In the search for three-year-old Claire Bell, Quebec provincial police have located an important witness they say spoke to her mother on Sunday — just hours before she reported her child missing.
The child’s mother, Rachel-Ella Todd, was arrested on Monday and charged with child abandonment.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) believes that a woman spoke to Claire’s mother on a farm in the Montérégie region, near the Ontario border, some time between 9:45 a.m. and about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.
In a call to the public issued earlier on Wednesday, police said the conversation between the mother and the witness was in English, and the witness wore an apron that had the French word “abondance” on the front. Police added that this witness may also know how to speak French.
“We want to know what was the purpose of the meeting,” said SQ spokesperson Éloïse Cossette at the time.
Radio-Canada is reporting that the witness has been found and is meeting with investigators.
It’s the latest update in a search that is now in its third day, with provincial police deploying a helicopter, ATVs and about 150 police officers and trained volunteers to scour a large search area west of the Montreal island.
Search area for missing 3-year-old is ‘very vast,’ Quebec provincial police say
Claire is three feet tall, weighs 35 pounds and has brown eyes and brown hair. According to police, she was last seen wearing grey pants and a long-sleeved shirt with pink around the collar and is likely barefoot.
She was last seen at her residence near Newman Avenue in Montreal’s LaSalle borough Sunday morning at around 9:45 a.m. ET. The SQ, Quebec’s provincial police force, says Claire’s mother reported her missing a few hours later at a store in Coteau-du-Lac, about 50 kilometres west of Montreal.
Todd, who turned 34 on the eve of Claire’s disappearance, is expected to make her second appearance at the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield courthouse on Wednesday.
An employee of the store said the woman drove her car into the parking lot and ran into the store in a panic. CBC News is not identifying the employee because she is not authorized to speak on behalf of the store. The employee mentioned that the woman said she’d lost her child and couldn’t remember what happened. Another employee then called 911.
On Wednesday morning, the SQ’s Cossette said investigators had received hundreds of tips for the case.
The search efforts have been focused on areas near the junction of highways 30 and 20 as well as areas near Highway 40, west of the island of Montreal — an area police said is difficult to access due to dense vegetation.
Police are discouraging citizens from conducting their own searches as they might destroy tracks and hamper the SQ’s efforts. On Wednesday, the SQ reiterated that the public can contribute to the search efforts by looking out for the grey Ford Escape with the licence plate K50 FVE that the mother used between 9:45 a.m. and around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.
“She left LaSalle and made it to Coteau-du-Lac — that’s a very large zone,” said Cossette.
“We’re calling on potential witnesses in case they saw that vehicle on some isolated road or if they have security cameras in front of their homes or businesses or on their vehicles … Ultimately, we want to recreate the entire route that the mother followed with her daughter.”
According to Radio-Canada sources, Todd didn’t seem lucid and made confused remarks which complicates the work of investigators. Sources also told Radio-Canada an analysis of Todd’s phone revealed searches for children’s funeral urns, as was first reported by the Journal de Montréal on Tuesday.
A video posted by Todd in the hours before Claire’s disappearance has surfaced on TikTok. Radio-Canada has confirmed the account belongs to her.
In the short video, Todd is holding Claire and speaks into the camera saying: “You try that again and this is going to get ugly.”
The caption reads: “Have you come up against a mother with nothing to lose????”
Mother of missing Montreal toddler charged with child abandonment
CBC does not know the context in which the video was filmed. Quebec provincial police said they were not commenting on the video.
The charge against Todd alleges that she abandoned her daughter and put her life and health in danger. If found guilty, the maximum sentence is five years in prison.
On Monday evening, police announced they had found a dead brown Chihuahua around Highway 30 in the Vaudreuil-Dorion area.
The dog matched the description of the one thought to be with the girl when she was last seen. As of Tuesday evening, police were still working to confirm that it’s the same dog.
If you’re affected by the details in this story, you can find mental health support resources in your province or territory.
