The daughter of an elderly St. Albert couple who vanished in 2010 was emotional in court Thursday as she talked about the last time she spoke to them.

Testifying at Travis Vader’s first-degree murder trial, Trudy Holder, 54, said she and her father had a brief phone conversation on the morning of July 3, 2010, to confirm that he and her mother would pick up her and her daughter at Abbotsford, B.C., airport July 10 so they could go camping.

"He called me and it was very short. He said we’re on our way and we’ll see you in a week or so."

After she and her daughter landed at the airport and walked into the terminal, they realized that Lyle and Marie McCann weren’t there.

"I started freaking out," said Holder, adding she sat down and began making calls.

After learning her parents had not checked in at the campground they had booked and a friend of theirs had not heard from them, she called police.

"If they said they were going to be somewhere, they would be there," she said.

Holder appeared to be near tears as she spoke about typically talking to her mother on a daily basis.

"My mom was my best friend so we would just talk about everything that was going on," she said.

Under cross-examination, Holder admitted her father had been "curt" with her in their last conversation, which she found "very unusual" and "troubling," and agreed she told police at the time that it felt like "something was wrong."

She also testified that their family was a bit dysfunctional and she was not close with her two brothers and rarely spoke to them.

Holder also agreed under cross-examination that her parents would not have been in a rush when they left St. Albert and could have stopped or stayed anywhere.

Renowned forensic anthropologist Owen Beattie testified at the trial that he had sifted through the debris of the couple’s burnt-out motorhome and found no human remains.

Court has heard Lyle McCann, 78, and his wife Marie, 77, were last seen leaving a Superstore in St. Albert on July 3, 2010.

On July 5, 2010, their motorhome was found ablaze and abandoned at a campground by Minnow Lake near Edson.

Eleven days later, the 2006 Hyundai Tucson SUV they were towing was found in a remote wooded area about 30 kilometres east of Edson.

Court heard police found blood spatter from the couple on items in the SUV as well as Vader’s DNA, blood and fingerprints.

Vader’s lawyer has accused the RCMP of suffering from "tunnel vision" in their pursuit of his 44-year-old client and said it resulted in them failing to pursue other suspects, whose names he said will be revealed during the trial.

He also told court there is no proof the McCanns are dead and said expert witnesses will raise questions about the blood, DNA and fingerprint evidence allegedly linked to Vader.