Mother of missing Quebec toddler charged, behind bars as search for 3-year-old continues

The mother of a missing Quebec toddler has been arrested and charged as the search for the three-year-old girl continues.

Rachel-Ella Todd, 34, has been charged with one count of unlawful abandonment of a child after her daughter, Claire Bell, was reported missing Sunday.

Todd briefly appeared via video conference from a police station in Vaudreuil Tuesday wearing a red t-shirt and wrapped in a grey blanket. She looked right at the camera, nodded and seemed to understand where she was and the charge.

Crown prosecutor Lili Prévost Gravel told reporters she opposed the accused’s release due to the seriousness of the charge.

Todd, who has no criminal history, will be detained Tuesday at the Leclerc prison in Laval and she will appear again Wednesday morning to set a date for a bail hearing.

The Crown said no psych evaluation has been requested yet and not much is known about Todd’s mental state.

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The young child 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, provincial police (SQ) say.

According to the charging document, the alleged offence is said to have taken place in Quebec or Ontario on Sunday.

Authorities say 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.

The search for Bell continues.

She is described as 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.

The mother had been driving a 2007 grey Ford Escape with a “Baby on Board” sticker in the back window and the licence plate K50 FVE.

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.

The search for the missing girl is taking place in several locations in the Montérégie region, including the Coteau-du-Lac area and near Highway 30 in nearby Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., where the dog was found.

SQ spokesman Jean-Raphaël Drolet said in a social media video on Tuesday that searchers were going to focus on the Vaudreuil-Dorion area, located about 35 kilometres from the boundary with Ontario.

“It’s possible there are other areas that will be searched as well,” Drolet said. “We will move based on the information we have.”

Officials are asking anyone who sees the girl or has information about her location to call 911. Witnesses can report tips anonymously.