The Virgin River star who vanished in Canada last week had been filming a new project and had a long drive home just hours before he disappeared, a close friend has revealed.

Stewart McLean was found dead in Lions Bay, near Vancouver, last Friday, roughly one week after he vanished from his home.

McLean, 45, was last seen on May 15 after working a film shoot in Merritt, Canada, his acting coach and longtime friend Jeff Seymour told the Daily Mail.

'He had a very normal day from what I understood,' Seymour said of his friend's last known whereabouts.

'He had a four-hour drive home and he left at around seven. He arrived home that night, [his] car [was] in the driveway. The last communication came from his phone that evening, and then everything just went dark.'

But Seymour said he instantly knew that 'something horrible had happened' to McLean after he failed to turn up for a scheduled shoot for a short, independent film on May 16.

Seymour said he was among the first people in McLean's inner circle called by the actor's agent after he missed the shoot. 

'He had confirmed he would be there the next day [on] Friday when he was last heard from,' the acting coach said.

'When I heard that he didn't show up for that, I knew we were in serious trouble. Because, show business, you know, the show must go on, it is unheard of for an actor not to show up.'

McLean was reported missing on May 18. He lived with a roommate who had been out of town the night of his disappearance, according to Seymour. 

His remains were found last Friday after Lions Bay Search and Rescue conducted a search of seven areas across the area, police said. 

Canadian police are investigating the Virgin River star's death as a homicide. No charges have been filed. 

Seymour told the Daily Mail that McLean's body was found in the 'picturesque' mountains behind his home. 

Although he lived in a rural area, McLean had neighbors whom the acting coach claims are close enough to have made noise complaints in the past.

Seymour said that the actor's family and friends first feared McLean had fallen or injured himself near his home.

The Daily Mail has not been able to independently verify Seymour's account as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has declined to comment on the claims.

Seymour, who has hiked with McLean in those very mountains, said it is unlikely that the actor would have fallen or gotten lost in the woods.

'I thought there was a greater chance something horrible had happened to him than he had fallen down. The fallen down part was a stretch for me,' he explained, citing 'other facts' surrounding McLean's disappearance.

'He had not slept in his bed that night. So I thought, "okay, well then what? He didn't sleep in his bed. He went on a hike at one in the morning or something."'

He recalled how he and McLean's loved ones initially feared abduction and were even hoping for some sort of Hollywood miracle.

'You know, I even wanted to buy into the delirium. They thought maybe he hit his head and I thought of amnesia. I was asking my friends, "is that a real thing? Could that be?"

'I think there's all these other thoughts of what could possibly, but you always seem to come back to, "no, I think this is going to have a bad ending."'

He added that McLean was 'very situationally aware' and not someone who could be easily 'conned.'

'For him to have picked up a hitchhiker or someone to ambush him or something, you know, he's very aware.

'He's not easily fooled. So when all this happened, I thought, "wow, how did somebody get the jump on Stew?" He was a loner. He stuck to himself, you know? So, all of these things are quite a mystery.'

Seymour and McLean have been friends for eight years after the Canadian had attended one of the acting coach's classes.

He saw the Murder in a Small Town star just last month in Los Angeles while they collaborated on a project written and directed by Seymour.

Seymour is devastated by his friend's tragic passing and is hoping that police soon capture whoever is responsible for his death. 

'This is, I think, the worst scenario - where someone is so arrogant that they think that it's within their right to just end another person's existence on this earth. I find that so reprehensibly arrogant. 

'You just decide that that's it for this fella. It's amazing when you're faced with it, how incredibly offensive that is.'

He added: 'We live in a society where laws are important and, you know, that the people that do these types of things can't go unpunished. Of course, I want this person found, and this person put away, because this person has compromised their right to walk around among us.

'From what I know, there's nothing that Stew has been doing in his recent life that even would remotely make somebody angry, and I feel I know him pretty well. 

'He's a good guy, so I think this is more um, a troubled person who did this, a desperate person.'

Seymour went on to pay tribute to McLean, hailing his 'honesty' and desire to be a 'good influence.' 

He told the Daily Mail: 'Stew was a really great guy. I've never seen [him] be vindictive. He was so honest. His self-reflection was so astute when he would tell me about things that he's done in the past. His self-assessment was always so keen, you know, that's what I respected - his honesty.' 

The actor's most recent TV appearance was in a 2026 episode of the Netflix drama Virgin River, in which he played a minor character credited as 'Barfly'.

His screen credits also include a second-season episode of the Fox crime drama Murder in a Small Town and the Lifetime TV movie The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story.

McLean has also worked as a producer and appeared in other well-known television series, including Supernatural and The 100.

In addition to his filmmaking projects, the actor reportedly had a side gig with a Canadian mining company. 

Seymour recalled how McLean would go away on oil rigs and spend up to six weeks at a time in the wilderness working with the company.

He had recently received a promotion with the firm, the friend said, and was supposed to go out on another job on May 19.

Rescuers began searching for McLean across the Lions Bay area on May 20, utilizing ground searchers and drone operations for cliff and complex terrain assessment.

The Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue was called in to conduct shoreline and waterline searches, according to the Lions Bay Search and Rescue.

RCMP confirmed in a May 21 press release that they were transitioning McLean's missing person investigation to the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT).

'Squamish RCMP initiated an investigation and, through investigative efforts, uncovered evidence that led investigators to believe Mr McLean was the victim of a homicide,' the statement read.

The following day, IHIT issued a media release announcing its discovery of McLean's mortal remains in the Lions Bay area.

As news of the murder investigation broke, McLean's sister Kat confirmed his death in a heartbreaking Facebook post.

She wrote: 'It is with great sadness that we share the loss of our dear younger brother, Stew. He was genuine, honest, caring, and funny as heck. We will miss him incredibly.'

The star's other siblings, Laura Ferguson and Cam McLean, have not publicly commented on the tragedy. 

The Daily Mail has approached Kat, Laura and Cam for comment.