What we know after 3-year-old Quebec girl found alone on Ontario highway

A nerve‑racking four‑day hunt for a missing three‑year‑old girl from Quebec ended in relief on Wednesday when police located her alive in Ontario.

Claire Bell 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 Montreal.

Circumstances around the girl’s 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 and officers on horseback.

Search efforts began near Claire’s home in Montreal 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.

In a stunning turn, Bell was spotted all alone on the side of an Ontario highway on Wednesday afternoon by an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) drone.

How the child survived alone in rural Ontario in the heat for four days remains astonishing to authorities, calling it nothing short of a miracle.

Here’s a closer look at what happened.

Todd and Bell 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.

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 criteria needed.

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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 believe met the child’s mother. Police believe they met sometime on Sunday between 9:45 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., either in southwestern Quebec or Ontario.

A key breakthrough was uncovered on Wednesday afternoon just hours before she was found that steered the search.

Police in Quebec were able to establish that the girl and her mother had been spotted alive 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 beside route 417 near St. Albert, Ont.

Sûreté du Québec Sgt. Éloïse Cossette told reporters Wednesday 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 as a precaution.

Officers would not comment on whose custody the girl is in, what she was wearing when she was found or how they believe she survived in the heat.

On Tuesday, Todd was arrested and charged with unlawful abandonment of a child.

Todd briefly appeared in court via video conference from a police station in Vaudreuil Tuesday 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 handcuffed and back in court at the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield Courthouse 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 Todd and not much was yet known about her mental state.

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 many 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 for their 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.

— with files from Aaron D’Andrea and The Canadian Press