Murder trial hears of meeting when man last seen

Calgarian Ryan Lane was saddened by the fact he hadn’t seen his daughter in two years, the trial of his alleged killers heard Friday.

Joanne McKay, then a family law mediator with Alberta Justice, said she dealt with a dispute between Lane and the girl’s mother, Sheena Cuthill, over the latter’s bid to get sole guardianship of the child.

McKay said she held a mediation session with the two parents on Jan. 30, 2012, a week before Lane disappeared.

“It went well, there was no hostility, they made some progress and the goal ... was to negotiate that first meeting between Ryan and (his daughter),” McKay told a four-man, eight-woman Court of Queen’s Bench jury.

“Ryan was very sad … but yes, he was engaged in the process and committed to re-establishing that relationship (with his daughter).”

McKay said as a mediator she’d see many parents sad at not having access to their children.

“The extent he was sad was uncommon to me,” she said.

Cuthill is charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder in connection with Lane’s disappearance on Feb. 7, 2012, just hours af- ter he had his first meeting with his then-four-year-old daughter in two years.

Cuthill’s husband, Timothy Rempel, and his brother, Wilhelm Rempel, face the same two charges.

It’s the Crown’s theory Cuthill had the two men kidnap and kill Lane because of the custody dispute. But under cross-examination by Cuthill’s lawyer Alain Hepner, McKay said she seemed willing to negotiate access for Lane to their daughter.

“Was Sheena equally involved in the process to let Ryan see (the girl)?” Hepner asked. “Yes,” McKay said. The couple agreed to a meeting where Lane could see his daughter at a Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant on Feb. 6, 2012, mere hours before he was last seen alive.