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Claire Bell, the three-year-old missing since Sunday, has been found alive in Ontario.
A drone spotted Claire by the side of Highway 417 near St. Albert, Ont., about 150 kilometres west of Montreal, just after 3 p.m., according to Quebec provincial police. She was alone but seemed healthy. Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) found the girl.
“Obviously we’re relieved she was found,” Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Éloïse Cossette told reporters. “This is the best possible outcome.”
Police are taking care of her and ensuring she has food and water, Cossette added.
Ontario and Quebec provincial police will hold a joint news conference at 7 p.m. Wednesday to provide more details.
It was the best-case-scenario end to a search that had included about 150 officers and trained volunteers, a helicopter and ATVs.
Quebec Premier François Legault took to X soon after the little girl was found, thanking the SQ and their partners “who worked tirelessly to find her.” He also thanked the OPP for assisting.
“What a relief and joy to learn that little Claire Bell has been found safe and sound,” he wrote. “I also want to acknowledge the contribution of all those who provided information to the police, enabling them to find the little girl alive.”
The three-year-old was reported missing on Sunday, west of Montreal.
Searchers had combed fields and searched buildings for three days in the hope of finding Claire. Initially, the search focused on a wide swath around Coteau-du-Lac, Que., where Claire’s mother had been on Sunday.
As the search continued, however, police widened their net. Both the SQ and OPP said Wednesday there were reported sightings of the child in Ontario.
The SQ also said they had located a witness who spoke to Claire’s mother on a farm in the Montérégie region, near the Ontario border, on Sunday.
Claire’s mother, Rachel-Ella Todd, 34, was arrested on Monday and charged with child abandonment.
In handcuffs and a dark red T-shirt, she made a brief appearance at the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield courthouse on Wednesday.
She remains in custody and is scheduled to appear again June 20.
Claire Bell was reported missing Sunday and had been the subject of an extensive search. Her mother, Rachel-Ella Todd, 34, was charged with child abandonment.
Claire had last been seen at her residence near Newman Avenue in Montreal’s LaSalle borough Sunday morning at around 9:45 a.m. ET.
The SQ said Claire’s mother reported her missing a few hours later at a store in Coteau-du-Lac, about 50 kilometres west of Montreal.
An employee of the store said the woman drove her car into the parking lot and ran into the store in a panic.
The SQ’s Cossette said investigators had received hundreds of tips for the case by early Wednesday. The search efforts had previously 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.
According to Radio-Canada sources, Todd didn’t seem lucid and made confused remarks when she met with 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????”
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.