Son pleads for information on missing elderly Alberta couple

EDMONTON – A worried son blinked back tears Tuesday as he pleaded for help finding his aging parents, Marie and Lyle McCann – missing for over a week somewhere between Edmonton and the B.C. coast.

The Alberta couple was last seen buying gas near their home in St. Albert, just north of Edmonton, on July 3. Their motorhome was found in flames near Edson – 190 kilometres to the west – on July 5.

Their SUV, a light green Hyundai Tucson with the licence plate ZPK 289, is still missing and RCMP said by now they expect it could be anywhere in Western Canada.

"We really need to find this SUV. Our whole family is very hopeful that they are somewhere," said Bret McCann, the missing couple’s son, who spoke at the RCMP’s Edmonton headquarters Tuesday. "The whole family is just devastated by this."

"We love them and we want them home," said his wife Mary-Ann McCann.

Lyle and Marie, 78 and 77, were on their way to Abbotsford, B.C., to pick up their daughter for a camping holiday near Chilliwack, B.C. They haven’t used their credit card since buying gas the morning of July 3. A security camera at the gas station captured images of them leaving at 9:25 a.m.

They wouldn’t pick up hitchhikers, said their daughter-in-law. "I’ve never heard of them picking up a hitchhiker, ever. They only possibility I could visualize is (stopping for) a woman or child in distress."

One of Bret’s aunts thinks the couple talked about driving all the way through to Blue River, B.C., before stopping for the night – but the motorhome was found just a two-hour drive from Edmonton, which would be an odd place to stop for his dad, a former long-haul trucker, said Bret.

RCMP were called around 7 p.m. July 5 after a driver spotted smoke above the forest.

The motorhome wasn’t even in a camping spot, but had been driven through the small provincial campground and up a cutline for several hundred metres before being set on fire. It was isolated and out of view, said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Patrick Webb. "The trees are very close on each side."

Bret’s sister Trudy Holder reported the couple missing July 10 when they failed to pick her and her daughter up from the Abbotsford airport.

Now that RCMP know the owners are missing, Webb said, provincial fire investigators have been called in to re-examine the wreck for clues and to determine how the fire started.

Forensic officers have also been called out to search the burn scene and re-examine the motorhome, now sitting in a storage yard.

RCMP have also searched a 150-square-kilometre area around the burn with a helicopter and local search and rescue volunteers are helping out with an extensive, ongoing ground search.

Police dogs have searched the scene and RCMP have interviewed and re-interviewed those who were camping in the campground at the time, said Webb.

"We need the public’s help on this," he said.

There was a five-day delay between the time the couple’s motorhome was found and July 10, when officers started searching for the couple.

But before they got the missing person’s report, the case only involved a property crime in RCMP books, said Webb. Many vehicles get stolen and dumped every year, and it’s normal to have trouble contacting owners during the summer.

Bret said he would like to see vehicle registration linked with emergency contact information to help RCMP connect the dots quicker in the future.

But he did not criticize RCMP efforts. "Of course I’m frustrated," he said. "I’m not laying it on the RCMP."