A nerve‑racking four‑day hunt for a missing three‑year‑old girl from Quebec ended in remarkable relief on Wednesday when police located her alive in Ontario on the side of a highway.
The young girl was reported missing by her mother, 34-year-old Rachel-Ella Todd, on Sunday afternoon in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., about 50 kilometres west of where she had last been seen in a suburb of Montreal.
Police are now asking the public to stop sharing the name and photo of the three-year-old. They say the girl has been through a difficult ordeal and needs to regain her anonymity as she grows up.
Circumstances around her disappearance were “not very clear,” authorities told reporters earlier this week, shortly before the girl’s mother was arrested and charged with unlawful abandonment of a child.
The disappearance kicked off a massive search effort that included multiple police forces, helicopters, drones, search-and-rescue volunteer teams, officers on horseback and K-9 units.
Search efforts began near the child’s home and the store where she was reported missing, before shifting to new areas as officers and the public pieced together Todd’s movements on Sunday.
Search parties of more than 250 people combed fields, roads and forests in the days that followed.
Then, in a stunning turn on Wednesday afternoon, the toddler was spotted sitting alone in the ditch along the side of an Ontario highway by an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) drone.
How the child survived four days and three nights alone in rural Ontario in the heat and extreme humidity remains astonishing to authorities, calling it nothing short of a miracle.
Here’s a closer look at what happened.
Police focus on the mother's whereabouts
Todd and her daughter had last been seen around 9:45 a.m. Sunday on Newman Boulevard in Montreal’s LaSalle borough.
Their whereabouts were unaccounted for until the child’s mother parked her SUV outside a store in Coteau-du-Lac — a small city in southwestern Quebec, around 3 p.m.
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Authorities said Todd went inside the shop and told staff she couldn’t find her daughter.
Todd had been driving a 2007 grey Ford Escape with a “Baby on Board” sticker in the back window and the licence plate K50 FVE.
Authorities did not issue an Amber Alert, which is triggered when a child is abducted and in imminent danger, because the case did not meet the three criteria needed.
Shortly afterwards, two critical elements of the investigation were made public: the family’s pet dog had been found dead and police described a key witness who they believed might have met the child’s mother.
In a video posted online Monday, Quebec provincial police asked people to be on the lookout for a long-haired chihuahua with reddish-brown fur, which might have been with the girl.
Later in the day they said a dog resembling that chihuahua had been found dead near the junction of Highways 20 and 30 near Montreal.
On Wednesday, police said they were looking to speak to a woman who lived and worked on a farm who they believed met the child’s mother. Police believe they met sometime on Sunday between 9:45 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., either in Ontario or southwestern Quebec.
Investigators uncover crucial lead that narrows search
A key breakthrough was uncovered on Wednesday afternoon just hours before the girl was found that steered the search.
Police in Quebec were able to establish that the girl and her mother had been spotted alive at about 2 p.m. in the rural Casselman and St. Albert area in eastern Ontario on Sunday afternoon.
Shortly after 2 p.m., an OPP drone operator spotted the little girl sitting alone in the ditch along route 417 near St. Albert, Ont.
She was surrounded by tall grass, which officers say explains why passing vehicles didn’t see her.
Sûreté du Québec Sgt. Éloïse Cossette told reporters the girl was conscious and able to speak with officers, but there was no immediate word on her physical condition.
She received food, hydration and was taken to a nearby hospital to be examined by medical personnel.
Officers would not comment on whose custody the girl will be in, what she was wearing when she was found or how they believe she survived all alone.
Mother charged with child abandonment
On Tuesday, Todd was arrested and charged with unlawful abandonment of a child.
She briefly appeared in court via video conference from a police station in Vaudreuil before being detained at the Leclerc prison in Laval.
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.
On Wednesday, Todd was back in court in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield as the judge postponed her case to Friday, at which point a decision will be taken on a bail hearing.
The Crown previously said no psych evaluation had been requested for the woman and not much was yet known about her mental state.
'Extremely emotional,' police say
The discovery of the missing toddler was an emotional moment for police involved in the search.
At a joint press conference with Quebec and Ontario provincial police forces in St. Albert Wednesday evening, OPP Acting Staff Sgt. Shaun Cameron said the case had deeply affected officers.
“Most of us are parents with kids of our own,” Cameron said. “This makes us extremely emotional as police officers.”
SQ Capt. Benoit Richard told reporters: “It’s days like this that you are reminded why you became an officer.”
Both forces thanked the search teams who worked around the clock in the difficult weather for their tireless efforts in finding the girl.
“Given her age, every hour mattered,” Richard said.
Richard also expressed gratitude to members of the public, emphasizing that their tips and social media posts played a crucial role in the investigation.
Quebec Premier François Legault described the girl’s safe return as “almost a miracle,” and thanked police as well as members of the public who helped.
On his Instagram page on Wednesday, the girl’s father posted a story with the caption: “She has been found, thank you to everyone!”
“Please allow me and my family to take this time with our girl,” he added.
— with files from Aaron D’Andrea and The Canadian Press
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