Two police officers were assigned Thursday to search for the little girl who fell into the Mistassibi River in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, after a slip. Seven days after her disappearance, she has still not been found.
The drama continues in the middle of the holiday season in Dolbeau-Mistassini, a town of some 14,000 inhabitants located north of Lake Saint-Jean.
On Thursday, only two police officers remained assigned to the search for the little girl who disappeared last Friday in the backwaters of the Mistassibi River. She has still not been found.
The agents are at “fixed observation points, strategically placed on the river, where the little girl could resurface,” explains Sergeant Hugues Beaulieu, spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec.
It was also planned that a helicopter would fly over the scene on Thursday, Sergeant Beaulieu told The Press. Another person was in the command center, still in place.
Since last Friday, the intensive search has mobilized a large number of police officers and other people, such as teams of divers. As recently as Tuesday, around twenty police officers were deployed to try to find the little girl, as well as a drone and a nautical team. The team was reduced on Wednesday, but police officers patrolled the river in a boat.
“At the end of each day, we evaluate what we have done, what remains to be done,” emphasizes Sergeant Beaulieu. The search will continue this Friday.
Citizens and residents are encouraged to monitor the banks. A photo of the girl’s snowsuit was published with the family’s permission. At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a rainbow coat and blue snow pants.
Last Friday, emergency services were called around 2:30 p.m. to go to the place where the little girl was sliding with her mother, near a hiking trail located near Route 169.
It was at this place that the child, unable to stop her course, passed through the mesh of a guardrail installed along the bank and found herself in the waters of the river.
A donation collection campaign was launched on Tuesday on the GoFundMe platform to support the family and make a commemorative plaque in honor of the little girl. By the end of the day Thursday, more than $10,400 had been raised, out of a goal of $10,000.