The two remain in custody and are facing a number of other charges including assault and mischief. The pair will appear in territorial court in Fort McPherson in April to answer them.

Police are continuing to investigate the death of Morris Clifford Francis, 35, who died at a house party in the community on Sunday, Feb. 22.

Lorraine Minish-Cooper of the federal justice department in Yellowknife said charges were withdrawn because prosecutors felt that getting a conviction on a first-degree murder charge was "unlikely."

Minish-Cooper said because the incident was still under investigation she could not go into detail about the investigation, but said the department reviews prosecutions according to a set of in-house procedures, and according to those guidelines, the decision was made to drop the murder charges.

The same procedures, and the conclusion that a conviction was unlikely, caused prosecutors to drop sexual assault and forcible confinement charges against an Inuvik RCMP constable last month.

The charges the two McPherson youths still face relate to the same house party, she said, but were not actions alleged to have been committed against Francis.