More than three weeks after RCMP officially charged him in connection to the disappearance of Lyle and Marie McCann – Travis Vader made his first scheduled court appearance in Edson on the charges.
On April 23, RCMP laid two counts of first-degree murder charges against Vader, 40, for his alleged involvement in the disappearance of the elderly couple from St. Albert in July 2010.
RCMP arrested Vader at the Edmonton Remand Centre, where he had been held on unrelated charges.
Police said new evidence led them to lay charges against the man who had been publicly connected to the case since the early days of the investigation, but never charged.
"There's information that has surfaced through the course of the investigation that has brought us to a position that we could both arrest and charge Mr. Vader in connection to these deaths," Staff Sgt. Shawn LeMay said after the new charges were announced.
On July 3, 2010, Lyle and Marie McCann left their home in St. Albert, planning to drive their motorhome to B.C. on vacation.
Two days after they left, the motorhome was found burned in a campground located east of Edson, and the vehicle they had been towing was found a short time later abandoned near Carrot Creek, several kilometres away from where the motorhome was burned.
CTV News has confirmed with the Crown Prosecutor on the case that police allege the McCanns were killed near the town of Peers, located about 40 kilometres northeast of Edson.
At Tuesday's appearance, Vader was in the process of retaining Peter Royal, an Edmonton-based attorney, to represent him.
Vader's next court appearance has been scheduled for June 5 via CCTV in an Edson courtroom.
