Canadian True Crime - 41 The Murder of Lyle and Marie McCann

Episode Date: March 1, 2019

ALBERTA | In 2010, a retired couple embarked on a leisurely road trip in their RV from Alberta to British Columbia. When they didn’t arrive on schedule for an agreed meeting point, their family and friends were left wondering what happened.Meanwhile, who was Travis Vader, and how did he come to be driving their RV?Support my sponsors! Here's where the discount codes are:www.canadiantruecrime.ca/sponsorsLearn more:Crimes of PassionAlready Gone - episode on Bill Barilko and 50 Mission CapJoin my patreon for $2 a month to get ad-free, early-release episodes: www.patreon.com/canadiantruecrimeCredits:Research and writing: Charlie Worroll from Impact Statement Narration, music arrangement: Kristi LeeAudio production: Erik KrosbyDisclaimer voiced by the host of Beyond Bizarre True CrimeMusic Credits:Podcast theme music created by We Talk of Dreams.All other music credits and information sources can be found on the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes.Support the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi everyone. Thank you all for the great reviews and ratings that you've left for Canadian True Crime on Apple Podcasts and other podcast players. It really helps me out. You'll notice I generally release episodes twice a month on the 1st and the 15th, unless I let you know that I'm on a break. I also wanted to tell you about an exciting new podcast that's just been released from my friends at Parkast. Love is patient, love is kind, but sometimes love can be deadly. Many couples may look happy, but it's almost impossible to know what happens behind closed doors. The Parkast Network has just launched Crimes of Passion, a new podcast that looks into what happens when true love meets true crime. It analyses

the relationship dynamics and psychology that lead to betrayal, crimes and even murder. New episodes of Crimes of Passion come out every Wednesday. You can listen to the first episode on the fascinating story of Wilma Hoyt right now. It's a shocker. And also look out for upcoming episodes on Lorena Bobbit, Jodie Arias and more. I'm also excited to tell you that the host of Crimes of Passion is none other than my good friend Lainey from the True Crime Fan Club podcast. And the episodes are researched and written by Hailey Gray, who is the main researcher for Canadian True Crime. She researched the Shafir family, Tracy Latimer and Aaron Chawney. There's probably more too that I can't quite remember. I am

loving it. Search for and subscribe to Crimes of Passion wherever you listen to podcasts. Again, search Crimes of Passion or visit parkast.com slash passion to listen now. This podcast contains course language, adult themes and content of a violent and disturbing nature. Listener discretion is advised. The drive from the Canadian prairies of Alberta over the Rockies and back down near the shore of western British Columbia brings thousands of visitors the joy of the natural world, as well as some of the most breathtaking scenery that Canada has to offer. But when an elderly couple embarked on this journey and didn't arrive on schedule for an agreed meeting point,

their family and friends were left wondering what happened. Their initial concerns were that they'd gotten lost or possibly had an accident. But soon, that would give way to the reality that something much darker had happened. This is Christy and you're listening to Canadian True Crime, Episode 41. It was Friday, July the 2nd, 2010, in St. Albert, the second largest city in the Edmonton metropolitan region. Retired couple Lyle and Marie McCann, both in their late 70s, were preparing for a long trip in their RV. Lyle used to be a long-haul trucker and now enjoyed sharing his sense of roaming and adventure with his wife. Their three children were now

grown and the couple were enjoying the freedom that retirement had brought them. Their son, Ret McCann, headed to his parents' home after work that Friday to play pool with his father and have dinner. His wife had gone to some garage sales with his mum Marie and they were going to bring home a bucket of fried chicken for the four of them to eat for dinner. Lyle and Marie had busied themselves getting the RV ready for their upcoming trip. They planned to leave the following morning and take the next several days making their way to the airport at Abbotsford, British Columbia. The drive would take 11 hours if you were to drive it straight but they were going to take their time and enjoy some camping along the way.

Earlier in the day on that Friday, Marie had spoken to her younger sister Alice as she did most days. Marie told Alice that their destination for the first leg of the trip was to Blue River, British Columbia, adding that it would take them almost six hours. After that, they were due in Abbotsford on July 10th to pick up their daughter Trudy and her daughter at the airport and then the four planned to continue in the RV for a camping trip to Coltus Lake, about two hours drive from Vancouver. Lyle and Marie asked their neighbours across the street to keep an eye on the house and gather their mail for them while they were away, telling them that they planned to return home a few weeks later on July 28th. At around 9am on July 3rd, the McCans pulled away

from their house in their RV. Behind them, they towed their Hyundai Tucson, a small pale green coloured SUV. At around 9.30, the McCans were seen on security footage at the St. Albert Superstore gas station. After filling up the RV, they went inside for groceries because they planned to cook their meals in the RV to avoid restaurants and fast food places to eat. After buying what they needed, they left the gas station at 10.08am. A week later, their daughter Trudy and her daughter arrived at the Abbotsford airport where they were all supposed to meet up. They hadn't heard from Lyle and Marie since they left, but this wasn't uncommon when the elderly couple were travelling. They did travel with a cell phone, but everybody knew that they left it in the centre console and

only used it in the case of an emergency. They often didn't even turn it on. So no one had heard from them, but no one had expected to. This fact worried Trudy and her daughter even more as they waited at the airport. Trudy called the campsite that Lyle and Marie were supposed to have been staying at, but was told that her parents had never actually checked in. Panicked, she called the RCMP to report the missing. The search for the McCanns and their two vehicles, the RV and the SUV it was towing, began as soon as Trudy had reported the missing on July 10th. It was difficult to know where to even begin since the couple had not made contact with anyone in the seven days they were on the road for the thousand kilometre journey. An air search was

conducted in an attempt to find any trace of the couple. The RCMP looked at cell phone and bank records to find where they could have gone, but their last bank transaction was at the gas station when they left St. Albert. In fact, this wasn't the last time that Lyle and Marie were seen. Five days beforehand, just two days after they first left on their trip, the manager of the Minow Lake Campground saw the McCanns RV and the Hyundai SUV parked in spot number eight at around 6.30 in the morning. Minow Lake is about two hours drive west of Edmonton, but more importantly, about 24 kilometres south of Highway 16, the route that the McCanns were assumed to be taking. The campground manager knocked on the door of the motorhome to collect the camp fee,

but received no answer. When he returned around 12.30, he knocked again, but the campers were still not there. And then, at around 7pm, a driver saw smoke coming from the trees near Minow Lake. It was an RV parked on a closed road near the campground, and it was on fire. Emergency crews responded and put out the blaze, but the motorhome had been destroyed to the point where only the frame remained. The RCMP investigated who owned the RV, and found that it was registered to Lyle and Marie McCann. The police attempted to make contact with them, first by phone, and then by going to their Centelbet home. They, of course, received no response. But the RCMP made no additional attempts to locate the couple, and didn't follow up with

family members either. In fact, after Trudy first reported her parents missing, it took another two days before the RCMP were able to put two and two together, and match the discovery of the burnt-out RV to the elderly couple reported missing. This finding was announced to the media, leading to the first major criticism leveled against the RCMP. Why didn't they try harder to find the couple, and why did it take another five days before anybody discovered that they were missing? The RCMP responded by saying that finding burning vehicles in the woods like this wasn't uncommon, and not being able to contact people during the summer didn't alarm them either since people are often on holiday. Regardless of the reason,

the McCanns were likely missing for nearly a week before the search for them began. In the meantime, the McCann family thought there was something odd about the RV being at the Minow Lake campground. The couple kept their RV in immaculate condition, both inside and out, and Lyle was known to be a careful driver. The road to the campground was full of potholes, and his children insisted that he never would have driven his RV down that road. Additionally, the camp manager had noticed that the RV had been backed into spot number eight pretty carelessly, and was almost into the ditch. An experienced truck driver like Lyle would never have parked so carelessly. The burned-out remains of the RV were located and taken for forensic

examination, although initial investigation found no evidence of human remains. Due to the difficulty in completely burning a human body and leaving no trace, it was believed that Lyle and Marie were not in the RV when it was set on fire. This was later confirmed in the forensic report. So the RV had been found, but where was the Hyundai Tucson SUV, and where were the McCanns? A description of the McCanns missing SUV was released to the media, and over 80 tips came in, with multiple placing the vehicle in Prince George, British Columbia, seven and a half hours away from their home. One tip included a partial plate, and another included the full license plate, both consistent with the McCanns SUV. While no investigation is perfect,

more criticism was lobbed at the RCMP for the handling of one of these tips. On July 13th, the day after the RCMP announced they were looking for the McCanns light green SUV, a woman and her father went directly to the RCMP detachment in Prince George after having spotted what they believed to be the missing vehicle. However, the officer taking their information didn't write down their names or any contact information. The next day, the RCMP had to announce through the media that they would like the pair to come back in for an interview. Because of the repeated credible sightings of a vehicle matching the description of the SUV in Prince George, it was first believed that the car was likely in that area.

But just days later, it was discovered, hidden on an unoccupied farm just 30 minutes north of where the RV had been found. But the McCanns were still nowhere to be found. The search of the SUV brought some disturbing evidence to light. There were two baseball caps in the SUV, and one of them was a match to what Lyle was seen wearing in the surveillance footage from the gas station. There were stains on it that appeared to be blood and an odd hole in the hat. When tested, gunshot residue was found, and the stains were confirmed not only to be blood, but a DNA match to Lyle McCann. The blood on the hat, however, was on the top part of the hat and not consistent with someone wearing it when shot. It was determined to likely be blood spatter

or drops. There was a second partial DNA profile found on the hat too, but that was found to be from someone unrelated to the McCanns. But the hat wasn't the only item containing blood evidence. There was also blood spatter on cans of food, consistent with the items that the McCanns had purchased on their way out of town. This blood would be DNA matched to Marie. Investigators noted that blood from either Lyle or Marie was not found anywhere else in the car, and concluded that whatever happened had occurred elsewhere, and then these items were put into the SUV. There was additional forensic evidence in the vehicle that didn't match either McCann. There was a small blood stain on the armrest of the centre console that yielded a complete DNA

profile, and there was another blood stain on the back of a passenger seat that gave a partial DNA profile. Forensic testing of other items in the car that had no blood on them yielded even more evidence. There was a can of boxer beer left in the vehicle that's a popular and inexpensive brand of beer. On the can was a partial fingerprint, and a swab of the can also provided a DNA sample. A tissue from the SUV also had DNA on it, as did the steering wheel. And then the sweatband of the second baseball cap found in the car yielded another complete DNA profile. Who did this belong to? Dave Olson, known as Bandana Dave because of his love of wearing one around his neck, lived in a mobile trailer in Piers, Alberta, a community about two hours west

of Edmonton. Curiously, it's also about half an hour north of Minow Lake, where the burnt out RV had been found. Bandana Dave had an outstanding charge related to growing marijuana plants, and had just been released pending trial. He was at his trailer when the RCMP came by for a routine check to make sure he was complying with his release conditions. Out of the blue, Dave asked the officers if they'd found the green SUV yet. He'd just seen the news article in the Edmonton Journal newspaper describing the missing vehicle and asking for anyone with information to come forward. One officer replied that no, they hadn't found it yet. Bandana Dave replied, that's because Travis Vader is driving it. The officer's eyes widened. Dave then told them

that on July the 3rd, the same day that the McCans left for their trip, 38-year-old Travis Vader arrived at his trailer at around noon. Dave and Travis had been friends for several months and according to Dave, they liked to get drunk and hide together. Their drug of choice was meth. This day, Travis drove up in an F-350 pickup truck, but it wasn't unusual for Dave to see Travis in a variety of vehicles. According to Dave, Travis told him that he stole cars as he needed them and would then burn them when he was done. Travis told Dave that he needed to use his phone. He also said that he really needed oil for the truck because the oil tank leaked, but he had no money to fix it. Dave gave Travis the oil he had on hand for his lawn muller and then let him

use the phone. Travis made three phone calls in less than 15 minutes, all to his ex-girlfriend Amber Williams, who didn't answer. At 12.15, shortly after making the last call to Amber, Travis left Dave's house. Just after 5pm later that day, Travis came back, but this time he was in a different car, a small, green Hyundai SUV that he proceeded to back into Dave's driveway. He then asked Dave to walk over to the convenience store to buy him a $25 pre-paid Virgin mobile phone card, and then to go to the liquor store to buy a 12-pack of Boxer beer. Travis pulled out a small roll of bills and gave Dave $50. Remember, just hours earlier, Travis didn't even have the money for a container of motor oil to keep his truck running.

When giving the details to the RCMP, Dave was unclear on the exact times of Travis's two visits to his home that day, but phone records would confirm the earlier visit and the receipts from purchasing the phone card and beer confirmed the evening time. When Dave returned home, he gave the card to Travis, who put the minutes on a pre-paid cell phone that had previously been given to him by another ex-girlfriend, Andrea. With this cell phone, he again attempted to contact his other ex-girlfriend, Amber Williams. Travis spent two hours at Dave's house that evening. About 10 minutes before he left, another friend named Miles Ingersoll drove up, who also witnessed Travis driving a sea foam-colored SUV with a tow bar attached to the front.

As it turns out, after Dave had seen the description of the SUV in the paper, he called Miles to confirm, and then both men gave their statements to the RCMP. On July 16, police announced that they'd found the SUV and also that they'd identified a person of interest in their investigation into the disappearance of Lyle and Marie McCann, and they were now looking to locate him. His name was Travis Vader. In 2010, when all of this happened, Travis Vader's life was a far cry from the life of the McCanns, and also a far cry from the life he himself had led just a few years before. Born in Canada, in January of 1972, Travis spent his formative years living in Texas, in the U.S.

When he was a teenager, his family, which included his father, stepmother, and sisters, moved back to knight and junction, Alberta. After high school, Travis went straight into work in the oil fields, where he built his career on his reputation of being a hard worker. He settled down with his wife, Victoria, and adopted her son from a previous relationship. The couple would go on to have six daughters. In 2004, when the youngest child was two and their oldest was 13, Victoria left Travis and moved in with her mother. Days later, when she went back to the house to get things for her and the kids, she found it on fire. The house burnt to the ground, taking with it clothes, toys,

and most heartbreaking of all, the children's baby photos. The community rallied around Victoria and the seven children, donating all the items they would need to get back on their feet. While Victoria's older son would years later voice his suspicions that Travis was behind the fire, no charges were ever filed. A year later, the relationship had broken down even further, leading Victoria to apply for a restraining order against Travis for harassment. He wanted to reconcile and was calling her several times a day. The outcome of that seems unclear, but the couple did eventually reconcile, buying a house in Somaland, British Columbia, a 45-minute drive along the Okanagan Lake from Kelowna. Travis owned his own oil field

consulting company and bought a large house with a swimming pool for his family. He was seen by his own family and friends as driven at work and involved with his children. However, the marriage reconciliation didn't last, and Travis left British Columbia in the summer of 2008. According to what Travis's sister would later tell the RCMP, the marriage fell apart when Victoria left Travis for another man. Travis moved back to night injunction, Alberta, where his family was from. Around this time, though, his family noticed a marked change in him. While in British Columbia, he had worked hard to support his large family. His wife only characterized him as a heavy drinker. There were no drugs at that point. But Travis's return to

Alberta was marked by sporadic employment, serious run-ins with the law, and housing and security. Travis was now a drug addict. His stepson told the Edmonton Journal in 2010 that less than a year after Travis had returned to Alberta, the family had stopped hearing from him altogether. By July of 2010, when the McCans set off on their trip, Travis was already a wanted man. He had warrants out for him for crimes related to drugs, arson and firearms. He did not have a home and relied largely on friends, allowing him to crash with them. But at this point, some of his friends started refusing to house him because they didn't want to add harboring a fugitive to their own rap sheets.

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other machinery that isn't so easy to roll up to the gas station in. Tubing ran from the tank to the cab of the truck. In a recorded jailhouse conversation Travis would later tell a cell mate that he had set this up to fill the cab with diesel in the hopes of destroying the truck but the truck was not completely destroyed. It was searched when it was first located and nothing linking it to the McCann's was found. It was then loaded to a flatbed truck and transported for a later full forensic search. In text messages that would later be entered as evidence and court it was made clear that Travis was aware at this point that the police were looking for him in regards to the missing couple

and his friends were aware as well. Travis was already a fugitive for his earlier charges and wasn't keen to turn himself in but authorities tracked him down on July 19th outside the home of his friend Donnie Bilmer who he lived with on and off. He had run from the residence and was found lying in tall grass along the fence line. Travis claimed he wasn't evading arrest but rather trying to get away from the house to hopefully keep his friend Donnie from getting implicated in things. He said he was lying down not to hide but because he was afraid of being shot. From there Travis was taken into custody. He was not arrested on any charges related to the McCann's but was being held due to the outstanding warrants. Because he had not appeared

for these charges previously and was considered a fugitive he was not granted bail. A second unnamed man was also taken in alongside Travis but was released the following day without facing charges. With Travis in jail the RCMP continued their investigation in two directions. The first was to continue the search for the McCann's. The evidence was certainly troubling and it looked less and less likely with each day that the couple was still alive. Searches were conducted over large areas near where the RV was found, near where the SUV was found and also near where the burned F350 pickup truck was found. Additionally there were searches of places that witnesses had placed Travis in the days between the McCann's disappearance and his arrest. In October

the family had billboards put up asking people to come forward with any information they may have. The second direction the investigation went in was in building a case against whoever was responsible for the McCann's disappearance and possible murders. Travis would later accuse the RCMP of having tunnel vision at this point in the investigation. He protested that they weren't looking for all evidence but rather just for evidence against him and if their goal was to find evidence against Travis Vader it was a success. Several of the forensic samples collected from the SUV were matched back to him. That partial fingerprint on the beer can was consistent with Travis's middle finger though partial fingerprint analysis is not conclusive.

However the unknown male DNA from the can did match Travis as did the blood stains in the front area of the car, the DNA from the tissue and the DNA from the sweatband of the second baseball cap. The partial DNA from Lyle's hat was also a 94.4% match to Travis but there was also DNA collected that did not match Travis. There were five hairs recovered from various places such as pants, a suitcase and a barbecue. The DNA testing on these hairs showed they did not come from Travis or from either of the McCann's. The contributors of these hairs were never identified. There were also napkins retrieved from the SUV with DNA that did not match Travis. In August the RCMP recovered two more important pieces of evidence. One was the key fob to the

SUV. It was found in the burned out F350 pickup truck. As you'll recall the truck had already been searched so how was the key missing for nearly a month? The key was found in a small gap between the tidy tank and the bed of the truck. It was found when the truck was searched with a flashlight and was difficult if not impossible to see without shining a light into the darkness. It's also possible that when the truck was jostled during the process of loading and transporting it the key shifted to a place that it was more visible. Travis though accused the RCMP of planting this key. They could have had the key since finding the SUV and planted it at any time in the month the truck was in their custody.

The RCMP of course denied this. The other major piece of evidence found was the McCann's cell phone. The RCMP knew it hadn't been destroyed in the RV fire because it was used on two separate occasions in July and it was used to contact people unknown to the McCann's. The first occasion was July the 3rd at 2.14 pm when the phone was turned on and multiple phone calls were made over the following five minutes to the phone belonging to Amber Williams. If you remember Amber was an ex-girlfriend of Travis's. There were then two text messages sent to the same number and then one final call at 3.55 pm. The McCann's had no known connection to Amber. Based on cell phone tower evidence the earlier calls were made in the area

of Pierce, Alberta home of bandana Dave Olson. The later call pinged off different towers near the home of Donnie Ballmer where Travis sometimes lived. The phone was not used again until July the 12th and 13th and it was not used by Travis but by Amber. When Amber was questioned by the RCMP about the phone she admitted she had used it and she led police to the dumpster where she'd thrown it away after smashing it. She said she had found the phone in a dresser drawer in Donnie Ballmer's house. Because the phone was damaged it had to be reassembled and the data recovered. Two text messages had been sent on July the 3rd. The first one sent at 2.28. Read Hey babe, it's me. How are you doing today? You know you can still text my phone. I can

still receive texts. I miss you so much. The second text message was sent just four minutes later. It read, I've been trying to call you and text you and email you and Facebook you and I can't get in touch with you. It's me, T. Investigators already knew that Travis had been calling Amber earlier in the day from Dave's phone and that he then started calling and texting her that evening after he got the phone card for his prepaid cell phone. Were these phone calls and texts from the McCann phone to Amber coming from Travis? The RCMP certainly thought so though Travis would later come up with his own explanation but he wouldn't need to defend himself quite yet. The Crown likely felt no rush to indict Travis. They had time to find more evidence and build their case against him

because he was facing serious time for the other offences. In all, he was facing 14 charges unrelated to the McCanns. He was repeatedly denied bail meaning that he would remain locked up for now. Murder cases in which there is no body, a difficult to prosecute because there is no absolute proof that a death has occurred, let alone an unlawful one. A step towards establishing death was taken on July the 27th, 2011, just a few weeks after the one-year anniversary of Lyle and Marie McCann's disappearance. A court found that the McCanns were deceased and so the family could begin to settle their estate. Three days later on what would have been their 59th wedding anniversary, their family and friends gathered for a memorial service. Memories of the McCanns' upbringing

on the Canadian prairies were shared, even going so far as mentioning the cow the couple was gifted upon their marriage in the 1950s. Lyle McCann was remembered as a storyteller and Marie for her laughter and her pie baking. Each person in attendance was given an envelope with rose petals to put into an urn in memory of the couple. The urn was then buried on the plot the family hopes to one day bury Lyle and Marie should their remains be found. The family was hopeful that day would come or at least that charges would be laid against the man they believed knew where Lyle and Marie were but it wouldn't be until April of 2012 the Travis would even face the first set of charges he'd been arrested for. To ease confusion I'll call these the bar head charges after the name of the

city where the crimes occurred. After a three day trial for the bar head charges the judge deliberated for over three weeks before finding Travis guilty of eight of the 14 counts against him. During the time the judge was deliberating Travis was charged with two counts of first degree murder for the deaths of the McCanns. Their oldest son Brett McCann was the family spokesperson and in a press conference he spoke of the family's reaction to the charges being laid. We are very relieved as you know this has been quite an ordeal we've waited a long time for this arrest almost two years we're very optimistic that this brings us one step closer to finding out what happened to my parents we're putting our at this point we need to put our trust in the legal

system in terms of Travis Vader but I can't overemphasize that our we still don't know what happened to my parents and where my parents are and we're very optimistic that this brings us closer to finding my parents. The timing of charging Travis in the McCann case would change the course of the initial bar head charges case. Before Travis was to be sentenced in the bar head charges the Crown delivered the first round of discovery materials to Travis's defense team for the McCann case. When they looked through the file they found statements from the Crown's two main witnesses against Travis in the bar head case. These statements included information about those charges as well as information pertaining to the McCann case and the information relating to the bar head

charges was potentially exculpatory meaning that it could exonerate Travis from guilt in those charges. When this was discovered the Crown admitted that the statements should have been turned over for the bar head charges case and not just the McCann case however they had not received them from the RCMP until after the bar head charges case had completed. After reviewing the statements and question the judge declared a mistrial. Travis remained in jail during this time and he was now facing two trials a retrial for nine of the bar head charges and the murder trial for the McCanns. In February of 2014 Travis threw a third legal battle into the mix when he sued justice officials and the RCMP claiming they used fraudulent means to keep him in jail. Since as early as 2011 he had

been claiming abuse while in custody. Now three and a half years behind bars and waiting on two trials Travis claimed the RCMP set him up to present a fraudulent document to the court. This states back to an attempt made by Travis in 2012 to get released from custody while he awaited his trial. A man provided Travis with a letter stating that he would ensure Travis had a job if he was released. This letter was a fake though Travis claimed he didn't know. When the letter was presented by Travis's lawyer at a bail hearing he was arrested on additional charges related to the forged document including obstruction of justice. Travis claimed that he was set up and that the RCMP arranged for this letter to be provided

in order to charge Travis with additional crimes to keep him locked up. The charges related to the letter were later dropped which Travis argued was proof that they never intended to prosecute. He argued that they laid the charges just to make sure he was kept in custody. Travis was seeking $150,000 in this lawsuit. On March the 19th 2014 about a month before the murder trial was to begin the Crown made a move that stunned many when they issued a stay of proceedings on the murder charges against Travis. They had decided not to pursue it for now. The reason a stay can be issued is that the Crown is not confident that they can get a just verdict and in this case it was a matter of new evidence. The Crown had provided approximately 500 documents of new

evidence to the defence on March the 12th and then there had been a series of breakdowns between the RCMP and the Crown and though the prosecutor's position was that they had acted in good faith, the truth was that both sides needed time to go through this new material as well as to make sure there wasn't additional evidence that needed to be turned over. This stay of proceedings halted the legal proceedings against Travis in the McCann case but it set a clock. The Crown only had one year from the date of the stay to lift it. It was essentially a pause button but not an indefinite one. On October the 8th 2014 Travis was retried on the bar head charges but this time he was found not guilty because the judge did not find the witnesses against him

credible. Outside court that day his lawyer gave a statement to the press. Mr Vader has directed me to say that he's not a threat to anyone, he's not a threat to Alberta or any member of the public and I expect this to be the last that you all hear of Travis Vader. He noted that Travis had spent over four years in pre-trial custody and served nearly as much time as he would have been given had he been convicted except he hadn't been convicted. This was in his lawyer's words quote an unfortunate reflection on our justice system. He went on to say that Travis Vader wanted people to know that he wasn't a threat to the community and his goal was to go back to his old job in the oil fields and lead a quiet life.

Travis Vader was free in the community again. The McCann family issued a statement to the media saying quote our parents went missing in July 2010 and the past four years have been extremely difficult for us however during that time we have come to realise that mum and dad raised us to be resilient strong patient and loving people. This was their gift to us and it has served us well throughout this ordeal and we'll continue to do so until the investigation into their deaths is resolved. That is the legacy of our parents Marie and Lyle McCann. In the majority of cases when a stay in proceedings is issued the case never makes it to trial but

on December 19th 2014 Travis Vader was re-arrested for the murders. This time though he was granted pre-trial bail. The case would take 15 months to go to trial but despite Travis Vader saying he wanted to live a quiet life the next 15 months were anything but. In February of 2015 just two months after being granted bail Travis got into a physical altercation with his mother's boyfriend and was charged with assault. Later that same month while out on bail for the assault Travis was pulled over for erratic driving and then arrested for having weapons. He had a machete and a fishing knife which he argued were not weapons since they were tools with a specific purpose. Travis was again granted

bail in early April of 2015 he was then arrested again in June for two domestic violence incidents against the same woman. He was granted bail yet again in September but he didn't have court approved housing organized so he wasn't released until mid-October. In the meantime Travis Vader's defense lawyers in the McCann murder case were challenging the crown bringing the case to trial at all claiming the stay of charges was just a strategic tactic based on the crown's convenience. They argued that it was an abusive power the judge denied their request to dismiss the charges. The trial for the murder of Lyle and Marie McCann began on March the 8th 2016 it would last two and a half months. One of the key witnesses for the crown was bandanna Dave Olson the man who

said he saw Travis with the McCann's SUV. His testimony was consistent with what he'd told police six years previously but the defense attacked Dave's credibility on two points. The first point was that while waiting on the trial Dave was put into a form of witness protection. He was not given a new identity but he was given limited assistance to relocate to another part of Canada after he heard rumors that he was in danger for giving his testimony. The defense saw this financial assistance as providing Dave with motivation to say what the crown wanted him to say. The second point made was that Dave had a romantic interest in one of the women Travis was friends with and was possibly dating her occasionally. After Dave sent a woman named

Sherry a large volume of texts that she considered to be of a harassing nature Travis confronted Dave about it and during this confrontation he struck Dave in the face. With potential motivations to lie being for financial gain and revenge the defense contended that Dave and his friend Miles who also testified to seeing Travis with the McCann's SUV had conspired against him. Another important witness for the crown was Amber Williams Travis's ex-girlfriend. She testified that the two text messages she received from the McCann's phone were from Travis even though the only identifier was it's me T in the second message. The defense launched into this T as an alternative suspect. They contended that Travis usually did not sign text messages

that way he would have typed out his entire name or possibly a shortened Trav but there was a man who had lived in the Bulma residence where Amber would later find the phone who did sign off on notes and texts as T. His name was Terry McCollum. Like Travis Terry was involved in the local drug trade. According to one witness he also stole cars ransacked them for whatever he could find and then would light them on fire. In May of 2011 Terry died from either a heart attack or a drug overdose so he couldn't be questioned directly in court but Terry was the alternative suspect presented to the court by Travis's defense team and he was used to demonstrate that the RCMP did not follow up on any lead that was not related to Travis. The witness had previously

told the RCMP in a statement that he heard Travis confess to stealing the McCann's SUV but that he didn't kill the couple. He testified in court however that he had lied to the police. He had actually heard that Travis had stolen the SUV but it was Terry who had told him that not Travis. The crown however was able to produce logs of multiple text communications that are believed to be from Travis in which he identifies himself as T. Because Travis largely relied on other people's phones it's difficult to know for sure who sent the texts but the content of the conversations certainly demonstrate the likelihood that Travis is the author of multiple texts in which the sender refers to himself as T. The defense for Travis fader focused on two issues

one was the fact that without bodies it's hard to prove without a reasonable doubt that the McCann's were even deceased let alone whether the manner of their deaths was murder and two the defense argued that the forensic evidence was flawed. Travis's lawyer Brian Buresh provided what could only be described as a vigorous and aggressive defense for example when the McCann's daughter Trudy was cross-examined by Buresh he brought up some early statements she'd previously made to investigators about her parents acting cold towards her leading up to the disappearance when she'd called her father in mid-june for father's day she felt both of her parents were acting oddly towards her she said it was clear that they were unhappy with her and her father was

curt when he spoke with her on july the third before leaving for the trip but she had assumed they would talk over whatever the problem was when they saw each other in Abbotsford the defense also called a number of witnesses who could testify to having seen Travis on July the third or could testify to his movement in the days later a woman named Kim testified that on Friday July the second at about three in the morning Travis suddenly showed up at her home to see her friend Sherry Sherry was the friend of Travis's that he and bandana Dave had a physical confrontation over Kim testified that she'd never met Travis before the night he barged into her home scaring her Travis went to Sherry's room and mostly slept while he was in the home

though he did have dinner with Sherry on Friday on saturday July the third Kim had to be to work by 4 p.m when she was getting ready for work at no later than 3 p.m Travis left this testimony gave Travis an alibi for the time it was believed that the McCanns went missing and it would directly contradict the testimony of bandana Dave Olson who claimed to have first seen Travis at noon it would mean someone else had used Dave's phone to call Amber if Kim is correct that Travis left at closer to 3 p.m this would also put into question how much time Travis would have had to intercept the McCanns rob and murder them as the crown contends and then arrive at Dave's as though nothing had happened at 5 15 however Kim's testimony

contradicts Travis's own statement from December of 2014 Travis told the RCMP that he was at Dave's at noon on July the third and that they could verify this by checking Dave's phone records since he'd made phone calls while there the person who may be able to clear this up was Sherry the woman Travis was visiting at Kim's home but Sherry's evidence on this point was inconsistent and conflicting she was a hesitant witness for the crown but did testify that Travis left the home on the morning of July the third while it was still dark outside but when the defence asked if it was possible that Travis didn't leave until later in the afternoon like three o'clock Sherry agreed quickly that that was very possible too Sherry did admit to having some memory issues

due to drug use and her testimony was unreliable due to this limitation another key day as far as an alibi for Travis Vader goes would be July the fifth the day the RV was burned three witnesses testified to seeing Travis on this day one was his sister Bobby Joe and the other two were women she lived with her roommate Andrea an ex-girlfriend of Travis's and also the woman who owned the home she lived in Esther McKay Bobby Joe had given recorded statements to police on three occasions in 2010 July the 16th August 6th and September the 7th in these statements she told the RCMP that Travis manufactured meth and that when he arrived at the home she was staying at very late on July the fourth he had guns in the back of the f350 truck he

was driving they were wrapped in blankets and Travis had told her to be careful when she went back there to get groceries out of the trunk since guns were there in a recorded conversation from October of 2011 Travis told Bobby Joe that she needed to recant her statements the court characterised his tone as abusive in this conversation Bobby Joe did recant these statements on the stand she blamed her own drug use for her previous statements and said she was mixing up what Travis had said with what other people had told her these changing stories eroded at Bobby Joe's credibility and reliability as a witness the woman named Andrea testified that she saw Travis after midnight on July the fifth two days after the McCans had left for their trip

Andrea said that he was gaunt agitated and told her that he'd been on the run her testimony was helpful to establish that Travis did have the virgin mobile cell phone like Dave Olson had said Andrea is the one who owned the phone and had given it to Travis she later had it deactivated on July the 16th when Travis was announced to be a person of interest in the McCans disappearance Travis being in possession of this phone is incredibly important to the crown's case cell phone tower evidence from this phone puts it in key places during critical points in the case such as the Minow Lake area on July the fifth when the RV was set on fire Andrea testified that Travis did have the phone and he did call her at Esther's house on the

phone on July the fifth to ask her to put more minutes on it cell records back up that a call was placed from the virgin mobile cell phone to Esther's home on July the fifth and cell tower pings indicate the call was made from the Minow Lake area when Travis was arrested he was still in possession of this phone and no evidence was entered that anyone else had control of this virgin mobile cell phone during this period so while Andrea could testify that Travis did arrive and stay at Esther's house during the time the RV was set on fire she said he was not at the house on that particular day the third witness to Travis's state that night was the owner of the home Esther McKay she is often referred to in the media as Bobby Joe's

foster mother a role she took in Bobby Joe's life even as an adult Esther provided a home and food for those in need on the condition that they don't do drugs while in her home Esther arrived home on July the fourth the day after Lyle and Marie left for their trip at around 11 30 at night Travis was already there looking extremely thin Esther said he looked unkempt and she believed he was sick he took a bed upstairs and largely stayed there until July the 9th when he left around noon obviously she couldn't account for all of his movements while he was in her home because she didn't monitor him and she wasn't home the entire time but due to her concern over how sick he appeared she did check on him periodically and asked if he needed food at meal times

this home where Esther Travis's sister Bobby Joe and his ex-girlfriend Andrea lived was in Edmonton over two hours away from Minow Lake where the RV was found on fire on July the 5th while Travis may have come and gone from the home undetected he would have had to have been gone for well over four hours on Sunday to destroy the RV while Bobby Joe may be biased in favour of her brother Esther was not she had no reason to lie about checking on him over the course of his stay the defense then called four witnesses to attempt to put a big hole in the crown's timeline on when Lyle and Marie McCann went missing the crown's position was that the McCanns were killed between the time Travis left bandana Dave Olson's house at 12 15 and the time their phone was used

to contact amber at 228 these witnesses believed they saw the McCanns on July the 3rd and July the 4th after the time in the crown's theory that they would have been intercepted by Travis Vader and killed the first one to see the McCanns or at least someone she thought was the McCanns was a witness called Barbell Gray she testified that she was camping at Wolf Lake from July the 1st to the 4th in the afternoon on the 3rd she saw a teal coloured SUV driven by a man who appeared to be about 70 years old but what she really noticed was the passenger a woman who had a strong resemblance to a neighbour of hers appearing to be in her mid 60s she remembered that the license plate was from Alberta and had the partial plate number 289 these were the three numbers at the

end of the McCanns license plate then on July the 4th she said she saw an RV consistent with the description of the McCanns RV at the lake on cross examination by prosecutors a September 2010 statement was produced that showed that Barbell's original description of the RV did not match that of the McCanns also because she was mostly focused on the familiar face of the passenger of the SUV she may not be as clear on details like the license plate another mark against this particular sighting is that the McCanns cell phone was in use at the time she saw the SUV and it was peaking off cell phone towers too far out of range so either this sighting was not the McCanns or their cell phone was already out of their possession since they kept their phone in the

console and only used it in emergencies it's unclear how they would have lost it just two and a half hours away from home the other three defense witnesses who believed they'd seen the McCanns were not at Wolf Lake but 30 kilometres north at Minow Lake where the RV was eventually found the sightings occurred on July the 4th the day after the crown argued that the McCanns had been killed the witnesses were all people at the lake for a wedding anniversary celebration the first was Debbie Foisey she had initially contacted the RCMP when she saw a news story about the couple's disappearance shortly after it happened she testified that at some point after 3 30 in the afternoon on July the 4th but before 5 an RV pulling an SUV pulled in to the campground

she reported that the RV was driving a little fast a woman left the motorhome and unhooked the SUV a man was also with her and she later saw him using a camp stove at a picnic table under the RV's awning Debbie said the man had on a baseball cap and dark clothes she described the woman as short possibly Polish or Ukrainian and in her 60s when she later saw a picture of Marie McCann she identified her as the woman that she'd seen the RV was still there when she left at noon on July the 5th although the SUV was not this story was slightly different from her original statement to the RCMP from July the 13th 2010 after being shown a photograph of Marie McCann she told investigators she hadn't seen

the woman's face when cross-examined on this point she said she had seen her face but from a distance the next witness was Gwendolyn Yakimovich Debbie's sister-in-law she estimated seeing the RV towing the SUV through the campground at around 4 p.m. she said it left and then returned 30 minutes later with the vehicles being driven separately the vehicles parked before the SUV drove away again this testimony was slightly different than the initial statement Gwendolyn had given to the RCMP six years before in this early statement Gwendolyn said that only the RV had returned to the campsite when the defense asked about this discrepancy she said the RV did return alone at first but then the SUV arrived within minutes this clearly puts two people at the scene

the third Minow Lake witness was Clarence Foysey Gwendolyn's father and Debbie's father-in-law around 4 30 on July the 4th he saw the motorhome enter towing the SUV he later passed the same RV in a stall but said it was backed into the spot at a really odd angle and was even leaning into a ditch consistent with what the campsite manager had seen he saw an older man of about 65 or 70 years of age near the motorhome walking towards Minow Lake when he was cross-examined he admitted he didn't know where the man had come from the crown argued it could have been a man simply walking by the RV according to the earlier testimony of Marie's sister

Lyle and Marie had intended to stop at Blue River British Columbia their first night which was a six-hour drive from their home Lyle being a former long-haul trucker liked to get in a day's worth of driving before stopping and so it would not be usual for him to stop so close to home to set up camp if all these sightings were the McCanns they would have driven only about two and a half hours the first day and then just 30 minutes the second day while it may seem out of character for them no one knows for sure where the McCanns plan to stop their children hadn't gone on a long trip with them in a very long time

and their habits may have changed as they aged the couple had also not made reservations for the Knights of the 3rd or the 4th their first reservation for July the 5th was in Kelowna British Columbia there was room to argue that Lyle and Marie who enjoyed fishing together had planned their first two nights at these lakes attacking the crown's timeline and questioning the evidence the McCanns were actually deceased was only part of the defense case the other aspect was the forensic evidence they called Dr Randall T Libby who called into question the collection processing and analysis of the DNA evidence that had been collected what the crown claimed was a match Dr Libby said was

inconclusive there was also the matter of the DNA that was found that didn't match Travis the hairs and the napkins that indicated maybe another person was there additionally Dr Libby testified that sometimes the best DNA evidence was what wasn't actually found the RCMP collected and tested over a hundred items belonging to Travis Vader and did not find the McCanns DNA on anything Travis over the course of most of this long trial was free on bail however on May the 10th 2016 he was arrested for a copper wire and truck theft on May the 30th bail was denied on those charges and on breaching his initial bail conditions for the McCann murder case prior to his arrest the judge had ordered a review of his bail conditions after he'd shown up late to the

trial on four occasions three he said were related to transportation issues and another was due to him oversleeping he also failed a drug test and contacted a prosecution witness and the McCann case both violations of his conditions so when closing statements began on June 22nd Travis was back in custody during the trial 208 exhibits were entered into court 89 witnesses were called and each side had to sum up their case for Justice Denny Thomas the crown leaned on the forensic evidence that linked Travis to the McCanns SUV and the text messages that linked him to their phone while they conceded that possession of these items does not mean he killed them they pointed out that at no point has Travis given any

alternative explanation of why or how he came in contact with these items he denied possession to the RCMP and he declined to testify at his trial what happened on July the 3rd when according to the crown Travis Vader and the McCanns crossed paths is unknown according to Dave Olson Travis left his home at 1215 in a pickup truck but returned around 5 p.m. driving a light green Hyundai SUV similar to the McCanns vehicle and there had been no confirmed sightings of the McCanns after being seen on camera pulling out of the St. Albert Superstore a bit after 10 a.m. the crown argued that the circumstantial evidence suggests that the McCanns had pulled over possibly to eat lunch off highway 16 in the area of Piers, Alberta at the same time Travis having just

left bandana Dave Olson's home came across them a desperate drug addict without any money Travis attempted to rob the McCanns at gunpoint something happened that led to Travis killing Lyle or Marie McCann this initial murder during the course of the robbery was not planned however when Travis chose to kill the other McCann this rose to first-degree murder due to the age of the McCanns it could not be argued that they were a physical threat to Travis the only reason to kill the second McCann was to eliminate them as a witness the crown also leaned on cell phone tower evidence to place Travis and the vicinity of the McCanns SUV and RV at critical times using the Virgin mobile phone they asked the judge to look at the totality of the evidence and find Travis guilty

of first-degree murder the defences closing statement pointed at the issues with the individual pieces of evidence they claimed that the crown had failed to prove that the McCanns had died though conceded it was a possible theory but something being possible is not the standard for criminal court they stated the defense then argued against the timeline the crown put forward the four witnesses who claimed to see the McCanns after July the third were all uninterested parties who had no relation to either side other alibi witnesses like Esther McKay and Kim also had no reason to lie for or against Travis the defense also pointed to how many assumptions were required to believe the

crown's theory the crown was asking the court to assume the McCanns took highway 16 which would put them in the path of Travis rather than taking another highway they had to assume the McCanns were planning a long driving day even though there was no proof one way or the other about their plans for July 3rd or 4th the court had to assume that Travis was financially strapped because there was no proof of this other than circumstantial like how Travis used borrowed phones and the statement of Dave Olson the defense then laid out alternative scenarios for Travis's DNA to be in the vehicle possibly he was in contact with someone who then transferred his DNA to the vehicle or he was outside of the SUV leaning in an open window to talk to

the person driving when he sneezed this sneeze left his DNA on the steering wheel and console the defense also continued the argument that Terry McCollum was a viable alternative suspect that the RCMP ignored Amber Williams Travis's ex-girlfriend had testified that she took the McCanns cell phone from a dresser drawer in a bedroom of the home of Donnie Bulma that bedroom had previously been used by Travis but had been more recently used by Terry McCollum when the phone was recovered from the dumpster there was no forensic evidence linking it to Travis and no witnesses ever saw him with the phone the McCann phone had never shown to be in Travis's possession the judge took all of these arguments and spent the summer of 2016 deliberating on the case

the question was would he look at the totality of the evidence as the crown asked or would he break the case into its parts and see the holes as the defense asked on September the 15th Justice Denny Thomas gave his verdict in a rare move he permitted cameras in the courtroom as the verdict was delivered the killing of the McCanns was not a first degree murder it is therefore a second degree murder I now come to the verdict stage Mr. Vader please stand up on the two counts of first degree murder I find you Travis Edward Vader not guilty but Travis Edward Vader I do find you guilty of the lesser and included offense of second degree murder of Lyle and Marie McCann near Pierce Alberta honor about July 3 2010 but almost immediately after that judgment the legality of

the ruling was questioned in his full ruling Justice Thomas cited section 230 of the criminal code which allowed for a second degree murder conviction if the killing occurred during the commission of another crime this law was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1990 but it still remained on the books the defense asked for a mistrial the crown however argued that Justice Thomas could use another section of the code to convict on second degree murder or he could substitute the verdict with a manslaughter verdict in late October Justice Thomas vacated the murder conviction and found Travis Vader guilty of manslaughter the sentencing phase began on December the 12th after giving his victim impact statement in court Brett McCann the son of Lyle

and Marie McCann gave a statement to the press outside the courthouse it is very important to myself and my family that my parents remains be located and buried properly I think it is a critical component of our grieving process and the one individual who knows where my parents are has said nothing for this whole time Travis Vader where are the bodies of my parents Vader has shown no sign of acknowledging that he even caused the death of my parents he shows no remorse for what he has done our loss is huge our pain is everlasting we will never forget and I will never forgive what Travis Vader has done in my victim impact statement I said that I related that I have a recurring nightmare I mean it doesn't happen

all the time but I have this nightmare where Vader kills one of my parents and the other one watches knowing that they are they are next and I I can't get that vision out of my head and I know that if he were to stand up and say what happened to my parents then I I could say that I could forgive him Travis took to the stand during his hearing and made serious accusations of abuse and mistreatment while in custody he claimed his constitutional rights had been violated a number of ways during the process because of the lengthy cross examination he participated in the sentencing hearing did not finish until January the third 2017 there is no minimum sentence for manslaughter in Canada unless it's committed with a firearm while that was certainly the crown's theory

it would be another aspect that would be difficult to prove without the victims bodies the maximum sentence Travis was facing was life without the possibility of parole for seven years the defense asked for four to six years with credit for the significant amount of time Travis had spent in pre-trial detention going back to 2010 immediately prior to hearing his fate Travis again asserted his innocence the judge then gave him the maximum sentence while he was not given credit for time served non-parole periods are calculated based on the date of arrest Travis would likely have to serve at least four years before being eligible for a parole hearing Travis Vader is appealing his conviction

the McCann family hopes that the possibility of parole will be incentive for Travis to not only admit what he's done but to give authorities the whereabouts of their parents remains thanks for listening thank you to Brett McCann for all of your help and feedback and thank you also to my patron Tyler R for putting us in touch I tell my patrons what cases I'm covering ahead of time and this time Tyler happened to be closely related to the McCann family this episode was researched and written by Charlie Warrell who you'll know from the highly respected podcast called Impact Statement this has been an extremely high profile case here in Canada and there's been a lot of interest in it and requests for coverage that's why I'm pleased

to tell you that in the next week the Impact Statement podcast will release an episode featuring an interview with Brett McCann a son of Lyle and Marie McCann and the spokesperson for the family to be the first to hear this episode subscribe to Impact Statement now if you forget though I'll put it on my feed a few days after it's released I also now have a Facebook discussion group that has over 3000 members so if you're on Facebook and want to join in just look for Canadian true crime discussion group if you've left me a good review on iTunes or somewhere else thank you so much this week's podcast suggestion is already gone with Nina instead she mainly covers Michigan crimes but occasionally crosses the border to Canada in the episode she just released

she tells the story of the disappearance of Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player Bill Barrilco in 1951 this is of course the story told by the song 50 mission cap by the tragically hip make sure you tune in for this one here is a promo for already gone I'm Nina instead host of already gone a true crime podcast focused on Detroit Michigan and the Great Lakes region we look at older or lesser known cases stories that you won't hear anywhere else in the weeks ahead we're covering unsolved murders missing persons cases and looking back at a few resolved cases that made the headlines listen to already gone on Apple podcast or your favorite podcatcher this episode I'm saying a huge thank you to these

patrons Susanna P Glenn J Holly B Jason F Nathaniel B Jessica M Claire Robin S Veronica C Kelly P Piggy TC Marianne W Ladonna C Alexander T Pierre M Christina A Terry B Angel R Kimberly S and Alex L thank you all so much this episode of Canadian true crime was researched and written by Charlie Worrell and audio production was by Eric Crosby and me the host of the beyond bizarre true crime podcast voice the disclaimer and the Canadian true crime theme song was written by we talk of dreams I'll be back soon with another Canadian true crime story see you then you you