Travis Vader eligible for unescorted temporary absences next month: Parole Board

EDMONTON — A man sentenced to life in prison last month for killing two missing Alberta seniors will be eligible for unescorted temporary absences on March 13.

Travis Vader was convicted on Jan. 25 of two counts of manslaughter in the deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann, who disappeared in 2010 after leaving their Edmonton-area home to go camping in British Columbia.

The Parole Board of Canada says Vader has not applied for unescorted temporary absences and such applications can take about five months to process.

The board would consider sentencing comments made by the judge, a report from the Correctional Service of Canada and a review of Vader’s criminal record.

The McCann family would also have the right to submit a statement to the parole board about how the crime has affected them.

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Gary Sears, a parole board spokesman, says the main consideration in any parole application is public safety.

“Is it safe for that individual to be in the community and is it beneficial for that individual to be in the community?,” Sears said Wednesday.

Vader’s sentence included no parole eligibility for seven years, but the time is calculated based on the date of arrest on the charges.

The parole board says he is eligible for day parole on Sept. 13, 2019, and for full parole on March 13, 2020.

The time Vader has spent in custody on the case is complicated.

He was arrested on outstanding charges when the McCanns disappeared, but was not charged in their deaths until 2012. The Crown stayed murder charges before a trial in 2014, then reactivated them months later.

Vader has filed an appeal of his manslaughter conviction.

The appeal notice says Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Denny Thomas made a mistake when he refused to stay the charges because of an unreasonable delay in getting to trial.

The motion further claims that the judge failed to find that Vader’s rights were violated while he was in custody.

Thomas determined at trial that Vader was a desperate drug addict who came across the McCanns and killed them during a robbery west of Edmonton.

He then burned their motorhome and disposed of their bodies in the wilderness, the judge said.

The couple’s remains have never been found.

The Canadian Press