'Where are their bodies?'

Photo: The Canadian Press

Bret McCann, flanked by his wife, Mary-Ann McCann

UPDATED: 12:15 p.m.

The son of an Alberta couple missing for more than six years has demanded that his parents' convicted killer tell the family where the bodies are.

"It is very important to myself and my family that my parents' remains be located and buried properly," Bret McCann said Monday after the first day of former Summerland man Travis Vader's sentencing hearing.

"The one individual who knows where my parents are has said nothing for this whole time. Travis Vader, where are the bodies of my parents?"

Vader was found guilty in September of second-degree murder in the deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann. The verdict was later revised to manslaughter after the judge admitted he used an outdated section of the Criminal Code in his reasoning.

The McCanns, in their late 70s, disappeared after setting out from their Edmonton-area home on a trip to British Columbia in July 2010.

Their burned-out motorhome and a vehicle they had been towing were discovered in the days that followed, but their bodies have never been found. Following a lengthy trial, Justice Denny Thomas determined that Vader was a desperate drug addict who came across the couple in their RV and shot them during a robbery.

"He shows no remorse for what he has done," Bret McCann said outside court. "I want Vader to know that our family will be at this and any future hearings and we will demand to know where he put the bodies of my parents.

"Our loss is huge. Our pain is everlasting. We will never forget and I will never forgive what Travis Vader has done."

That might change if Vader revealed where the bodies are, he said.

But the nightmares will last forever.

"I have this nightmare where Vader kills one of my parents and the other one watches knowing that they are next. I can't get that vision out of my head and I know I'll have that nightmare forever."

Thomas told the hearing that Crown prosecutors are asking Vader receive two concurrent life sentences. His defence is asking for four to six years — a recommendation Bret McCann called absurd.

"He's killed two people in a robbery with a firearm, covered it up, lied about it for years. He's an obvious danger to the public," he said.

"Vader has no respect for the court process. He has zero respect for what he's done to my parents. A four-to-six year sentence, with time off, he'll be out on the street carrying on in less than a year."