Quebec provincial police are searching for a three-year-old girl who vanished under mysterious circumstances after last being seen Sunday morning in Montreal.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) says the child, Claire Bell, was reported missing Sunday afternoon in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., about 50 kilometres west of where she was last seen in Montreal’s LaSalle borough.
According to authorities, the child’s mother had parked her SUV outside a store in Coteau-du-Lac around 3 p.m. and said she couldn’t find her daughter.
Police searched through the night in both LaSalle and Coteau-du-Lac and also looked in Ontario. Montreal police were asked to help with the search in LaSalle, where she was last seen at 9:45 a.m. on Newman Boulevard.
Helicopters, drones and tracking dogs were used in the search.
No amber alert issued
Authorities did not issue an Amber Alert, which is triggered when a child is abducted and in imminent danger, because the case does not meet the criteria needed, police say.
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Three criteria must be met for an Amber Alert to be issued in Quebec. First, police must believe that a child under the age of 18 has been abducted. Second, the child must be at risk of serious bodily harm or death.
The third criteria is that police must have a description of the child, the suspect, and the means of transportation used — detailed enough to believe that an alert could help locate the child.
In this case, police have a description of the child and the clothing she was wearing at the time of her disappearance, but do not have further information.
The girl is three feet tall, has brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a white long-sleeve shirt with pink on the collar and grey pants.
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The mother, who was meeting with investigators Monday, had been driving a 2007 grey Ford Escape with a “Baby on Board” sticker in the back window and the licence plate K50 FVE.
The vehicle was in police custody, but Drolet said officers were asking for the public’s help to figure out where it went between the child’s last sighting and the mother’s appearance at the store as investigators are trying to determine what happened between 9:45 a.m. and 3 p.m.
“There are many elements to corroborate,” said police spokesperson Laurie Avoine.
Police have not offered any hypotheses on what happened.
In a video posted online, the SQ asked people to be on the lookout for a long-haired chihuahua with reddish-brown fur, who might have been with the girl.
Later in the day they said a dog resembling the family’s chihuahua had been found dead near the junction of highway 20 and highway 30.
The circumstances of the disappearance “are not very clear,” police said around midday.
Officials are asking anyone who sees the girl or has information about her location to call 911. Witnesses can report tips anonymously.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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