Travis Vader charges stayed in McCann murder case
The lawyer for Travis Vader, who was accused of murdering Lyle and Marie McCann, a couple from St. Albert, Alta., who went missing four years ago and have never been found, called the case against his client shoddy and a rush to judgment after charges were stayed Wednesday.
"My professional assessment is there was not now or never was a realistic or serious chance of any conviction," said Brian Beresh.
Vader was declared a person of interest days after the McCanns disappeared, but it took nearly two years to lay charges.
Beresh called the investigation a rush to judgment.
"It was shoddily gathered and it was a bunch of strings that was never tied together," he said. "The real problem became, I think, in terms of who was organizing this whole investigation."
Vader, 41, was in Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench for two pretrial applications in the case when the Crown made the announcement that two charges of first-degree murder were being stayed.
"We had no notice that a stay of proceedings — which means in our view the end of these proceedings — to come when we were set for a full day," Beresh said.
A stay in proceedings essentially puts the charges on hold and halts the prosecution, although the charges can be resurrected within one year.
Crown prosecutor Michelle Doyle refused to make any comment on why the charges were stayed.
A spokesperson would only say police brought forward additional information.
Earlier this year, Vader filed a lawsuit against the RCMP for carrying out a fraudulent scheme to keep him in jail until he could be charged in the McCann case.
In lawsuit documents obtained by CBC News, Vader claims the RCMP used an agent to provide a fraudulent letter of employment to him when he was seeking bail from jail in early 2012 on charges of theft of property, driving and weapons offences, which were unrelated to the McCann case.
After Vader’s lawyer entered the employment letter into court, the RCMP charged him with four criminal charges, including obstruction of justice and uttering a forged document.
The Crown prosecutor later dropped those four charges without explanation, but in the meantime charged him with the McCann murders in May 2012.
Last year, the Crown decided to skip a preliminary hearing for Vader and proceed through direct indictment to trial.
The two-week trial was scheduled to begin in April.
The McCanns were last seen on July 3, 2010, on the first day of a road trip to British Columbia. Their burned out motorhome was found two days later in the bush near Edson, Alta.
