Missing Quebec girl, 3, found safe after bizarre disappearance that led to charge against mother

National Post

3 days ago

The Father's Day disappearance of three-year-old Claire Bell was bizarre from the start, and as the frantic search for the missing Montreal girl stretched into its fourth day the escalating strangeness of the case was pointing to a dark ending. But then came joyful news. Claire had been found alive.
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The missing girl was found by police in eastern Ontario, about 150 kilometres from her home in Montreal, on Wednesday afternoon. She was found in the St-Albert region after a strange and shifting investigation and large, intensive ground and air search.
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As the news broke, some signs pointed to a parental dispute, perhaps designed to coincide with Father's Day or perhaps fuelled by other concerns and desperation.
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The case had galvanized the public. Claire's mother was already under arrest. There was a dead dog and a mysterious witness described as a farm woman wearing an apron, the Montreal Gazette reported. Hundreds of police and specialized civilians were scouring woods and highway ditches over a huge area, all while a flurry of dramatic social media posts preceding the disappearance showed the erratic mother variously upset, sad and angry .
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Something distressing happened at some point in the next few hours.
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News that tiny Claire was missing was revealed about six hours later when her mother, Rachel Todd, 34, stopped her SUV at a roadside fireworks and souvenir store about 55 kilometres west of where Claire was last seen. Police said she told an employee she had lost her child and didn't know where she was. An employee told CBC the woman ran into the store in a panic and said she couldn't remember what happened.
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The mother's 3:30 p.m. statement at the store on St-Emmanuel Rd. in Coteau-du-Lac triggered a police investigation that quickly grew to a large search growing incrementally in scope and seriousness.
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Five hours later, the Sûreté du Québec, the province's provincial police force, issued a public alert announcing Claire was missing.
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Police included a photo of the girl, with her brown curly hair, kneeling outdoors while drawing on an easel, a coloured marker gripped in each of her hands. She is described as three feet tall, wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a red collar, grey pants and no shoes.
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'Loved ones,' the release said in French, 'have reason to fear for her health and safety.'
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'Our specialist teams are currently deployed across various sectors to carry out intensive research,' the police added on X two hours later. 'All necessary resources are being mobilized to find the child as quickly as possible.'
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#disparition de Claire Bell 3 ans, de LaSalle, vue pour la dernière fois hier vers 11h00 dans le secteur du boul. Newman, LaSalle. Nous ignorons où elle pourrait se trouver. *Il n'y pas d'Alerte Amber car les critères ne sont pas rencontrés* https://t.co/SAlW8E2x5C pic.twitter.com/v0hICDXm2p
— Sûreté du Québec (@sureteduquebec) June 16, 2025
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The search for Claire continued for days, stretching from an apartment in Montreal, believed to be where Todd lived, west through rural terrain and highways and into Ontario.
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On Monday afternoon, the search took a darker tone when a dog matching the description of Claire's pet, Hazel, a Chihuahua, was found dead in a Montreal suburb near Highway 30, which is a direct route between Montreal and the fireworks shop. The cause of the dog's death has not been released.
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Police asked the public for information from anyone who might have seen a grey 2007 Ford Escape with licence plate number K5O FVE on Sunday. The vehicle has a yellow 'baby on board' sticker on the rear windshield.
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Hours before Claire's disappearance, she appeared with her mother in an alarming selfie video posted online on TikTok.
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Speaking English, through gritted teeth, staring intently into the camera and holding Claire tight to her chest, Todd spoke one line: 'You try that again, and this is going to get ugly.'