The Last Text That Never Led Home: Virgin River Actor's Final Hours

When an actor doesn’t show up for work in the entertainment industry, it’s a red flag so obvious that everyone notices. On Friday, May 16, 41-year-old Stewart McLean never arrived at his scheduled shoot for Virgin River season 7—and that absence would become the thread that unraveled everything.

According to acting coach Jeff Seymour, McLean’s final communication came the night before: a text to his agent confirming he’d be there. It was routine. Professional. The kind of message sent after what Seymour describes as a very normal day—a four-hour drive home from a work location, arriving back to Lions Bay, British Columbia, his car in the driveway. Then silence.“Everything just went dark,”Seymour told The Daily Mail on Tuesday, May 26.

What makes that silence so haunting is how unlike McLean it was. In an industry built on reliability, showing up, and keeping your word, his no-show was shocking enough to trigger alarms immediately. When his agent contacted Seymour to ask if something was wrong, that’s when reality shifted.“When I heard that he didn’t show up for that, I knew we were in serious trouble,”Seymour said.“Because, show business, you know, the show must go on, it is unheard of for an actor not to show up.”

By May 18, McLean was officially reported missing. The Squamish RCMP launched a search, but on May 21, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team took over. The case was no longer just a missing persons matter—investigators suspected homicide. Four days later, on May 22, McLean’s remains were discovered in the Lions Bay area.

Seymour’s grief is tangled with a desperate need for justice. He described McLean as“honest”and“astute,”a genuinely good person with no obvious enemies and nothing in his recent life that would inspire violence.“I want this person found, and this person put away, because this person has compromised their right to walk around among us,”Seymour told The Daily Mail. His agent, Jodi Caplan, echoed that sentiment in a statement, remembering McLean as dedicated, professional, funny, and deeply missed by the casting directors who had worked with him over more than a decade. The case remains under investigation, with authorities asking anyone with information to contact the IHIT information line at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448) or ihitinfo@rcmp–grc.gc.ca.