The mother of Joleil Campeau, a 9-year-old girl murdered in Laval in 1995, shares the suffering experienced by the parents of the two small children killed.
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“I don’t understand what they feel, I know it … in my gut”, dropped Thursday afternoon Donna Sénécal, emotional, standing in the nave of the Sainte-Rose-de-Lima Catholic Church , on Sainte-Rose Boulevard in Laval.
Moved by the drama, the 65-year-old educator had come to meditate there.
More than a hundred stuffed animals and lanterns adorned the edge of the choir, in tribute to the two 4-year-old children who perished.
“It takes something to hang on to,” retorted the witty lady, who said she had already done a few replacements at the Garderie Éducative Ste-Rose.
Only to understand
The sad story that shook the entire province also particularly touched her mother’s heart.
On June 12, 1995, her 9-year-old daughter, Joleil Campeau, was assaulted and murdered by Éric Daudelin, in Laval. It took 16 years before he was arrested for this murder.
“We call it revival,” said Ms. Sénécal, confiding in the difficult emotions that the drama brought up in her.
“There is no one who knows what we are going through, she continued, in relation to the bond she now shared with the bereaved parents. We are no longer in the same world as parents who have children. It’s another world completely. »
Father Michel Bouchard, present on site, was preparing to welcome Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the evening.
“It’s atrocious. There are no words. Society has problems. Mental health, poverty. It marks people, he said. It was a wretch who did that. He must not be comfortable in his own skin. [Aux gens éprouvés], I wish them to be brave. »
A mass to support the community in prayer will be celebrated there from 11 a.m. on Friday.