Cedrika Provencher

The two-year search for a freckle-faced Quebec girl

Global NewsJune 9, 2009


Almost two years before Tori Stafford was abducted in Woodstock, Ont., another young girl went missing near her home in Quebec. Here is a look at the disappearance of Cedrika Provencher.

July 31, 2007: Nine-year-old Cedrika Provencher disappears in Trois-Rivières, Que., after telling a woman she was helping a man look for a lost dog,

August 1, 2007: Quebec provincial police find Cedrika’s grey and white bicycle behind a garbage dumpster, two kilometers from where the girl was last seen.

Police look for a man whom they believed approached Cedrika, and several other young girls, claiming he needed help looking for his dog.

Aug. 13, 2007: Businesses, organizations and individuals chip in to offer $80,000 as a reward for information leading to the girl’s whereabouts. By November, that number climbs to $100,000.

Aug. 23, 2007: Quebec provincial police say a girl matching the description of Cedrika Provencher is spotted with a man in a restaurant in Chandler, Que., more than 900 kilometres east of Montreal. Roadblocks are set up but authorities don’t find any trace of the man or the girl.

Sept. 6, 2007: Quebec police release descriptions of a car and man they believe are connected to the disappearance Cedrika. Police tell the public to be on the lookout for a white man with brown hair who has access to a red four-door Acura, probably manufactured between 2002 and 2004. They say the man is in his 30s.

Sept. 8, 2007: Authorities search for Cedrika in Fredericton, N.B., after receiving a tip she had been spotted there. A woman had told police she saw a man and a girl resembling Cedrika get out of a light-grey minivan with Quebec plates. But the woman later reveals she has never seen a picture of the missing girl.

Sept. 21, 2007: Someone calls provincial police in Quebec saying Cedrika was seen in a white car with U.S. license plates near the U.S. border. Tip leads nowhere.

Sept. 23, 2007: Cedrika’s father helps launch a song written about his daughter. The lyrics urge listeners not to give up hope. The French-language song, called Cedrika, was distributed to French-language radio stations in Quebec. Proceeds are to go to a fun set up to help the family look for Cedrika.

Dec. 21, 2007: Quebec provincial police investigate five “persons of interest” who could have been near or on the scene where Cedrika disappeared. The names of these five people are not released.

May 31, 2008: The $100,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Cedrika expires. Police decide to return the money to anonymous donors.

July 22, 2008: Francophone comic Mike Ward comes under fire for using Cedrika’s disappearance as a punch line to one of his jokes. During a comedy festival in Montreal, he joked that the provincial tax collection department would take the children of those who owe money. "Revenu Quebec, they're mentally ill. You owe them $8 and they'll kidnap your kids. They're the ones who have little Cedrika."

July 31, 2008: More than a thousand people attend a mass marking the one-year anniversary of Cedrika’s disappearance.

April 14, 2009: Cedrika’s father offers advice to the family of Tori Stafford, an eight-year-old girl who disappeared outside her school in Woodstock, Ont., six days earlier: “It's the type of situation that drastically changes your life, but the key is not give up hope, to keep up pressure on the police and ensure that they're doing everything they can.”

June 9, 2009: Cedrika’s family enlists the help of prominent lawyer Guy Bertrand to help find the little girl. Bertrand offers a $170,000 reward for information leading to Cedrika’s whereabouts. He says he’ll gather information until the end of September at no charge. He says people can provide him with information anonymously. He says those who do won’t be handed over to the authorities.
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http://www.canada.com/Cedrika+Provencher+year+search+freckle+faced+Quebec+girl/1678679/story.html

http://www.cedrika.com/

Cedrika's website

Claude Larouche, the alleged killer of another young girl, seems to be implicated in Cédrika's disappearance. He was questioned previously and ruled out, but now a witness, who works in a bar in the area where Cédrika lived, has stated that Larouche was in the area at the time of Cédrika's disappearance.

Or, on ne sait pas pourquoi les policiers ont demandé de rencontrer Larouche deux ans après la disparition de la fillette. Rappelons qu’en 2005, Larouche avait écopé d’une peine de 40 mois de détention pour avoir tenté d’enlever une fillette dans le quartier Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, à Montréal.

But, it is not known why the police have asked to meet Larouche two years after the little girl's disappearance. We note that in 2005, Larouche had copped for a 40 month sentence for the attempted abduction of a little girl in the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve area of Montreal.

Two and a half years after her disappearance, the police have no concrete leads.

http://lcn.canoe.ca/lcn/infos/faitsdivers/archives/2010/02/20100204-202936.html

Lawyer ends search for Cedrika Provencher
Updated: Wed Feb. 03 2010 6:38:48 PM

ctvmontreal.ca

In the eight months since Quebec lawyer Guy Bertrand chose to get involved in the search for Cedrika Provencher, he's fielded hundreds of important leads.

Cedrika went missing from outside her Trois Rivieres home on July 31, 2007, when she was nine years old.

Last year Bertrand offered cash and confidentiality to anyone who came forward with a solid lead on the whereabouts of the young girl.

Unfortunately, the offers have not been enough to bring the girl home, or to bring closure to her family.

Grandfather Henri feels he is being tormented.

"All my family, my wife, my son, my daughter, my granddaughter, are all the in the jail," said Henri.

However Bertrand feels his involvement has been a success because of tips he received that would not have gone to police.

"Success is not if we found Cedrika or not," said Bertrand. "I hate that question."

"I didn't fail. Did a doctor fail when he made all of the possibilities to save a patient?"

Hundreds of tips fail to pan out


342 tips came in during the past eight months, and Bertrand felt 20 were credible enough to pass along to the SQ.

He is now recommending the Quebec government create a centralized missing persons unit with a prosecutor or lawyer at the helm.

"It's another tool we can take to help us find our child," said Bertrand.

Cedrika's family say they had limited contact with Bertrand over the course of his investigation, but hoped the $170,000 reward would yield answers.

But they never intend to give up hope, or stop looking.

"We stop when we know where is Cedrika, we never stop," said Henri.