Court has now listened to several hours of recorded police interviews and wiretaps of Travis Vader's conversations while in custody.
Wednesday morning at his ongoing trial for the murder of Lyle and Marie McCann, court heard from an officer involved in his Dec. 19, 2014, arrest at a house in St. Albert's Grandin neighbourhood, before Crown prosecutor Ashley Finlayson began playing interviews given that day and the next.
Whether those statements can be admitted as evidence is the subject of a voir dire hearing which began with testimony from two officers who arrested him.
Judith Boisvert and Christian Reister testified that they executed the warrant for Vader's arrest Dec. 19, and about their contact with Vader that day and the next.
Vader was arrested, brought to the St. Albert detachment to give a statement, housed in the cells overnight, and gave another statement the next day.
Both officers described him as being coherent, if not a little out of sorts.
"He was somewhat in shock," Reister said, but noted he seemed to have a "good understanding" of what was happening.
Both said they had made no threats or offers to him during the arrest and their subsequent interactions with him at the detachment.
RCMP officer Tyrone Brand, who was present as an observer during the interview, took the witness stand while the interview was played to confirm it's accurate.
Vader was argumentative during the interview, repeatedly questioning the police on how they treated him.
"I'm under duress. You guys are harassing me," he said. "I have nothing to say to you. I'd like to speak to my lawyer and go to trial as soon as possible."
The police officers, who were not specifically identified in court proceedings, explained they were not investigators on the file, but were conducting a review. One suggested Vader's defence lawyer would have many valid questions about the Crown's case.
"There's a lot of red flags for me," he said.
Vader then began to speak about plans to have his daughter come visit over the Christmas holidays, and the effect the investigation has had on his family, questioning the timing of his arrest just days before Christmas.
"This whole thing has destroyed the family," he said. "There's no money, nothing."
Police officers offered to contact his mother and sister to help arrange the visit, and resumed talking about the investigation.
They spoke about the process Vader had been through so far, and the police officer again told Vader he didn't believe he was guilty and is looking at the evidence "without blinders," but explained that despite all the "what ifs," the evidence does seem to point to him.
"We have an investigative theory, supported by this evidence, and in the absence of an alternate theory we're going forward with this," the officer said.
There was a lengthy discussion of Vader's alibi for July 3, the day he's accused of murdering the McCanns, he said he was with Dave Olson.
"There's no way I could have been anywhere around them at that time period," Vader tells the officer.
The officer questions this, noting there's a period between roughly 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. that's not accounted for.
Vader also tells police he doesn't use drugs, and doesn't drink beer like Boxer beer – something he said a "homeless man" or someone on AISH like Olson would drink.
One thing that repeatedly came across loud and clear was Vader's frustration with the entire investigative and court process.
"I spent four (expletive) years in jail over this shit," he said. "I want to get my life in order and get back to work."
The audio from the recordings was difficult to make out in some parts. Transcripts from the interviews will not be available to the public or to media until they are formally entered as numbered exhibits in the trial or as lettered exhibits for identification, which had not happened as of the lunch break Wednesday.
Wiretaps
On Tuesday afternoon, court heard audio recordings of several phone conversations and jail-cell conversations police intercepted from the Red Deer Remand Centre.
The audio had bad sound quality and was, in some cases, indecipherable. As they have not yet been entered as exhibits, the recordings and transcripts of the wiretaps are not available to media or the public.
Several elements of the recordings could, however, be made out more easily.
On July 30, 2010, Vader phoned someone named Mike from the Edmonton Remand Centre, and discussed what mutual friend "Bandana Dave" Olson told police.
"Bandana Dave straight up puts it on you," the man identified as Mike tells Vader.
Vader talks about his alibi, visiting family and asks Mike to contact a few mutual friends. Vader then speaks briefly with an unidentified woman he sounds to be romantically involved with.
Three recordings intercepted from within a cell at the Red Deer Remand Centre in August and September 2011 are likewise difficult to interpret, but in one Vader is clearly heard explaining a process to burn vehicles that involves putting plastic bottles full of fuel around a truck.
"That way you can guarantee that shit blows up," he says in the recording.
Finally, an Oct. 14, 2011, recording of a phone call Vader made to his sister Bobbi Jo was played. In it, Vader first chastises her for what she told police.
The phone is briefly passed to Vader's mother, who calms him down somewhat, then he speaks to Bobbi Jo again, still frustrated.
"This is very, very serious," he said. "This is my life. The rest of my life."
He explained he came to visit her in early July, which previous testimony has confirmed, because he was sick but he thought it was July 3 not July 4.
"I don't have an alibi for where I was on the third," he told her.
"I did say I was not sure of the time. I said it was dark," she replied.
Finlayson has said those wiretap recordings may be entered into evidence on Friday, at which point their contents may become more clear.
Wednesday afternoon was scheduled to be taken up entirely by more recorded interviews Vader gave to police, and arguments about whether Bobbi Jo Vader's interviews can be admitted as evidence are now scheduled for Friday morning.
