The man charged in the deaths of an elderly St. Albert couple will go straight to trial.
Crown prosecutors have decided not to go ahead with a scheduled preliminary hearing for Travis Vader. Instead, his case will go directly to trial.
They offered no immediate reason for the decision.
Vader is charged with two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann.
He was charged in 2012 while serving time at the Edmonton Remand Centre on unrelated matters.
The couple from St. Albert vanished in July of 2010. Mounties said they believed the McCanns had been murdered, even though their bodies have never been found.
Two days after they disappeared, their burned out motorhome was found at the Minnow Lake campground east of Edmonton and the vehicle they were towing was found abandoned several kilometres away near Carrot Creek.
No date has been announced for when Vader will go to trial.
