Police search for missing Quebec girls, father
Amber Alert issued after trio disappears from traffic crash site
LEVIS, QUE. — Police were continuing their search around a Quebec City suburb after they issued an Amber Alert Thursday for two young girls and their 44-year-old father who investigators believe disappeared following a highway crash.
Quebec provincial police spokesperson Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said Friday police aren’t ruling out anything in their search for Norah and Romy Carpentier, and their father, Martin Carpentier.
“All the hypotheses are on the table, and kidnapping is among them,” Bilodeau said, “but the priority for us is that we have missing people that could be injured.”
She said the father’s motives remain unclear.
“We don’t know his motivations,” she said. “Are they good? Are they bad? Is he simply injured badly and not able to call anyone? It’s really hard to say right now, but our main concern is really trying to locate him and his two daughters.”
Police issued the Amber Alert Thursday afternoon for Norah, 11, and Romy, 6, from Levis, Que., south of Quebec City.
Investigators said they believe the girls and their father were involved in an accident Wednesday night in St-Apollinaire, Que., when the vehicle they were in skidded into the median, flipped over and landed on the shoulder of the opposite lanes of Highway 20.
But when emergency workers arrived at the scene, no one was in the car. Bilodeau said the search is being concentrated around the crash site. “There’s some other information that leads us to think that the people involved may be moving and still in this area,” Bilodeau said.
In a short video posted on the provincial police Twitter account Friday afternoon, Carpentier’s current partner, Cathy Gingras, pleaded for him to contact his family.
“Martin, we’re worried. We haven’t heard from you since the accident. We’re wondering if you’re OK, the girls, Romy, Norah,” said Gingras, who is in tears in the video.
“Give us some news, give us a sign, call your parents, anything. What’s important is that you’re OK, we don’t care about anything else. We just want to know you’re OK.”
Bilodeau said police are asking residents in St-Apollinaire to check their properties. Canine units were deployed, Bilodeau added, and searches were being carried out on foot and on ATVs.