Mounties in Alberta say a man who was on the lam has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder after a husband and wife died in a targeted shooting on a northern rural road.
Cpl. Troy Savinkoff says Grande Prairie RCMP received a call for an active shooting early Saturday near the intersection of Range Road 35 and Township Road 730.
Savinkoff says David Lagace, who was 54, and his wife, Michelle, who was 44, were found dead next to their car, and their alleged killer was nowhere in sight.
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The spokesman says investigators quickly identified a suspect named 42-year-old Curtis Phillip Halladay.
The RCMP spokesman says he can’t provide more details on how Halladay was identified, but he was well known to the couple.
The suspect was found and taken into custody just after 1 p.m. on the same day of the shooting in the town of McLennan, northeast of Grand Prairie.
“(The couple) had been driving (before) the shooting and it was at that Range Road 35, Township Road 730 location, very, very near that location, where the shooting occurred,” Savinkoff said in a Sunday interview.
Savinkoff said while investigators searched for Halladay, an alert notifying the nearby public to keep an eye out for an armed man remained in place until his arrest.
“As the investigation unfolded, we not only had a suspect, but we also had a concern that, (because) he had just committed these really atrocious crimes, he had access to weapons,” Savinkoff said.
Mounties said in a news release Sunday their thoughts go out to the family and friends of the victims.
Halladay is set to appear in court Jan. 8.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
