Friday, May 6, 2011

Police Arrest Man in his Forties

             MONTREAL- Police have arrested a man in his 40s in connection with the homicide of Jolène Riendeau, who disappeared when she was 10-years-old in Montreal's Point St. Charles district in 1999.

The man reportedly is known to police.

More details to come

4 comments:

Les F said...

quick work by the Montreal Police,a man in his 40's ,making this guy only in his late 20's when little Joelne went missing.

Les F said...

that rules him out of the Sharon Prior connection,which happened in the mid 1970's,assumming that murderer was at least in their 20's would make that suspect at least late 50's maybe early 60's
but from what I read there were a few other disappearances from the Point since the 90's,so maybe this guy is connected there too.?

Les F said...

I don't know why the newspapers today are running an age enhanced photo of Jolene,since they know for certain she did not get a chance to age past her 10 year old status.I can see using the photo ,up until the other day when they confirmed the body was that of Jolene.However good work to make an arrest .

Les F said...

This is another story from this mornings Gazette,with the headline:
"Missing Childrens Families Hoping for Closure"

MONTREAL - Cédrika, Julie, Jolène - household names that abbreviate the terror and suffering of families whose children have been missing for four years, or 11 or 12, their faces plastered on lampposts and milk cartons across the province.

In the case of Jolène Riendeau, whose body was found sometime before dawn on Wednesday, her family's worst fears were confirmed. Police wouldn't tell them when or where they found the body, only that they were convinced it was a homicide.

But at least in Jolène's case, who disappeared when she was 10, the family, and the community of Point St. Charles, can finally stop searching.

"We're really sad that she's dead, but we're also relieved," said Cheryl Hill, who has had a poster of Jolène in her living-room window on Charlevoix St. for 10 years.

"It's giving the mother closure, and she is now able to bury her daughter's remains at peace. I think it's a big relief for everyone. I said to myself last night it was time to take the poster down."

For the tight-knit community, wedged between the Lachine Canal and the St. Lawrence River, Jolène's disappearance so long ago was in fact the latest.

Hill didn't know Tammy Leakey, a 12-year-old girl who went to a dépanneur to buy milk and candy in 1981, and was later found in a Dorval industrial park, raped and murdered. That case remains unsolved.

But she was close friends with Sharron Prior, who disappeared Easter weekend in 1975 on the way to a pizza place to meet with friends, and has not been seen since.

"Sharron's mom now lives on the other side of the canal," said Hill, whose sister was with Sharron the night she disappeared and had offered to walk with her to the restaurant.

"We don't talk about it anymore, but when Easter comes around you feel it. I don't think you ever get over it. We were 16 at the time. I'll be 53."

Back in 1975, Hill scoured the laneways, the canal, the vacant lots of The Point, looking for her friend. "Back then everyone knew each other. It affected everyone."

When Riendeau disappeared, just months after Hill's own 5-year-old son drowned in mysterious circumstances, everyone once again searched the neighbourhood and beyond.

Police went door to door in The Point, showing her picture; the canine squad sniffed for clues along the Lachine Canal; every police officer was notified of Jolène's disappearance and given her photo.

Pina Arcamone, now the director general of the Missing Children's Network, says Jolène's disappearance in 1999 was her second highprofile case. "Every second house in Point St. Charles had a poster of Jolène."

As for the other missing children, Arcamone says their families should not give up hope.

"Unless as a parent you've experienced this type of loss you can't appreciate what Jolène's family or what Cédrika's family or Julie's family is going through - it truly is the worst nightmare," she said. "Our role right now is to remind them that the answers will come. We just don't know when."

csolyom@ montrealgazette.com