Judge rules murder trial in case of missing Alberta couple will go ahead

EDMONTON — A judge has ruled that charges against an accused in the mysterious deaths of two Alberta seniors will stand even though the RCMP made serious mistakes and prosecutors didn’t get the suspect to trial quickly. Justice Denny Thomas said Tuesday that lawyers for Travis Vader failed to prove the case should be dropped because it didn’t get to trial in a reasonable time. He also dismissed an alleged abuse of process, which the defence argued occurred when Mounties didn’t initially disclose all the evidence against Vader to lawyers. Vader was charged in 2012 with first-degree murder in the deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann. The McCanns, in their late 70s, were last seen fuelling up their motorhome two years earlier in their hometown of St. Albert, just north of Edmonton. Their bodies have never been found. The charges against Vader were stayed days before a trial in 2014, but were reactivated by the Crown nine months later. A trial is now set to begin March 8.