{"id":662236,"date":"2026-05-24T12:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/662236\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T12:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:10:12","slug":"stewart-mcleans-friend-knew-there-was-big-trouble-several-days-before-virgin-river-star-was-found-dead-at-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/662236\/","title":{"rendered":"Stewart McLean&#8217;s friend &#8216;knew there was big trouble&#8217; several days before \u201cVirgin River\u201d star was found dead at 45"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Key points<\/p>\n<p>Stewart McLean&#8217;s friend Jeff Seymour said he &#8220;knew there was big trouble&#8221; several days before the Virgin River star was found dead at 45.<\/p>\n<p>Seymour was suspicious because McLean didn&#8217;t show up to a scheduled day of filming: &#8220;He was meticulous about everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Police announced that McLean&#8217;s case was being treated as a homicide investigation on May 21.<\/p>\n<p>Stewart McLean was <a data-ylk=\"slk:found dead;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aol.com\/lifestyle\/missing-virgin-river-actor-stewart-023459163.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">found dead<\/a> on Friday \u2014 and one of his friends suspected something was wrong several days before.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Seymour, an actor and acting coach who said he became &#8220;fast friends&#8221; with the late Virgin River star eight years ago, said McLean missed a scheduled day of filming last week, which was extremely out of character for him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was meticulous about everything, and there would be no chance he blew it off or slept too late,&#8221; Seymour told <a data-ylk=\"slk:The Canadian Press;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadianpressnews.ca\/entertainment\/remains-of-missing-b-c-actor-stewart-mclean-found-homicide-police-say\/article_aa70da9c-5cbe-5590-b982-9ea43ffd310b.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">The Canadian Press<\/a> on Friday. &#8220;As soon as I heard he didn&#8217;t make it on Saturday morning, I knew there was big trouble.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Stewart McLeanCredit: Lions Bay Search and Rescue\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_entertainment_weekly_articles_368\/2b61bda0fb7c6ecaaa18f5c01ce0ad6c.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Stewart McLean<br \/>Credit: Lions Bay Search and Rescue<\/p>\n<p>McLean was reported missing on May 18, three days after he was last seen at his home in Lions Bay, British Columbia. The Squamish Royal Canadian Mounted Police <a data-ylk=\"slk:said they were;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/rcmp.ca\/en\/bc\/squamish\/news\/2026\/05\/4353237\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">said they were<\/a> &#8220;very concerned for Stewart&#8217;s health and well-being&#8221; before <a data-ylk=\"slk:announcing;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/missing-virgin-river-actor-case-now-homicide-investigation-11982553\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">announcing<\/a> that his case was being treated as a homicide investigation on May 21.<\/p>\n<p>Canada&#8217;s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team then announced that McLean&#8217;s remains had been located in Lions Bay on May 22, <a data-ylk=\"slk:PEOPLE;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/missing-actor-stewart-mclean-found-dead-amid-homicide-investigation-11982874\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">PEOPLE<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Stewart McLeanCredit: RCMP\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_entertainment_weekly_articles_368\/5ebed1d96ba9538346d50c6d0ded3968.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Stewart McLean<br \/>Credit: RCMP<\/p>\n<p>In his interview with The Canadian Press, Seymour said that McLean, who played a barfly in a season 7 episode of Virgin River, visited him in Los Angeles last month. &#8220;It was really a wonderful week, and then I heard this,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s so hard to comprehend when something like this happens. It just doesn&#8217;t make any sense. He was incredibly situationally aware.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Seymour added that he doesn&#8217;t understand how his late friend could have been murdered. &#8220;For the life of me, I don&#8217;t know how anybody could get the drop on Stew,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The acting coach added that the full weight of his friend&#8217;s death has yet to sink in. &#8220;It&#8217;s so crushing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;ll suddenly think, &#8216;Ah, Stu,&#8217; and I realize I can&#8217;t call him now. Everybody loved this guy. It wasn&#8217;t like he was in nefarious activities or, you know, kind of ran with another crowd. I mean, he was a bit of a loner. He spent a lot of time reading and being at his home out there in Squamish.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our<a data-ylk=\"slk:EW Dispatch newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/ew-dispatch-newsletter-11812417\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">EW Dispatch newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Seymour called McLean&#8217;s death a &#8220;shocker,&#8221; adding, &#8220;I would love to see justice served.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In addition to his role on Virgin River, McLean appeared in episodes of several CW shows, including Arrow, Supernatural, and The 100.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on <a data-ylk=\"slk:Entertainment Weekly;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/stewart-mclean-friend-suspected-trouble-before-virgin-river-actor-found-dead-11982971\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key points Stewart McLean&#8217;s friend Jeff Seymour said he &#8220;knew there was big trouble&#8221; several days before the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,46485,289827,284080,219],"class_list":["post-662236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-homicide-investigation","tag-jeff-seymour","tag-stewart-mclean","tag-virgin-river"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}