Coralie Lessard, a 15-year-old girl who had been missing since Saturday afternoon in Estrie, was found lifeless Thursday morning.
At around 10:45 a.m., the Sûreté du Québec research team found the lifeless body of young Coralie Lessard. She was in an isolated location, a wooded area about a mile west of where she was last seen by hunters on November 20, around 5 p.m.
A coroner’s inquest will be held to determine the exact cause of death. “However, nothing indicates at this time of the investigation that the teenager was the victim of a criminal act,” said the police force in a statement.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE MEMPHRÉMAGOG POLICE BOARD
Coralie Lessard
According to authorities, Coralie was in psychological distress and investigators had reason to believe that she could take it out on herself.
A letter written by the young girl confirming her distress has been found, said the Memphremagog Police Authority (RPM) at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
Last Saturday, Coralie Lessard left on foot her family residence in the Omerville sector, in Magog, around 4 p.m., and did not return home afterwards.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Hunters saw the young woman on a wooded path near the scene about an hour after leaving the house.
Nearly 200 stakeholders have participated in the research since the weekend. They raked about ten square kilometers of woodland.
The means deployed to find her were numerous: all-terrain vehicles, helicopter, dog handler, watercraft and drones.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
For the past few days, the Régie de police de Memphrémagog (RPM) has invited the owners of residences in the Omerville and Venice sectors in Magog to carry out regular checks on their outbuildings and check the places where the teenager could have taken refuge.
After more than four days of intensive research in order to find the young Coralie Lessard, the Memphremagog Police Authority (RPM) had put an end to the sweeping of the territory on Wednesday evening, since no clue had been found.
On Thursday, police resumed searches in isolated locations that were at the end of the original search area. The goal was to cover as much as possible the area where Coralie Lessard could potentially be.