Inspector Stephen Fowler for Sydney's north-west Hills district - in "really short timeframes ... for what's clearly going to be an unbelievably sad and distressing part of their life".
"I had the chance to speak to him myself personally yesterday and he and the whole family are absolutely devastated by what's occurred," Assistant Commissioner Jones said.
He said the RCMP have advised the couple were shot near their motor vehicle but couldn't comment any further on the nature of the injuries or the scene.
It will be sometime before Mr Fowler's body can be repatriated back to Australia, due to standard procedures, he said.
