MONTREAL — Quebec provincial police used helicopters, drones and tracking dogs on Monday in their search for a three-year-old girl who went missing in the Montreal area over the weekend under unclear circumstances.
The child was last seen around 9:45 a.m. on Sunday on Newman Boulevard in Montreal's LaSalle borough, and was reported missing at around 3 p.m. in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., about 50 kilometres to the west.
On Monday afternoon, police spokesman Jean-Raphaël Drolet said the child's mother had parked her SUV outside a store in Coteau-du-Lac Sunday afternoon and reported her daughter missing.
"The mother got out and said she'd lost her child and didn't know where she was," Drolet said in a video uploaded to social media.
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.
Earlier Monday, police spokesperson Laurie Avoine said officers searched through the night in both LaSalle and Coteau-du-Lac and also made verifications in Ontario. Montreal police were asked to help with the search in LaSalle.
Police have not offered any hypotheses on what happened.
Police originally reported that the child was last been seen on Saturday at 11 a.m., but they changed that to Sunday after "new elements emerged," Avoine said.
Investigators are trying to determine what happened between 9:45 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday, Avoine said. "There are many elements to corroborate."
Police have not issued an Amber Alert, which is triggered when a child is abducted and in imminent danger. "At this point, there are certain criteria that are not necessarily in place" to issue an alert, Avoine said.
To trigger an Amber Alert, police must not only believe that a child has been abducted, but also that the child's life or physical safety is in serious danger. As well, police must have information that may help locate the child, the suspect or the vehicle they're travelling in.
The missing three-year-old 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. She was barefoot when she went missing.
In a video posted online, Quebec provincial police also asked people to be on the lookout for a long-haired chihuahua with reddish-brown fur, who might have been with the girl. The circumstances of the disappearance "are not very clear," police said Monday around midday.
Quebec provincial police are asking anyone who sees the girl or has information about her location to call 911; witnesses can report tips anonymously.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2025.
Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
