Statue unveiled in Edmonton-area community in memory of slain couple

ST. ALBERT, Alta. — A sculpture has been unveiled in memory of an elderly couple who were slain by a drug user on the run from police.

Lyle and Marie McCann, who were both in their late 70s, vanished after setting out from St. Albert, a city north of Edmonton, on a camping trip in 2010.

Their bodies were never found but Travis Vader was convicted last year of manslaughter in their killings and sentenced to life with no chance of parole for seven years.

On the weekend, the City of St. Albert unveiled a sculpture called “Darling” — the name the couple called each other — of two bronze loons, their favourite animal.

It is located in a park near where they used to live, and was paid for by reward money the community had raised to help find the killer, which the McCann family later donated to the city’s Art in Public Spaces program.

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Members of the McCann family attended the unveiling.

“It just evokes them to me. … They’re together, and they’re enjoying life and they’re sort of taking off,” said their son Bret McCann.

“The community has been saddened by the loss of the McCanns as friends and neighbours,” said St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse. “This artwork is a fitting way to honour and respect them as individuals and as a St. Albert family.”

“It’s a milestone,” McCann said. “We are turning the page and we are moving on to the next chapter.”

The sculpture will be permanently installed in the spring of 2018.

(CTV Edmonton)

The Canadian Press