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As the one year anniversary of the disappearance of an elderly St. Albert couple looms, RCMP and other search and rescue personnel are picking up the search for Lyle and Marie McCann.

The couple disappeared July 3, 2010, after leaving in their RV to visit friends in British Columbia.

Their motorhome was found burned on July 5, and the vehicle they were towing was found abandoned four days later.

Photos

Search and Rescue crews begin searching for sign of Lyle and Marie McCann Sunday, June 26, 2011.

missing

Brett McCann in an interview with CTV News Sunday, June 26, 2011.

The only person of interest in the case, Travis Vader, is currently behind bars on unrelated charges.

Sunday's search is one of the first time crews have looked for the missing couple this year, after dozens of searches took place in 2010.

The McCann family conducted their own search in the fall of 2010 – but found the area too large to cover with a small group.

Now the RCMP are taking over, much to the McCann family's relief.

"It means a lot the police have been so supportive." Brett McCann said in an interview with CTV News.

Leading the search for the missing couple Sunday is Don Drebert, the president of Search and Rescue Alberta. He has taken part in fourteen different searches for this case alone.

"I very much sympathize with the McCann family." Drebert said in an interview with CTV News.

"The disappearance of their parents, there is nothing worse than not knowing what's going on."

Search teams are looking in an area west of Lodgepole, Alberta. RCMP won't say what information brought the search to the new area.

"I was contacted by the command team for the McCann investigation," RCMP Constable Peter Lavalee said Sunday. "[I was] asked to contact the Brazeau Search and Rescue [and asked them] to conduct a search of this particular area."

The family hopes coverage of the one-year anniversary of the couple's disappearance will spark more tips and information that could lead to the location of Lyle and Marie McCann.

A $60,000 reward is still being offered for information about the couple's disappearance.

Now, Brett and the rest of the McCann family only need to wait for the phone call that would bring an end to the months-long nightmare.

"I keep hoping that they find something here to bring us some sense of closure."

With files from Kevin Armstrong

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