Police look for link between acreage fire, couple’s disappearance

EDMONTON — Police are attempting to determine whether an acreage fire north of Niton Junction is connected to the disappearance of St. Albert residents Lyle and Marie McCann.

On July 12 — two days after the couple was reported missing — a fire in Niton Junction, not far from where their motorhome was discovered, destroyed a log home, four outbuildings and several vehicles.

By the time fire crews arrived on scene 160 kilometres west of Edmonton that morning, all of the buildings were engulfed in flames and couldn’t be saved.

RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb said Saturday the fire is of interest because it is close to the places where the McCanns’ burnt-out motorhome and their abandoned SUV were found, and also because of the timing.

“It’s considered suspicious, but beyond the geographic connection, and the fire, there’s nothing to connect it,” Webb said.

There was no sign of police at the scene of the fire Saturday. There were at least three separate burn sites, but the grass in between each was untouched by fire.

Police on Friday said 38-year-old accused arsonist Travis Edward Vader is a person of interest in the case, and they are looking to speak with him.

Vader, who grew up in the area around MacKay, Peers and Niton Junction, is well-known to police and has a long criminal record with 12 separate sets of charges dating back to 1995.

He is wanted in connection with at least 17 drug, gun, theft and arson charges stemming from two separate incidents, one near Evansburg in August last year and another in December near Barrhead.

Vader is accused of burning his own property on Dec. 8, 2009, in a manner that threatened someone else or their property.

It’s not the first time Vader’s life has been touched by fire. In November 2004, his family’s home in Niton Junction was destroyed, leaving his seven children and their mother, Victoria Vader, homeless.

“I’m looking at this as a sign that now my marriage is over, this is a new beginning for us,” Victoria Vader told The Journal at the time. She and her then-husband had recently separated, she said.

Eighteen-year-old Chad Vader, who was 13 when his family’s home was burned, said Friday his mother and Travis — his stepfather — reconciled after the house burned down, but that they suspected Travis set the fire. No charges were ever laid.

On Saturday, Chad said his stepfather moved out of the family’s home in Summerland, B.C., in the summer of 2008, and that he hasn’t heard from him since the spring of 2009.

Since then, Chad Vader said his stepfather has been living in hotels and possibly in his fifth wheel, which was at one time parked on land belonging to Travis Vader’s parents, near MacKay. He said he believes his stepfather’s truck was repossessed.

Lyle McCann, 78, and his wife, Marie McCann, 77, disappeared while on their way to a campground in Chilliwack, B.C., where they planned to meet their daughter.

They were last seen at 9:25 a.m. July 3, when surveillance cameras captured them buying gas at the St. Albert Superstore Gas station. Their credit card hasn’t been used since.

Two days later, on July 5, a driver saw smoke rising above the trees near the Minnow Lake campground southeast of Edson. When fire crews arrived, they found the motorhome engulfed in flames.

On July 10, the McCanns failed to meet their daughter in Abbotsford, and she reported them missing.

Police have since been searching for the missing couple around Edson, where their trailer and SUV were found.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Patrick Webb said Saturday that Travis Vader was a person of interest even before the SUV was found Friday.

He said more than 20 investigators are following up on more than 150 tips — some of which have to do with Vader’s whereabouts. Police are also still combing the locations where the vehicles were found.

On Saturday afternoon, the RCMP had Range Road 144 blocked off at Highway 16, near where the McCanns’ SUV was found. About six people, all wearing neon yellow safety jackets, were observed walking in double file down the road, probing the tall grass with poles.

Further down the highway, three ATVs, two with police lights flashing, inched through the grass along the side of the road. The woman driving the third vehicle had a yellow search and rescue jacket bunched up beneath the handlebars. An officer at the scene would not indicate the subject of the search.

Police are warning the public not to approach Vader, who is six-foot-two and approximately 230 pounds with hazel eyes.