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MONTREAL — A three-year-old Montreal girl who was reported missing on Sunday was found alive by police in Ontario, bringing a joyful end to an intense search spanning four different days and two provinces.
Claire Bell was spotted by an Ontario Provincial Police drone around 2 p.m. Wednesday, alone along an on-ramp for Highway 417 near the rural community of St. Albert, Ont., about 50 kilometres west of the Quebec border.
“The missing three-year-old from Montreal was found safe and has been assessed by medical personnel,” Ontario Provincial Police Acting Staff Sergeant Shaun Cameron told an evening press briefing alongside Quebec provincial police.
“This search proves that when a child goes missing, there are no interprovincial boundaries. There is only one goal: to find them.”
Police said the girl was conscious and able to speak with officers when she was found. At the news conference, Quebec provincial police Capt. Benoît Richard said she was “doing well,” but provided no further details on her condition.
Bell was reported missing under unclear circumstances on Sunday afternoon, after her mother allegedly entered a store west of Montreal and told the staff she couldn’t find her child. The mother, Rachel-Ella Todd, 34, was later charged with unlawful abandonment of a child.
Todd appeared before a judge on Tuesday by video from a police station, represented by a legal-aid lawyer. She was back in court briefly on Wednesday when the case was put off until Friday, at which point a decision will be taken on a bail hearing.
Before being found Wednesday, the child was last seen around 9:45 a.m. on Sunday on Newman Boulevard in Montreal’s LaSalle borough. She was reported missing at around 3:30 p.m. in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., about 50 kilometres to the west.
The disappearance kicked off a massive search effort that included multiple police forces, helicopters, drones, search-and-rescue volunteer teams and officers on horseback. The searches began near Bell’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.
“We’ve had more than 200 people working day and night to find this young girl,” Richard said.
After days of searching, investigators got a major clue earlier Wednesday. Investigators in Quebec were able to establish the girl and her mother had been spotted alive about 2 p.m. in the Casselman and St-Albert area on Sunday.
Police sought the public’s help to figure out where Todd was on Sunday between 2 p.m. and her return to Quebec around 3:30 p.m.
Cameron said police would not have located the girl without “critical information” from the public.
“This was a search where we knew, especially given her age, that every hour mattered,” he said.
Citing the ongoing investigation, Quebec and Ontario police declined to give further information on how the girl went missing, exactly where she was found or how she had survived for three full days.
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 called in tips.
Cameron said the search weighed heavily on officers, who celebrated when Bell was found.
“The last few days, officers and members of the community have held our breath and hoped while we searched,” he said. “Now we exhale as one, knowing she is safe.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 18, 2025.
Sidhartha Banerjee and Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
