What we know after 3-year-old Quebec girl found alone on Ontario highway
A nerve‑racking four‑day hunt for a missing three‑year‑old girl from Quebec ended in relief on Wednesday when police located her alive in Ontario.
Claire Bell was reported missing by her mother, 34-year-old Rachel-Ella Todd, on Sunday afternoon in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., about 50 kilometres west of where she had last been seen in Montreal’s LaSalle borough.
Circumstances around the girl’s disappearance were “not very clear,” authorities told reporters earlier this week, shortly before the girl’s mother was arrested and charged with unlawful abandonment of a child.
The disappearance kicked off a massive search effort that included multiple police forces, helicopters, drones, search-and-rescue volunteer teams and officers on horseback.
Search efforts began near Claire’s home in Montreal and the store where she was reported missing, before shifting to new areas as officers and the public pieced together Todd’s movements on Sunday.
Police and rescue workers search the woods beside a highway for a missing three-year-old girl in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., Tuesday, June 17, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
Search parties of more than 250 people combed fields, roads and forests in the days that followed.
In a stunning turn, Bell was spotted all alone on the side of an Ontario highway on Wednesday afternoon by an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) drone.
How the child survived alone in rural Ontario in the heat for four days remains astonishing to authorities, calling it nothing short of a miracle.
Here’s a closer look at what happened.
Police focus on the mother’s whereabouts
Todd and Bell had last been seen around 9:45 a.m. Sunday on Newman Boulevard in Montreal’s LaSalle borough.
Their whereabouts were unaccounted for until the child’s mother parked her SUV outside a store in Coteau-du-Lac — a small city in southwestern Quebec, around 3 p.m.
Authorities said Todd went inside the shop and told staff she couldn’t find her daughter.
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Todd had been driving a 2007 grey Ford Escape with a “Baby on Board” sticker in the back window and the licence plate K50 FVE.
Shortly afterwards, two critical elements of the investigation were made public: the family’s pet dog had been found dead and police described a key witness who they believed might have met child’s mother.
In a video posted online Monday, Quebec provincial police asked people to be on the lookout for a long-haired chihuahua with reddish-brown fur, which might have been with the girl.
Later in the day they said a dog resembling that chihuahua had been found dead near the junction of Highways 20 and 30 near Montreal.
On Wednesday, police said they were looking to speak to a woman who lived and worked on a farm who they believe met the child’s mother. Police believe they met sometime on Sunday between 9:45 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., either in southwestern Quebec or Ontario.
Investigators uncover crucial lead that narrows search
A key breakthrough was uncovered on Wednesday afternoon just hours before she was found that steered the search.
Police in Quebec were able to establish that the girl and her mother had been spotted alive about 2 p.m. in the rural Casselman and St. Albert area in eastern Ontario on Sunday afternoon.
Shortly after 2 p.m., an OPP drone operator spotted the little girl sitting alone beside route 417 near St. Albert, Ont.
Sûreté du Québec Sgt. Éloïse Cossette told reporters Wednesday the girl was conscious and able to speak with officers, but there was no immediate word on her physical condition.
She received food, hydration and was taken to a nearby hospital to be examined by medical personnel as a precaution.
Officers would not comment on whose custody the girl is in, what she was wearing when she was found or how they believe she survived in the heat.
Mother charged with child abandonment
On Tuesday, Todd was arrested and charged with unlawful abandonment of a child.
Todd briefly appeared in court via video conference from a police station in Vaudreuil Tuesday before being detained at the Leclerc prison in Laval.
She looked right at the camera, nodded and seemed to understand where she was and the charge.
Crown prosecutor Lili Prévost Gravel told reporters she opposed the accused’s release due to the seriousness of the charge.
On Wednesday, Todd was handcuffed and back in court at the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield Courthouse as the judge postponed her case to Friday, at which point a decision will be taken on a bail hearing.
The Crown previously said no psych evaluation had been requested for Todd and not much was yet known about her mental state.
‘Extremely emotional as police officers’
The discovery of the missing toddler was an emotional moment for police involved in the search.
At a joint press conference with Quebec and Ontario provincial police forces in St. Albert Wednesday evening, OPP Acting Staff Sgt. Shaun Cameron said the case had deeply affected many officers.
Staff Sergeant Shaun Cameron of the Ontario Provincial Police speaks to media after three-year-old Claire Bell was found alive, in St. Albert, Ont., Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
“Most of us are parents with kids of our own,” Cameron said. “This makes us extremely emotional as police officers.”
SQ Capt. Benoit Richard told reporters: “It’s days like this that you are reminded why you became an officer.”
Both forces thanked the search teams of more than 250 people who worked around the clock for their efforts in finding the girl.
“Given her age, every hour mattered,” Richard said.
Richard also expressed gratitude to members of the public, emphasizing that their tips and social media posts played a crucial role in the investigation.
Quebec Premier François Legault described the girl’s safe return as “almost a miracle,” and thanked police as well as members of the public who helped.
— with files from Aaron D’Andrea and The Canadian Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
A new poll by Leger has found that Quebec residents are the happiest in Canada.
The web survey of nearly 40,000 Canadians found that Quebecers rated their happiness at an average of 72.4 out of 100, which is well above the national average.
New Brunswick followed Quebec with an average of 70.2, while Manitoba and Prince Edward Island finished at the bottom of the list.
Mississauga, Ont. had the highest happiness rating of the 10 largest cities, while Toronto was lowest.
Montreal finished second in the category.
The survey found that 49 per cent of respondents said their happiness level was unchanged over the past year, while 23 per said they were happier and 28 per cent said they were less happy.
“These results reveal a population that is both resilient and tested, affected by everyday uncertainty and challenges,” Leger’s executive summary read. “Happiness, while holding its ground overall, shows signs of fragility.”
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The survey found that people in the 18-to-24 and 24-to-34-year-old categories were more likely to report improved feelings of well-being, even if their overall happiness score remained below the national average.
In contrast, people in the 35-to-44 and 45-to-54 age brackets were more likely to report their happiness had deteriorated.
“There is a sense of well-being emerging among younger age groups,” the summary read. “However, this also highlights the importance of supporting adults in mid-life, who are more vulnerable to the pressures of working life.”
Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador were the three provinces with happiness levels above the national average of 68.7. They were followed, in descending order, by Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and P.E.I. The territories were not included in the survey.
In the survey of the 10 largest cities, Mississauga and Montreal finished ahead of Hamilton, Calgary, Brampton, Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto, in that order.
Women reported slightly higher happiness levels than men, at 69.4 versus 68.0.
Leger says the overall results confirm “a level of happiness that is relatively high but stagnant or even slightly down compared to the pre-pandemic period.”
To get the results, Leger surveyed 39,841 Canadians aged 18 and up between March 31 and April 13.
Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Ontario Provincial Police are set to host a town hall in Quadeville, Ont., this evening to answer questions from residents about an attack on an eight-year-old child that was initially linked to an animal.
Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy in the case and he faces charges of attempted murder and sexual assault with a weapon.
Members of the small community 170 kilometres west of Ottawa say they were in shock after hearing about the arrest and hope to get clarity at today’s event in the town’s community centre.
Local resident Christine Hudder says she wants to know how police came up with the animal attack theory and why families were told for days to keep their children indoors.
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The victim was found with life-threatening injuries on June 24 after she was reported missing, and remains in hospital.
Police say they are planning to give as much information as possible to locals given that an investigation is still underway.
A Burlington, Ont., mother was unsettled to discover that an old photo of her children had been used in a fraudulent GoFundMe that attempted to elicit donations in connection the recent Texas floods.
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to say that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
“She reached out to me and she was like, ‘Hey, here’s a link to a GoFundMe. Sorry this has happened to you, but obviously a picture of your kids has been used without your consent and it’s being used for a GoFundMe to raise money, to help a family dealing with the Texas floods,’” she said.
Cole explained that the fake GoFundMe, which has since been removed by the company, was looking for donations to support a widowed mother of six kids in connection.
At least 120 people have died while more than 100 others remain unaccounted for as a result of the flooding, including 27 children and councilors from Camp Mystic.
“They were trying to raise $40,000 because of the three daughters had been victims of the Texas floods,” Cole said. “And the way it was presented felt very much like they were part of maybe that girl’s camp.”
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to make that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
Provided
Cole said once the listing was sent to her, she immediately contacted GoFundMe to get the fundraiser taken down.
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By Wednesday morning, the company had done so and in a statement to Global News, GoFundMe said that the fundraiser did not receive any donations and the account has been banned from creating any further fundraisers on the platform.
“GoFundMe has the most robust donor protection processes of any platform of our kind. We have round the clock trust and safety support, humans and technology making sure funds will get to where they are intended,” the statement offered.
After contacting the company, Cole said she shared the incident on her social media pages to raise awareness.
“So I did put it on my Facebook and I put it in my LinkedIn as like a heads-up learning experience kind of thing and there was a lot of outrage,” she said.
Cole also noted that while she is disappointed by the incident, she is well aware that her troubles are miniscule in comparison to those affected by the flooding.
“I do feel a little bit in myself that what I’m feeling is in no way comparable to what the actual families are feeling who have gone through the tragedies of the flooding,” she said.
The photo came from an old blog post she had written 16 years ago. Cole can date the picture as the baby in the photo is now getting ready to go for his driver’s test.
“I’m one of those, like, OG mommy bloggers from 20 years ago. So my kids have been on the internet. They have been sort of in the public eye,” she explained.
“And I know the risk is out there. And I think parents need to remember that, that their kids’ photos can be just screenshotted and used without consent. So there’s one lesson.
“I felt a little, well, very unsettled about it, particularly because of what it was being used for.”
In addition to being a parenting blogger, she also helped found Mabel’s Labels, which offers washable labels for kids clothing and other school items, in an effort to keep them out of the lost and found.
Julie Cole and her six kids in 2025.
Provided
Being a spokesperson for the company while raising six kids keeps her in the parenting sphere and she offered some other advice to parents about the images and social media.
“I think parents just have to be mindful and aware that once it’s out there, you know you’d like to think you’ll get consent or you’ll give consent if somebody asks or they want to use it, but people will just take it and they can just take,” she said.
“You have to be especially careful now with AI, because these photos can be altered.”
She also warned parents to check with their kids as they get older to see if they are OK with pics being posted and that people should be mindful of where they are sharing their donations.
“Another lesson out of this is people need to really be cautious and know where they’re putting their fundraising dollars,” Cole said.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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