Saturday, Jul 23, 2011 06:00 am

By: Glenn Cook

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  The McCann family has drafted an obituary that will run in today's and Wednesday's St. Albert Gazettes. A memorial service has also been planned for July 30.

  Supplied photo
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The family of a St. Albert couple missing for more than a year are taking steps toward closure.

Lyle and Marie McCann were last seen fuelling up their motorhome at the St. Albert Superstore gas bar on July 3, 2010, as they headed for B.C. to meet up with their daughter for a vacation. They never arrived.

This week, the family placed an obituary for their parents in the St. Albert Gazette, which will run today and Wednesday. They have also planned a memorial service for Saturday, July 30.

Bret, the couple’s son, said both are attempts to finally bring them some long-overdue closure.

"It’s been over a year now and we realize our parents must be gone. So this is what we’re trying to do, to move towards closure now," he said.

He added the process of putting the obituary together and planning the service has been tough on the family.

"There are still some things we’re trying to figure out," he said. "We’ve got people coming in from Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. There are a fair number of logistics involved."

However, even a year after the couple disappeared, the support the family continues to receive both from the community of St. Albert and those who extend their condolences on a daily basis on Facebook have helped them immensely along the way.

"We see new people joining the Facebook page every day," he said, noting they had to start a new Facebook group due to changes made by the social media website, and were unable to automatically migrate users from the old page to the new one.

The McCanns’ motorhome was found burned out on July 5, 2010, near a campground outside of Edson. A week and a half later, RCMP announced they had a person of interest in the case, Travis Edward Vader. That same day, the couple’s Hyundai Tucson SUV was recovered in a wooded area 30 kilometres east of Edson. Vader was arrested a couple of days later on outstanding warrants unrelated to the McCanns’ disappearance and has yet to be formally charged in the case.

The McCann family, the City of St. Albert, Crime Stoppers and several private donors came together to offer a special reward for information leading to the couple’s whereabouts. That reward was capped at $60,000 and remains unclaimed.

RCMP media relations officer Doris Stapleton said police continue to work on the case, with the same amount of staff resources committed to it as previously.

"The update is there is no update," Stapleton said. "It’s still an active investigation and they’re still following up on leads and tips. Again, we ask for the public’s assistance if they heard anything or saw anything, no matter how trivial they think it might be."

The McCanns continue to meet with police about every six weeks for updates on the case.

Last fall, members of the McCanns’ extended family started their own search of Crown lands around where both vehicles were found, but Bret said they won’t resume anytime soon.

"That was really my uncles and my cousins that were doing this with ATVs last fall, but it just seems futile, so we’re not going to proceed with any family searches," he said.

The memorial service — which the McCanns have opened to the public as a way to thank them for their support — will be held on Saturday, July 30, at 11 a.m. at the St. Albert Catholic Parish (7 St. Vital Ave.). In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to be made to the Search and Rescue Association of Alberta.