Police charge friend of Alberta teen sweethearts with their killings

A 19-year-old man chargedin the shooting deaths of high-school sweetheartsCory Grey and DylanLaboucanwas a longtime friend ofLaboucan'swho expressed concern when the teens went missing in July from their northern Alberta home.

EdwardDevinBoyceGladue,fromWhitefish Lake First Nation,faces two counts of second-degree murder,RCMPsaid Friday.Gladuewas arrested in Peace River on Thursday without incident.

"When we found out it was Edward, I was reallyupset, because this was somebody that we trusted," Becky Thunder,Laboucan'smother, said Friday evening.

Laboucan, 17, and Grey, 19, disappeared on the evening of July 23 from the trailer where they lived with his parents. A community member foundLaboucan'sbody on July 25. Grey's body was discovered the next day. Both were found on well-sites on the reserve and had been shot to death.

Thunder saidGladuecalled her when her son went missing. She said he was in tears, and told her he was scared. She thought he was concerned for his friend.

The next day he came to theLaboucans'house. Thunder said she asked him if he had seen Dylan or Cory the day they went missing, and he said he hadn't.

"He had the nerve to come to my residence and deny everything," she said.

The family said that before the couple went missing they hadn't seen much ofGladue.

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Thunder said friends of her son have told herGladuewas "obsessed" withLaboucan'sgirlfriend and was jealous of his success, especially with the couple about to move away to attend college.

"Edward had nothing going for him. He was a dropout," Thunder said.

Thunder said the two boys were longtime friends and cousins who went to school together from a young age.

Gladuegrew up just down the street from theLaboucanfamily on the Whitefish Lake First Nation, north of Slave Lake.

Police say murders not random

Gladuewas arrested after an intensive investigation lasting nearly two weeksinvolvingthe use of specialized units within theRCMPas well as members from the High PrairieRCMPdetachment, police said.

Police don't think the killings were a random act, and they don't believe any other suspects were involved.

Gladueis scheduled to appear in provincial court in High Prairie,Alta., on Monday.

RCMPsaid they won't be providing any other details or comments on the case.