Stewart McLean, a 45-year-old actor who most recently appeared in an episode of Virgin River, was found dead in Lions Bay days after he was reported missing, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said Friday.
McLean’s remains were discovered in Lions Bay, a community roughly 30 miles north of Vancouver, after the Squamish division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police received a missing-person report on Monday. The exact date the remains were located has not been disclosed. Police have said McLean’s death is being treated as a homicide and is believed to be an isolated incident; the BC Coroners Service is determining the cause of death.
The discovery prompted a rapid transfer of the case to IHIT. Squamish RCMP announced on Thursday that it had handed the file to the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team after investigative steps uncovered evidence suggesting McLean was the victim of homicide. IHIT said it began investigating on Wednesday and formally deployed and assumed conduct of the case on May 20. Officers are now building a timeline of McLean’s activities before May 15 by analysing physical evidence, reviewing CCTV footage and conducting interviews.
McLean had been last seen at his Lions Bay home on May 15; he was reported missing on May 18 and the Squamish RCMP opened a missing-person investigation the following day. In an update published Tuesday, police said they were very concerned for McLean’s health and well‑being. The sequence — last seen May 15, reported May 18, IHIT involvement beginning Wednesday and an announcement Friday — compressed in little more than a week.
Friends and colleagues described the discovery as shocking. A longtime acquaintance said McLean spent much of his time at home in Squamish and read often, and that his habits made the disappearance hard to explain. The acquaintance said McLean was meticulous and situationally aware, and that the family and friends are stunned by the news and eager for answers. A representative of McLean’s talent agency praised him as dedicated, professional, eager and endlessly funny, and agent Jodi Caplan said casting directors had reached out with condolences for his family.
McLean worked steadily for more than eight years and appeared in more than 30 productions, including roles in Beyond and Traveler as well as an episode of the Netflix romance series Virgin River. FilmoGaz earlier reported on McLean’s disappearance and the unfolding investigation; see our previous coverage at
The investigative picture contains a tension police have flagged but not solved: Squamish RCMP said its probes uncovered evidence pointing to homicide before the case was transferred to IHIT, yet the force also stressed the death appears isolated — a claim that raises questions about motive and opportunity. IHIT is now piecing together the hours and days before May 15 to establish who McLean saw, where he travelled and what footage or physical traces might explain how he came to be killed.
What happens next is procedural but consequential. IHIT’s timeline work, interviews and CCTV analysis will guide whether charges are laid; the BC Coroners Service’s forthcoming determination of cause will be central to that decision. For McLean’s family and for colleagues who remembered him as quietly meticulous and well liked, the immediate imperative is the same: find who was with him before May 15 and why. If the investigators can build that timeline quickly, it will determine whether this remains an isolated, unsolved killing or becomes a case that produces arrests and charges.
For now, the facts are narrow and grim: a Vancouver-area actor, last seen May 15, reported missing May 18, whose remains were located in Lions Bay and now at the center of a homicide investigation. McLean’s friends and his agency have urged patience as investigators work; they also want justice. As one friend put it, the family simply wants answers — and they want to see justice served.
