Relief, but few answers in community where Quebec girl was found

People living near the eastern Ontario community where a three-year-old Quebec girl who'd been missing four days was found safe earlier this week say they're relieved, but still perplexed about the circumstances of her disappearance. 

The girl was reported missing on Sunday. Investigators had initially focused on Montreal and Montérégie, Que., but the search shifted to Ontario where she was spotted by a drone beside Highway 417 near Casselman just after 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The community centre in nearby St-Albert, where police had set up temporary their search headquarters, teemed with officers and members of the media earlier this week, an unusual scene in this normally peaceful rural area. When the girl was found dehydrated but otherwise safe, the relief was palpable.

The girl's mother, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, was arrested Monday and is now facing a charge of child abandonment. Other circumstances of the girl's disappearance — including what happened in the days before she was found — have not been made public.

At the popular Fromagerie St-Albert this week, it was all staff and customers were talking about. 

"People were asking a lot of questions, but I didn't have the answers," said Alex Aubin from behind a cash register. (Aubin and everyone else interviewed for this story spoke in French).

At the deli counter, Parker Bedbrook said he and all his colleagues were on the lookout for the missing girl.

"There was a lot of talk among the employees," Bedbrook said, adding they'd all studied the missing girl's photo in hopes of recognizing her. "Now I hope she'll be OK."

A couple grabbing ice cream called it a "story with a happy ending." 

"But there are still many missing pieces to the puzzle," said Marc Ryan.

"We've been following this story for three days," added Suzanne Tremblay-Ryan. "I dare to believe that the little girl was accompanied throughout by a caring person... I dare to believe."

'It's hard to understand'

Lisa Laframboise said she followed the case of the missing girl from the beginning. 

"It's hard to understand," she said. "It's a huge relief that the little girl is alive, but it's heartbreaking."

"I'm not a mother yet, but I don't know how something like this can happen. She must have felt so alone," said educator Luisa Crassoski.

Valérie Bérubé-Lévesque, a mother of two, said it was "horrible" to think the little girl might have been left alone.

"It's a relief that she's alive — we expected a different outcome. I hope this child gets all the love she deserves and that she doesn't have too many long-term after effects," she said. "She'll need support — her mother, too — and [I hope] that everything goes well for her."

Caroline Dandremont, a mother of three children including a three-year-old daughter, said she felt guilty knowing the child had been found beside the highway near her home.

"My partner and I pass by here every day. If we had known, we would have helped," Dandremont said. "As a parent, I think that if it had been my child, I would have appreciated the help…. But we didn't know she was here."