Lyle and Marie Ann McCann of St. Albert, Alta., were reported missing on July 10.
Faced with the mysterious disappearance of an elderly couple who haven't spoken to family, made a cell phone call or used a bank card in more than a week, RCMP have intensified a search one critic says should have started five days earlier.
Edmonton-area residents Lyle McCann, 78, and Marie Ann McCann, 77, were reported missing on Saturday when they failed to pick up their daughter and granddaughter at the airport in Abbotsford, B.C.
Five days earlier, RCMP had been called to the scene after a passerby found the couple's burning motor home 900 kilometres away in Edson, Alta., but did not notify the family. Only on Saturday, after the couple was reported missing, did RCMP return to the scene of the fire to begin a full-scale investigation.
They're now searching for witnesses who might have seen the couple or their Hyundai SUV. But one expert said the RCMP should have acted sooner, saying evidence has long since been lost at the scene of the fire.
"It's either lazy investigation, dumb investigation, or a combination of both, but they dropped the ball," said Bill Pitt, a former RCMP officer who teaches criminology at Edmonton's Grant MacEwan University. "Five precious days have been lost. The dots were aligned early, they should have been connected early, and they weren't. I fear the worst on this one."
RCMP are investigating their own conduct in the matter. Sergeant Patrick Webb, an Alberta RCMP spokesman, said the initial call, of a burning vehicle, is relatively common. But when paired with the disappearance, he said, it becomes "highly suspicious."
"Was there some fault? Maybe there was, maybe there wasn't. We don't know until we look at it. There is time here from the fifth [of July]to the 10th when maybe - and I'm only saying maybe - if things were done differently, maybe we could have done better," Sgt. Webb said. "Nobody is perfect."
Bret McCann, 55, last saw his parents on the evening of July 2, the day before they were to leave on a trip to visit three generations of family. Nothing was amiss that night - the men played billiards, with the elder McCann winning, as was often the case. The couple were excited about their trip, planning to drive their large motor home and tow their Hyundai Tucson SUV.
"They loved to travel. This motor home, this was my dad's pride and joy," Bret McCann said Tuesday, adding his parents were "very vigorous, very healthy" and knew the roads well.
The couple, married in 1952, left the next morning and took their cellphone with them. They likely had it turned off as Mr. McCann was "old school" and used it rarely, his son said. They planned on driving straight through to a campground in Blue River, B.C., about 570 kilometres west of their home.
Two days later, on July 5, their motor home was found burning in a clearing near a campground about 30 kilometres from Edson, about 150 kilometres west of their home in St. Albert. One of the people who discovered it pulled registration documents from inside the vehicle before it was engulfed and destroyed by fire, police said. The documents identified the owners as the McCanns.
The burned-out shell of the motor home remains in RCMP hands, and officers from the Edson detachment tried calling the McCanns. When they received no answer, they asked St. Albert RCMP to knock on the door of the McCann home.
RCMP supervisors don't yet know if anyone did that, Sgt. Webb said Tuesday.
On July 10, their family reported the McCanns missing when they didn't arrive in Abbotsford. Only then did they learn about the destroyed motor home. Police have pulled cellphone records and bank records, and neither show any activity since July 5, Sgt. Webb said.
Family members wish they had been called, but were careful not to criticize the RCMP.
"In my opinion, there should be some relationship between vehicle registry and an emergency contact. Apparently, there is not," Bret McCann said. "Right now, I have full confidence in the police."
Sgt. Webb said "the clock is ticking" on the case, with search crews and a helicopter combing the Edson area.
"Our whole family is just devastated by this," Mr. McCann said. Asked what he might say to his parents if given the chance, he took a long pause while his wife rubbed his back gently.
"We love you," Mr. McCann said, his voice breaking. "We're looking as hard as we can."