Surveillance video showing a missing British Columbia couple at an Oregon gas station marks the latest development in the search for Albert and Rita Chretien, who disappeared last month on their way to Las Vegas.
A credit card belonging to the Penticton couple was last used at a gas station in Baker City, about 750 kilometres south of the Canadian border, on March 19.
RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk says the gas bar's surveillance video confirms the couple was there and marks the last time they were seen. The card hasn't been used since, and the couple's cellphone and bank account haven't been used since they left home.
On Monday, Moskaluk told CTV News Channel that the RCMP has eight investigators working on the case and has received several tips. There is no evidence of foul play in the couple's disappearance, Moskaluk said, adding he hopes new evidence surfaces that reveals their whereabouts after March 19.
He says two RCMP officers -- in collaboration with their counterparts south of the border -- will now canvass the Baker City area and the main highways leading toward Las Vegas.
Both Chretiens are Caucasian; Albert is 59 years old and Rita is 56. They were travelling in a light brown, 2000 Chevrolet Astro minivan with the B.C. licence plate number 212 CAV.
The couple runs an excavation business in Penticton and left home to travel to a trade show on March 19, the same day the video was taken. The Chretiens entered the United States at the Osoyoos, B.C-Oroville, Wash. crossing.
Their children reported them missing last week when they didn't return home on the day they were expected.
"They're not like the type to just flit off and decide, ‘Oh we're not going to do this, we're going to do something else without telling anybody,'" said Jennifer Chretien, the couple's daughter. "They wouldn't make anyone worry that way."
While the case sounds similar to that of Albertans Lyle and Marie McCann, who went missing last July on their way to B.C., Moskaluk says there is no connection between the two cases.
