Updates on missing girls ( Archived) (8)

Family of missing Quebec girl has hope with reported sightings of the child
Wed Aug 22, 6:28 PM



By Jonathan Montpetit

TROIS-RIVIERES, Que. (CP) - The father of a nine-year-old girl who has been missing for three weeks was given fresh hope and relief on Wednesday after learning that police believe his daughter may still be alive.


Quebec provincial police revealed they have information that there were several sightings last week of Cedrika Provencher. While the Provencher family has always maintained Cedrika is alive, her father admitted the new details have reinvigorated their spirits.


"It's a relief, it's balm for the soul," Martin Provencher said during a rare break from co-ordinating and participating in volunteer searches for his daughter.


The news that police believe she has been seen alive is also a relief.


"It does you good sometimes to hear those kinds of comments," he said.


"It's good because these are professionals who are working on the ground and with experience working cases like this."


Cedrika vanished July 31 after she didn't come home from a bike ride in this quiet community, midway between Montreal and Quebec City.


She was last seen telling witnesses she was helping a man look for a lost dog, a clue which has proved vital to investigators.


"What we have now is information to the effect that she was seen in different locations, principally in eastern Quebec," said police spokesman Richard Gagne.


"We are in the process of looking into this information to attempt to locate the young girl.


"The information is credible and that's the reason we believe she is still alive."


Posters of the smiling, freckle-faced girl in her Scout's uniform fill just about every lamp post, storefront and bus stop in Trois-Rivieres.


Hundreds of volunteers continue to search for her and have brought the posters to every corner of the province, including Montreal and the northern Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region.


"We're starting to get tired," Martin Provencher said from an old bank where the family is organizing its efforts to find Cedrika, which are separate from the police investigation. "But there is nothing that can stop us."


Police also revealed Wednesday that another girl claims she was approached by a man needing help to find a dog.


Three other girls have come forward with the same story since Cedrika disappeared.


"It will help the total package of information so we can try to create a police sketch or provide a more precise physical description (of the suspect)," Gagne said. "But it's too soon for that for the moment."

Police have refined their search in recent days and now say they are looking for one man, casting aside theories that a couple may have been involved.

Members of the Provencher family's extended support network welcomed the new information on Wednesday and called on the public to be vigilant.

"There's absolutely no reason to think the worst just yet," Pina Arcamone of the Missing Children's Network said in an interview. "We need to encourage the public to be on the look out."

Arcamone plans to meet with Cedrika's family on Friday in Trois-Rivieres.

The Missing Children's Network is offering emotional and technical support in the girl's disappearance and has been providing descriptions of the girl outside Quebec and in Europe.

But Arcamone cautioned that fresh details in the case of a missing person can be a double-edged sword.

"If this is the case, the family has reason to be feeling cautiously optimistic," she said. "But if it doesn't pan out, it's like losing her all over again."

An $80,000 reward has been offered to find the girl, contributing to the some 3,000 tips police have received from the public.

You can see an updated phot of Cédrika on this site...please take a good look.

Witnesses claim they saw 'Maddie' in Spain
56 minutes ago



MADRID (AFP) - Police are investigating reports that two women in Spain may have seen missing toddler Madeleine McCann, who disappeared almost four months ago in Portugal, official sources said Thursday.

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The women said they believe they saw the child accompanied by a man at a petrol station in Cartagena near the southeastern city of Murcia, officials told AFP.


"Two women made a statement on August 21 at a police station saying they saw the youngster accompanied by a man," regional government delegation sources told AFP.


'Maddie' disappeared without trace on May 3 from her parents' accommodation in the Portuguese Algarve resort of Praia da Luz as they dined with friends just metres (yards) away.


The regional delegate's office gave no further details regarding the women's account but local newspapers reported that they believed Maddie had been travelling in a green Citroen ZX with a heavily-built man described as brown-eyed with brown hair and about 1m75 (5 foot 10) tall.


Police sources expressed caution in telling AFP that in such cases "there are always calls from people who believe they have seen something."


"In this case (of Maddie) there is no news" of any concrete developments, they added.


In interviews Wednesday with Spanish media Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry said they believed their daughter was alive and in Spain.


"There is a real possibility that Madeleine is alive in Spain," they maintained.

Thanks
Just hope someone somewhere may have info.

Father of missing 10-year-old Quebec girl looks to e-mails for encouragement
Sun Sep 23, 3:17 PM



By Peter Rakobowchuk, The Canadian Press

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MONTREAL - More than 50 days have passed since Cedrika Provencher vanished, but her father, Martin, maintains his optimism with the help of e-mails that arrive daily.


"We get about a hundred e-mails a day that are filled with words of encouragement," Martin Provencher said in an interview.


He says the family continues to receive "lots of information" on a website set up after the 10-year-old disappeared from Trois-Rivieres, Que., on July 31.


Provencher said the website gets about 10,000 visits daily.


In the latest effort to track down Cedrika, the family is distributing photos of the young girl with different hairstyles.


The computer-generated images show her with a variety of blond, short and streaked hairstyles and wearing glasses.


Quebec provincial police say they have received 1,000 tips since Sept. 6, when they issued a description of a vehicle and a man possibly connected to the girl's disappearance.


They have been looking for a French-speaking man between the ages of 30 and 40 with light brown hair and a medium build.


He was seen driving a four-door red Acura car built between 2002 and 2004.


"We've received tips mainly from the Trois-Rivieres area and across Quebec," Lieut. Francois Dore said in an interview.


But there was a hint of frustration in his voice.


"It's kind of worrying because we still don't know, after more than 50 days, where Cedrika is . . . that's the problem."


Last Wednesday, the girl's mother, Karine Fortier, toured French-language media and made an appeal from the heart.


"We're missing maybe just a little piece of the puzzle . . . a small piece that will permit us to reach a conclusion to this story," she said.


Fortier again urged people who had any information about the kidnapping to contact police.


The 33-year-old woman also called on residents of Trois-Rivieres, which is halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, to keep an eye on friends, neighbours and family members for any change in behaviour.


"It's not stamped on his face, but this man has a daily routine and someone surely has noticed something," Fortier said.

Cedrika was last seen helping a man look for a lost dog.

The girl's father recently helped launch a song which was written about his daughter. The lyrics ask her not to give up hope.

"Your father misses you, your mother thinks only of you. Wherever you are, don't give up, don't give up."

The single "Cedrika" was written and composed in French by a singer who prefers to be known as Stev.

It has been distributed to French-language radio stations in Quebec.

"I myself have a little girl who is five years old and the story of her disappearance has affected me a lot," he said. "My biggest strength is writing and music and I used that talent to bring some comfort to the family."

Stev said the song also tells young people to avoid strangers who are being too friendly.

The 28-year-old singer from Shawinigan has had to defend himself from accusations he is capitalizing on the girl's misery.

"It didn't go over well and I was called an opportunist, but when I had a news conference with Cedrika's father, Martin Provencher, it cleared things up," he said.

"It was the family that gave me contacts and helped me get the song on the market."

He said about $2 from the sale of every single will go to a fund which has been set up to help the family look for their daughter.

Reports: Spanish police pass photo of child resembling Madeleine to Interpol
57 minutes ago



By The Associated Press

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MADRID, Spain - Spanish police have passed on to Interpol a photograph of a girl taken by two Spanish tourists recently in Morocco which the couple suspect could be of missing British girl Madeleine McCann, news reports said Tuesday.


The photograph was taken by the couple, of the central Spanish city of Albacete, who had visited Morocco in August, Europa Press news agency reported. The couple sent the photograph by e-mail to local police, who passed it on to Interpol.


State news agency Efe also said that the photograph was passed on to Interpol, but the report did not say when it was taken.


Spanish police were not immediately available to comment. There have been numerous other reported sightings of her in the past.


The photograph, published on the websites of several Spanish newspapers Tuesday, shows a group of people walking along a road. One in the group, a woman in Moroccan-style clothing, is carrying a fair-haired child on her back.


Europa Press said the photograph was taken on a road near the northern city of Tangiers, which lies just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain.


Madeleine disappeared from a Portuguese resort on May 3, shortly before her fourth birthday. Her parents said they had left the girl and her younger twin siblings asleep in their rented villa while they had dinner nearby. Despite an extensive search and a worldwide publicity campaign by her parents, no trace of the child has been found.


The case took a startling twist earlier this month when Portuguese police named Kate and Gerry McCann official suspects in their daughter's disappearance. The parents deny any involvement, and insist police keep searching for Madeleine.