EDMONTON - The Crown has dropped a charge of breaching bail against Travis Vader on the grounds it is "not in the public interest to proceed."
Vader is currently on bail and awaiting trial for the murders of St. Albert couple Lyle and Marie McCann.
He was charged for allegedly violating a curfew condition April 14 in Camrose.
At the time, Alberta Justice documents alleged Vader had failed to comply with a condition to be "indoors at his approved residence between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily, except for medical emergencies." Camrose police said at the time Vader was arrested in hospital and that there was "some information he went to the hospital to seek medical treatment," but that it was still an alleged breach.
An emailed statement released by Alberta Justice now says, "The Crown, after reviewing all of the materials garnered from the investigation conducted by the Camrose Police Service determined that it was not in the public interest to proceed with this particular allegation and, as a result, was compelled to direct a stay."
Vader has alleged ongoing harassment and abuse of process by RCMP and justice officials.
In an email to the Journal, he attributed the injury for which he was being treated in hospital to having been denied permission by his bail supervisor to sleep overnight at a job site where he was working, and being too tired from having to commute several hours a day.
Vader continues to face other charges in relation to two separate incidents while he has been out on bail.
In the first case, he was charged with assault on his mother’s boyfriend. In the other, he was charged with dangerous driving and six breaches of bail conditions.
In the summer of 2010, Vader was named a suspect in the murders of the McCanns, who disappeared while travelling by motorhome to visit their daughter in B.C. They were later declared to have been victims of homicide. Their bodies have never been found.
Vader was arrested on unrelated charges.
He was charged in April 2012 with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the McCanns.
The murder charges were stayed in March 2014, weeks before the murder trial was set to begin.
Vader was released from custody in the fall, after being found not guilty of the unrelated charges on which he was originally arrested.
The murder charges were reinstated in December and Vader was released on bail.
His trial on the murder charges is set to begin in March 2016.
jpruden@edmontonjournal.com
Twitter.com/jana_pruden
