Police search MacKay home where Vader found

EDMONTON — Police are searching the home in MacKay Monday afternoon where fugitive Travis Vader was arrested early Monday after a three-day manhunt.

Vader, 38, was taken into custody on outstanding warrants, but police want to talk to him about the disappearance of elderly St. Albert couple Lyle and Marie McCann. He is the only person of interest in that case.

The man living in the home, Don Bulmer, told The Journal on Saturday that Vader had lived with him this spring.

Bulmer, whose property was littered with empty beer cans and broken machinery, said that when Vader moved in he was expected to get a job in the oilpatch and only be in the house for one week a month.

“But he didn’t get a job,” Bulmer said, and he said he threw Vader out about a month ago when he “stopped following the rules.”

Bulmer described Vader as a good guy prone to getting into the occasional scrap. He doesn’t believe Vader was involved in the McCanns’ disappearance. “If he did something like that, I’d be shocked,” he said. But Bulmer did say the man could be trouble.

It is not known whether Bulmer is in police custody, or whether he has been charged. Calls to RCMP were not immediately returned Monday morning.

A woman who answered the phone at a Bulmer residence near Niton Junction declined to comment.

In a news release issued shortly after 10 a.m. Monday, RCMP said tactical officers had arrested Vader on outstanding warrants unrelated to the McCann case.

Vader was wanted on a slew of unrelated charges, including careless use of a firearm, possession of stolen property and arson. After allegedly failing to appear in court in late June to answer to these charges, warrants were issued for his arrest. The hunt intensified after RCMP named him a person of interest last week in the early-July disappearance of the McCann couple.

Lyle Thomas McCann, 78, and Marie Ann McCann, 77, were last seen in early July after leaving for a trip to B.C. in their motorhome.

On July 3, Lyle was captured on video filling the motorhome with gas at the Superstore in St. Albert. It was the last time their credit card was used.

Two days later, their motorhome was discovered in flames at the Minnow Lake campground about an hour southeast of Edson. Their SUV, which they normally tow behind the motorhome, was missing. Police phoned the McCann residence, but were unable to contact them.

The McCanns were reported missing on July 10, after failing to show up for a planned meeting with their daughter in Abbotsford, B.C.

Their SUV was discovered on July 16, in the bush near Carrot Creek, about 45 minutes from the Minnow Lake campground where their motorhome was burned and less than five minutes from Niton Junction.

The couple are still missing. The RCMP have received more than 170 tips related to the case and continue to ask anyone who may have seen the McCanns’ light green Hyundai Tucson (licence plate: ZPK 289) between July 5 and 16 to call them.

The McCann family have also set up a website asking for tips in the case.