Latest news with #RobertSt-Louis
Toronto Sun
2 days ago
- Toronto Sun
Coroner confirms remains found in Quebec river are man missing for 37 Years
His submerged vehicle was found near Deux-Montagnes after a group searched the river using advanced sonar. Published Jul 29, 2025 • Last updated 16 hours ago • 1 minute read Robert St-Louis's Jeep Cherokee was pulled from the Mille-Îles River in Deux-Montagnes this week after being located by Exploring with a Mission. St-Louis had vanished in 1988. Exploring with a Mission The Quebec coroner's office has confirmed that human remains found inside a submerged vehicle in Deux-Montagnes last week are those of Robert St-Louis, who went missing in 1988. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Laval police shared the news Monday on Facebook, officially closing a case that had remained unsolved for 37 years. In a post, they offered condolences to St-Louis's family, praising their 'great resilience' and decades of continued contact with investigators. St-Louis was 42 when he vanished in June 1988. His beige Jeep Cherokee was located earlier this month in the Mille-Îles River by Exploring With a Mission, a U.S.-based volunteer diving team that searches waterways for missing people. Bones were found inside the vehicle, along with personal belongings including his sunglasses and a distinctive gold watch. Daniel St-Louis, his son, said the discovery brought a difficult but needed sense of closure. 'We're torn between the 37-year grief that's coming out and also a little bit of satisfaction that, finally, we're going to begin to be able to grieve,' he previously told The Gazette. The cause of death remains under investigation but Daniel said 'everything seems to point' to suicide. The discovery was made with the help of sonar equipment near a boat launch in Deux-Montagnes. The family says it is still deciding how to honour St-Louis, but it will likely involve a pint of O'Keefe's. With files from The Gazette's Kalina Laframboise Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls Columnists MLB Tennis
Montreal Gazette
2 days ago
- Montreal Gazette
Coroner confirms remains found in Mille-Îles river are Robert St-Louis, missing for 37 Years
The Quebec coroner's office has confirmed that human remains found inside a submerged vehicle in Deux-Montagnes last week are those of Robert St-Louis, who went missing in 1988. Laval police shared the news Monday on Facebook, officially closing a case that had remained unsolved for 37 years. In a post, they offered condolences to St-Louis's family, praising their 'great resilience' and decades of continued contact with investigators. St-Louis was 42 when he vanished in June 1988. His beige Jeep Cherokee was located earlier this month in the Mille-Îles River by Exploring With a Mission, a U.S.-based volunteer diving team that searches waterways for missing people. Bones were found inside the vehicle, along with personal belongings including his sunglasses and a distinctive gold watch. Daniel St-Louis, his son, said the discovery brought a difficult but needed sense of closure. 'We're torn between the 37-year grief that's coming out and also a little bit of satisfaction that, finally, we're going to begin to be able to grieve,' he previously told The Gazette. The cause of death remains under investigation but Daniel said 'everything seems to point' to suicide. The discovery was made with the help of sonar equipment near a boat launch in Deux-Montagnes. The family says it is still deciding how to honour St-Louis, but it will likely involve a pint of O'Keefe's. With files from The Gazette's Kalina Laframboise
Toronto Sun
7 days ago
- Toronto Sun
How volunteer sleuths from Rhode Island solved the disappearances of two Quebec men
Exploring with a Mission came to Quebec with equipment to search waterways for vehicles of missing people. Published Jul 25, 2025 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 4 minute read Robert St-Louis's Jeep Cherokee was pulled from the Mille-Îles River in Deux-Montagnes this week after being located by Exploring with a Mission. St-Louis had vanished in 1988. Exploring with a Mission After speaking with Robert St-Louis's daughter, Bill McIntosh's first thought was to search for her father along the eastern bank of the Mille-Îles River, near where he lived in Laval. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account But as McIntosh explains, the depth there wasn't right. Most of the river's edge was only a few feet deep, far too shallow to hide the Jeep Cherokee St-Louis drove when he vanished in 1988. Where St-Louis was known to fish across the river in Deux-Montagnes, he learned, was much different. Near a popular boat ramp, the bank drops steeply by about 70 feet. Last weekend, McIntosh and his diving partner used sonar devices to locate St-Louis's vehicle there. They then retrieved a small U-shaped bone believed to be a mandible. While the remains need to be officially identified, it was the second of two cold cases the small diving group from Rhode Island is believed to have solved while visiting Quebec this month. 'It's been a humbling experience,' McIntosh, 54, said this week while packing from the trip. 'We're just grateful we were able to bring two people home in your country.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. McIntosh, a hockey club owner and coach, and his partner Dan Pritchard, a former police diver from Australia, are the duo behind the non-profit Exploring with a Mission. They began working together in 2023, sharing their search efforts on YouTube. They focus on searching waterways for missing people whose vehicles were never recovered, under the assumption that the cars are likely submerged in bodies of water. They estimate there are up to 100,000 discarded cars in North American waters and 3,000 people reported missing along with their vehicles. So far, they have successfully located missing individuals in Australia, the U.S., and Canada. Travelling with an RV, boat trailer and their equipment, they arrived in Quebec in early July with a list of a dozen cold cases carefully mapped out by region. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Once here, they were helped by a local non-profit, Meurtres et Disparitions Irrésolus du Québec (MDIQ). The group connected them with surviving family members and helped bridge any language barriers. 'They've done excellent work,' Stéphane Luce, who heads the MDIQ, said this week. 'And I think there are many, many other waterways that could be searched in Quebec to try to find more cars, possibly with people in them.' The diving team's first success during its trip came on July 10 in Pierreville, a small municipality in the Mauricie region. Yvon Guévin, a 75-year-old former town councillor, was reported missing in 2014 after leaving his home in his 1989 Jeep Cherokee, accompanied by his dog, a Miniature Pinscher named Costaud. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The team met with Guévin's family to better understand his habits and what McIntosh calls a person's 'natural circle': their usual commute from work, say, or places they were known to visit After speaking with a local fisherman, the team learned Guévin would often take a specific drive along the St-François River. Along the route, McIntosh noticed that an intersection led to a steep embankment without a guardrail. 'It was a standard accident scenario,' he said. 'You turn six inches off the road, and you're in the river.' The team entered the water with their sonar equipment and, within minutes, located Guévin's car. Pritchard emerged soon after with the license plate matching his missing person report. Police later retrieved the car from the river and authorities are working to confirm the remains found inside. Guévin's family and friends watched the scene unfold, sharing fist bumps and hugs. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'They were just happy to finally have an answer after all of this time,' McIntosh said. The team also traveled to Louiseville to conduct searches for Mélissa Blais, a 34-year-old mother missing since 2017, and to Maniwaki to look for Christine Thibault, a 63-year-old missing for 16 years. Searches were inconclusive in both cases, but they checked every possible location the families suggested. Sometimes that alone can be comforting for families, McIntosh said. 'It gives them an answer as to where they aren't,' he said. 'They won't drive by a body of water every day and think, 'Is dad in there? Or, is my grandfather in there?'' At the site in Deux-Montagnes where they found St-Louis's car, they also located several other vehicles in the river. Police have since retrieved three and say they do not believe they are related to other disappearances or homicides. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The team's findings in such a short timeframe have raised questions about why Quebec police departments were unable to solve the cases earlier. McIntosh noted that most police departments use older sonar equipment that may not allow them to locate vehicles as effectively. He says he gave the Sûreté du Québec one of his sonar set-ups before leaving, 'so that they have additional tools to start building on.' After media coverage of their success in Quebec, the team received inquiries from several families across the province. They've now added a handful of other local cases to their list, and intend on returning to search for them. 'What we're trying to teach everybody is that there are vehicles everywhere in our waterways,' McIntosh said. 'And many of them hold secrets.' Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA World Sunshine Girls
Hamilton Spectator
20-07-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
Vehicle found in river north of Montreal could be linked to missing person case
MONTREAL - Police north of Montreal say a vehicle found in the Mille-Îles river on Sunday could be linked to the case of a Laval man who went missing in 1988. Deux-Montagnes police say they are looking into the discovery, reported to police by a diving group known as Exploring With a Mission. The group searches waterways for missing people and says they located a vehicle on the bottom of the river with bones inside. Group member William McIntosh says he believes the vehicle is the tan Jeep Cherokee Chief belonging to Robert St-Louis, a 42-year-old father of five last seen in June 1988. Police say they requested the assistance of Quebec provincial police divers because the vehicle might be linked to a missing person case. Laval police says its crimes against persons division will try to confirm whether any human remains recovered from the site can be identified. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2025. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Winnipeg Free Press
20-07-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Vehicle found in river north of Montreal could be linked to missing person case
MONTREAL – Police north of Montreal say a vehicle found in the Mille-Îles river on Sunday could be linked to the case of a Laval man who went missing in 1988. Deux-Montagnes police say they are looking into the discovery, reported to police by a diving group known as Exploring With a Mission. The group searches waterways for missing people and says they located a vehicle on the bottom of the river with bones inside. Group member William McIntosh says he believes the vehicle is the tan Jeep Cherokee Chief belonging to Robert St-Louis, a 42-year-old father of five last seen in June 1988. Police say they requested the assistance of Quebec provincial police divers because the vehicle might be linked to a missing person case. Laval police says its crimes against persons division will try to confirm whether any human remains recovered from the site can be identified. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2025.
