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Not even a guilty verdict in the murders of Lyle and Marie McCann can end a six-year ordeal for their family.

"This has truly been a marathon," said the couple's son, Bret McCann.

Travis Vader, 44, was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder after a three-month trial. But experts said the judge mistakenly relied on an unconstitutional Criminal Code section. An appeal has been filed and a mistrial is a possibility.

Bret McCann is already bracing himself: "It would be difficult, but we know this is a marathon. We’ll see it through until the end, no matter what twists and turns this takes."

For a brief while after leaving court Thursday, the McCann family savoured joy. The triumph was tempered by not being able to lay their loved ones to rest. The couple's bodies have never been found.

The family has ridden a roller-coaster case beset by extraordinary circumstances from start to finish. Nothing went as it should. Starting back in 2010, the couple's motorhome was found ablaze, but failed to rouse suspicion. It would not be the last mis-step.

RCMP early on identified a local meth addict and troublemaker as a "person of interest," but took two years to charge him. The charges were stayed once the Crown realized Mounties hadn't disclosed all the evidence. When reactivated, a judge narrowly denied a defence application alleging unreasonable delay and police abuse of process.

The case featured a malicious prosecution lawsuit and another alleging RCMP and justice officials kept Vader jailed until he could be charged. There were allegations witnesses were bought off and evidence was planted.

The accused was in and out of custody the past six years on drug, theft and probation charges. He showed up late for trial, tested positive for meth and contacted a Crown witness. An exasperated judge revoked his bail.

Vader phoned a reporter from jail to exult in what he called his imminent freedom and accused authorities of a witch hunt.

"It's just, why did they make it take six damn years?" he asked.

Preparing for a doomed road trip

The family's nightmare started with KFC chicken, nine-ball pool and garage sales.

Lyle McCann, 78, and his wife Marie, 77, hosted their son Bret, 61, and his wife Mary-Ann at their St. Albert home on July 2, 2010, a cool, clear Friday. While the women browsed garage sales, the men ate KFC and played pool.

They spoke about a vacation the elder McCanns would take the next day to Cultus Lake near Chilliwack, B.C., to camp with their daughter, Trudy Holder, 51, and granddaughter. The McCanns were to pick up Holder at Abbotsford airport.

"It was his pride and joy," Bret McCann said of his dad's Class A motorhome, a white and green 1999 Gulf Stream Sun Voyager. They towed a 2006 Hyundai Tucson.

The elder McCanns were both raised on farms around Red Deer. They farmed together for a while when they married in 1952, then moved to Edmonton, then St. Albert, when Lyle McCann started a trucking company.

Marie McCann was a stay-at-home mother of three, grandmother of five and great-grandmother of one.

"She taught me how to be a mother," said daughter-in-law Mary-Ann.

The McCanns' last day

Early Saturday, July 3, Holder received a call from her father — the last time she would hear his voice: "He said, 'We're on our way. We'll see you in a week or so.' "

At 9:25 a.m., a security camera at the St. Albert Superstore recorded Lyle McCann fuelling the RV. The couple bought groceries, including Tide detergent, cookies and No Name canned food.

On Monday, July 5, the vehicles were spotted parked awkwardly and unlevelled at Site No. 8 of the Minnow Lake campground southeast of Edson. No one had paid the $12 camp fee, so employees knocked on the door, but no one answered. The vehicles were gone when they returned.

At 7 p.m., Edson firefighters were called when a driver reported a burning RV. The SUV had vanished.

Edson RCMP phoned the couple's home and asked the St. Albert detachment to visit the home, but took no other steps.

The search begins

Five days later, on Saturday, July 10, Holder and her nine-year-old daughter were at the airport, getting frantic.

"My mom and dad are never not there," Holder said.

Holder searched the terminal. She tried calling her parents' cellphone, which her father only turned on to make a call. When she called the campground and discovered her parents hadn't checked in, she called her brother and RCMP.

"I was sick already," she said.

RCMP searched by air, interviewed witnesses and examined the couple's phone and bank records. The family set up a Facebook group and erected a billboard west of Edmonton. A $60,000 reward, raised from donations, went unclaimed.

On Friday, July 16, RCMP found the missing SUV hidden in the bush 30 kilometres east of Edson.

A person of interest

That same day, RCMP named Travis Edward Vader a person of interest.

Vader, who grew up in MacKay, Peers and Niton Junction, had amassed 12 separate sets of charges since 1995. Police warned the public not to approach the six-foot-two, 230-pound Vader, a drug user who might be armed, they said.

Vader's father, Ed Vader, gave a similar warning to MacKay residents at a crime-watch meeting: "They have had him in jail three or four times. I don't know why they didn't keep him there." 

Acquaintances described a good kid from a good family with a nasty side.

Herb Nichols, who owns the acreage beside the Vaders, said they bought the property in the mid-1980s after the family returned from Texas where Ed Vader worked in the oilpatch.

"I knew him since he was a kid, and he was a good kid," Nichols said.

During the last oil boom Travis Vader — "a good old-fashioned, redneck boy" — worked as a directional drilling consultant and owned a pull tractor and a track hoe.

"He did really well when the last little boom was on, but like most young guys, he spent it all,"  Nichols said.

Roy Getson, who grew up in Niton Junction, said Vader was a nice guy who liked hunting and had a reputation for fisticuffs.

"If he got to a bar, he'd get into a fight," Getson said.

Vader married in 1997, had six daughters and an adopted son, and lived in Niton Junction, said his sister, Bobbi-Jo. After losing their home to fire, they moved to Summerland, B.C., where he bought his family a $600,000 home with an in-ground pool.

Vader's wife met someone else online and the marriage failed. Vader was ordered to pay $10,000 in child support every month, leaving him with little, Bobbi-Jo said.

Vader began abusing meth and booze and had police run-ins over auto thefts, drugs and weapons offences. He moved back to Alberta and was so broke when he was jailed in 2009, his sister paid half his bail.

On Monday, July 19, tactical officers arrested Vader at the Niton Junction home of a friend on unrelated warrants.

Lives in collision

The lives of Vader and the McCanns had collided just over two weeks earlier.

Vader, living in a makeshift camp, visited his buddy, Dave Olson, about noon on Saturday, July 3, to borrow oil for his stolen Ford truck. Vader grumbled about how broke he was and left frustrated, hungry, angry and desperate. He was lovesick, unable to reach estranged sweetheart Amber Williams.

He soon encountered the McCanns, who had stopped on the road near Peers about 12:30 p.m.

"The McCanns and their property were likely nothing more than a target of opportunity, an opportunity that Mr. Vader took," Justice Denny Thomas said in his verdict Thursday. "Violence occurred in the interaction between the McCanns and Mr. Vader. There was bloodshed. A gun was discharged.

"The McCanns were victims of violence. Mr. Vader inflicted that violence. The McCanns suffered bodily harm. The presence of their blood makes that obvious."

Vader used the couple's cellphone to make unanswered calls and texts to Williams: "I have been trying to call you and text you and email you and Facebook you and I can't get in touch with you."

Vader drove the McCanns' SUV back to Olson's. He handed Olson $50 to buy Boxer beer and a phone card. Vader seemed agitated and preoccupied with phoning Williams. Two days later, his sister unloaded detergent, cookies and cans of No Name food from the vehicle her brother was driving.

Vader's DNA was found on the SUV's steering wheel, armrest and passenger seat. His DNA and fingerprint were on a can of Boxer beer and DNA was on the brims of Lyle McCann's two caps. One hat was punctured by a bullet and stained with drops of Lyle McCann's blood. No Name food cans were found on the floor, some spattered with Marie McCann's blood.

Bret McCann, who had sworn at a candle-light vigil after his parents vanished to never stop searching, said six years later he's standing down.

"I'm sorry, Mom and Dad, I can do no more. I hope that someday, somehow, you will be found."

He noted Vader stole more than a few belongings.

"It is so, so sad that my parents didn’t live to fully enjoy their golden years, did not live to enjoy their great-grandchildren. They and us were robbed of this happiness."

bmah@postmedia.com

twitter.com/mahspace

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