Witness testifies Travis Vader was driving SUV similar to McCanns'

A key Crown witness testified that in July 2010 he saw Travis Vader driving an SUV just like the one that belonged to Lyle and Marie McCann.

The elderly St. Albert couple was last seen alive on July 3, 2010. Their motorhome was burned and their Hyundai SUV was discovered hidden in bush on July 16.

Myles Ingersoll, 47, testified he dropped by a friend's house in Peers, Alta., in early July.

He planned to ask his friend, Dave Olsen, to go down to the river with him. When he pulled up the driveway, Olsen was standing outside talking to Vader.

Vader didn't stay long, he said.

"He just said he had to get going; there was too much heat around," Ingersoll said.

Ingersoll assumed Vader was nervous because there were warrants out for his arrest.

"He just seemed like, upset, or something was bothering him," Ingersoll testified. "I guess he looked like anybody would who was in trouble. Upset or, you know, maybe guilty of something, I don't know. Can't really say for sure. It's just what I felt."

Vader, witness shared drugs

The long-time drug user told the murder trial he used drugs with Vader "pretty much every time we were together."

He estimated he'd done speed with Vader "more than ten times."

He said they shared drugs "wherever we were at; my house or vehicles or whatever."

Ingersoll described Vader as "confrontational," a man who "didn't take no s**t from nobody — sure of himself."

That was in marked contrast to the way Vader appeared that day in early July at Olsen's house, he said.

"He just wanted to get out of there," Ingersoll said. "Compared to other times, he was totally different."

Ingersoll said Vader's vehicle was backed into Olsen's driveway, so he had to move his truck to allow Vader to get by. That gave him a good look at what Vader was driving.

He described it as a "smaller, SUV type, green-coloured vehicle. Like a seafoam-green kind of colour."

Ingersoll spotted a chrome emblem that was a letter 'H', along with a tow bar on the front.

Later in an interview with RCMP, Ingersoll described the SUV model as a Tucson, the same model the McCanns drove.

Vader sat shaking his head

Defence lawyer Brian Beresh tried to attack Ingersoll's credibility and version of events, beginning with the allegation they'd taken drugs together.

"My suggestion is you never did drugs with Travis Vader," Beresh said. Ingersoll insisted he did, while Vader sat in the courtroom shaking his head.

Beresh asked Ingersoll if he was stoned on the witness stand. Ingersoll said the last time he'd taken drugs was two weeks ago.

The defence lawyer also tried to get Ingersoll to admit Vader was driving a vehicle other than the "seafoam-green" SUV.

Beresh played a wiretap phone call recorded between Ingersoll and another man.

During the call recorded in August 2010, Ingersoll said, "The body was kind of the same colour, but I'm sure the bumper was black. So I don't even know if it was the vehicle. Now they want me to take a polygraph."

During cross-examination, Ingersoll said he was lying to his friend during the phone call.

"I didn't want Dwayne thinking I was involved," he explained. "I lied to him. I didn't want to have no ties with it. There's never any honour or truth in the drug world, I'll tell you that."

Ingersoll was closely monitored by RCMP while at the Edmonton courthouse.

During a break in testimony, they escorted him even to the men's washroom, before standing guard outside the door.

After his testimony, Mounties were able to get him out of the courthouse while evading the media.

janice.johnston@cbc.ca

@cbcjanjohnston