Missing three-year-old Montreal girl found alive in Ontario, Quebec police say

A three-year-old Montreal girl, reported missing on Sunday by her mother who was charged with child abandonment this week, has been found alive in Ontario, according to Quebec provincial police.

Sûreté du Québec Sergeant Geneviève Bruno said she was found by Ontario Provincial Police around 3 p.m. Police said the girl was discovered alone, but conscious and able to speak with officers, along a highway near St. Albert, Ont.

St. Albert is about 10 kilometres southwest of Casselman, Ont., where police said her mother, 34-year-old Rachel-Ella Todd, and her daughter, were seen earlier in the day on Sunday.

Quebec police said Ontario police used a drone to spot the little girl. A joint news conference with both police forces is expected to be held later today.

The search for the three-year-old girl had been continuing west of Montreal on Wednesday, three days after she was reported missing by Ms. Todd.

Around 150 provincial police officers, as well as trained volunteers, were combing the Montérégie region, near where Ms. Todd walked into a souvenir store on Sunday afternoon and told employees she had lost her daughter, police have said.

The Sûreté du Québec said mother and daughter were seen together in the area around Casselman several hours after leaving their home in the LaSalle neighbourhood of Montreal on Sunday morning.

Ms. Todd remained in custody Wednesday after appearing in a court in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., wearing a purple T-shirt and handcuffs on her hands and feet. She was arrested on Monday and charged with unlawful abandonment of a child.

Prosecutors have objected to her release on the grounds that she poses a danger to the public. Because evidence continues to come in, a possible bail hearing won’t be discussed until her next court date on Friday.

The accused does not have a criminal record.

The alleged offence took place Sunday in Quebec or Ontario, according to the charging document.

Shortly before, Ms. Todd posted a disturbing TikTok video while holding the girl. “You try that again and this is going to get ugly,” she said, visibly angry. A caption read, ”Have you ever faced a mother who has nothing left to lose?” It is not clear who she is addressing.

Police have since found the remains of a dog believed to have been with the girl when she went missing, near the store where her mother reported the disappearance. Police had been on the lookout for a long-haired chihuahua with reddish-brown fur.

Police have released video of Ms. Todd’s 2007 grey Ford Escape, with a “Baby on Board” sticker on the right passenger-side corner of the rear window. Anyone who might have seen the vehicle between 9:45 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday is asked to come forward.

Before the sighting in Ontario, the girl had been last seen at 9:45 a.m. on Sunday in their apartment building in LaSalle.

The girl’s father, Matthew Bell, 35, had shared pleas on social media for the public to help find his daughter. The professional chef did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Crown prosecutor Lili Prévost-Gravel said some members of Ms. Todd’s family were listening to Wednesday’s hearing online. Asked in a scrum after the hearing whether she still believed Ms. Todd posed a danger to the public, Ms. Prévost-Gravel said, “Yes, for sure,” adding that she could not explain why because the evidence was protected.

“It’s hard for a mother to work on that kind of case, but we have to do our job and keep the public safe,” she said.

With reports from The Canadian Press