The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have turned an initial missing person case involving Canadian TV actor Stewart McLean into a homicide investigation.
“Squamish RCMP initiated an investigation and, through investigative efforts, uncovered evidence that led investigators to believe Mr. McLean was the victim of a homicide,” Canada’s Mounties said in a May 21 press release.
“On May 20, IHIT (Integrated Homicide Investigation Team) deployed and assumed conduct of the investigation. Squamish RCMP continues to work closely with IHIT and the Integrated Forensic Identification Service (IFIS) to advance the investigation,” the statement added of the escalated probe into a possible killing.
On May 19, the RCMP first sought public assistance in locating McLean, 45 years of age, after he was reported missing a day earlier and was last seen on May 15 at his home in Lions Bay, a community in British Columbia’s Sea-to-Sky region. Lions Bays Search and Rescue led the initial search for McLean as a missing person, only to be superseded by the IHIT investigators active in RCMP regions in the province’s lower mainland.
Lions Bay is near Vancouver, where McLean is often on film and TV sets for local Hollywood production shoots. His credits include a season seven episode of Netflix‘s Virgin River, a second season episode of the Fox crime drama Murder in a Small Town, in the Paramount+ true crime series Happy Face, and the Lifetime TV movie The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story.
His earlier TV credits include a second season appearance in The CW’s Arrow, the Netflix series Travelers and the Freeform TV series Beyond.