Police have charged a 17-year-old boy with attempted murder and sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl that police initially believed was an animal attack.Ashley Fraser /The Globe and Mail
Up until two days ago, the residents of the tiny Ontario community of Quadeville had been on high alert. Some children were kept indoors, and parents were on the lookout for a possibly violent and unpredictable creature.
The fear stemmed from the discovery of a missing eight-year-old girl on June 24 who had been so savagely attacked, investigators warned residents that they believed it must have been an animal.
But on Wednesday, Ontario Provincial Police made a new announcement. Forensic analysis had found no evidence of animal DNA. Instead, a 17-year-old had been charged with attempted murder and sexual assault with a weapon on a person under 16 years old.
Now, the residents of the community, two hours west of Ottawa, are left shocked not just at the horrific attack, but how there could be so much confusion about what − or who − was allegedly behind it.
Zahidul Kabir, reached at his food-supply establishment, Quadeville Homemade Naan and Pizza, said that up until he was contacted by a Globe and Mail reporter on Thursday, he had been under the impression that this was an animal attack. He had been keeping his child inside after the girl had been found.
“We didn’t expect this, never thought it could happen here,” Mr. Kabir said. “The whole thing has changed. We’ll have to watch people’s activities now, who’s coming and going.”
Zahidul Kabir in his backyard workshop. Kabir and his family live across the street from the young girl’s family home.Ashley Fraser/The Globe and Mail
On Saturday, the OPP will try to clear up some of that confusion at a town hall, they say. They have yet to firm up a location, but promise to answer residents’ questions.
This all started on June 23, the day the eight-year-old was reported missing. Volunteers searched between densely packed pines and near the abandoned lumber mill. Just after midnight the next day, she was found in a grassy inlet, buzzing with deer flies, down the path from the cemetery.
The child was found with “horrific” life-threatening injuries, said Bill Dickson, the OPP’s media relations co-ordinator for Eastern Ontario. In a news release, police warned that, although they hadn’t confirmed it was an animal attack, that is what they suspected.
“As a precaution, parents in the Quadeville area should continue to keep their small children indoors or under close supervision,” the release said.
Mr. Dickson told The Globe that it wasn’t just police officers that formed that theory. Forensic and wildlife experts also came to the same conclusion, he said.
“They did have the look, not just to our members, but to some experts in the field, that they were consistent with what appeared to be animal wounds, or animal-related wounds,” Mr. Dickson said.
Police will not comment on what led them to suspect a human assault.
The suspect, who the OPP say is from Eastern Ontario, was arrested on Tuesday. His name has not been released in accordance with the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Pastor Joe Fiorentino of the Quadeville Pentecostal Church.Ashley Fraser /The Globe and Mail
Community members told The Globe that the victim is an active girl who played with all the local children. She was friendly, they said, and her laugh was frequently heard from nearby homes.
The victim’s family is “overwhelmed” by support, said Joseph Fiorentino, the pastor at the Quadeville Pentecostal Church.
The night the girl went missing, Mr. Kabir helped search the forest with other members of the community. Mr. Kabir said he knows the eight-year-old attack victim from the neighbourhood.
“She was always there, always playing and bicycling, running around here,” Mr. Kabir said.
“It is really scary,” Mr. Kabir said of the attack. “We never had anything like this before.”
In a video posted on June 26 on a GoFundMe page, a man who identified himself as the victim’s legal guardian thanked the community for the prayer and support he has received.
He said the eight-year-old is in stable condition but that he wasn’t sure if she would require more surgery.
Within 24 hours, the page raised $5,500. On Thursday, about 300 people had donated more than $28,000.