Nearly six years after a Wetaskiwin woman disappeared without a trace, her loved ones are still waiting for answers.
Stan Cross, 49, has now been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 39-year-old Twyla Evans. She was last seen alive on the evening of Sept. 6, 2019, according to information released by the RCMP at the time of her disappearance.
Evans’s remains have never been found despite what police describe as “exhaustive” efforts.
“Investigators, however, continued to pursue all available leads, and recent developments led to the arrest of Stan Cross,” Alberta RCMP said in a statement last month.
RCMP say they continue to work to “bring Twyla home,” but her friend Kelly Campbell told CBC News it’s already been a long road to see the investigation progress.
“I don’t personally understand what took six years,” she said.
Campbell said she hasn’t heard Cross’s name before, and she’s not sure who he is or how he might have known Evans.
The day Evans went missing, she was heading out to go see a movie, but it wasn’t clear whether she actually attended, according to police.
Her green Jeep Compass was found the next day, parked near a grocery store on the south end of Wetaskiwin, about 70 kilometres south of Edmonton.
“There is a general concern for Twyla’s well-being,” RCMP said in a 2019 statement requesting tips on her whereabouts.
There were no further public updates until June 21, 2019, when Mounties announced an arrest in the case, which was investigated by the historical homicide unit.
Insp. John Spaans with the Wetaskiwin RCMP said in a statement that it was “a particularly heartbreaking case due to the significant vulnerabilities the victim faced in her daily life.”
Campbell said that’s not how she remembers her friend, who loved driving her Jeep and planning outings with her son — he was a teenager when she went missing.
Evans and Campbell saw each other for the last time about two and a half years before Evans disappeared, when Campbell took her up on an offer to go see Canadian rock band USS play a show in Edmonton.
“Even though the report said ‘vulnerable person,’ she’s not what we would think of when you hear those terms. She was a regular, average person living her life, paying her bills, doing things she liked — like going to the concerts,” Campbell said.
“She did not live her life as a vulnerable person.”
Evans had been experiencing some mental health challenges she was working through, Campbell said. She added her friend had also struggled in the years leading up to her disappearance when she unexpectedly found herself out of a job.
But hearing Evans was missing was terrifying, Campbell said, and a shock for her community.
“I want people to know that she was a loving mom, and that Twyla did care for the people around her.”
Cross is due to appear in court in Wetaskiwin on July 15.
