Divers find car linked to 37-year-old cold case in Quebec river
A vehicle believed to be linked to a Laval man's disappearance 37 years ago is being fished out of the Mille-Îles River in Deux-Montagnes, Que.
Australian and American divers from Exploring With a Mission said they found a vehicle believed to belong to Robert St-Louis who went missing in the late '80s on Sunday.
Diver William McIntosh told CTV News he his crew found 'five or six cars' in the river, one of them matching the description St-Louis's daughter had given of her father's Jeep Cherokee Chief.
He said the divers found bones inside the vehicle.
McIntosh said St-Louis's daughter contacted the Exploring With a Mission team for help solving her father's disappearance — she had been the last person to see him when he went missing on Father's Day in 1988.
'We decided to get right in the river,' he said. 'We came across a big stone that was about 70 feet long, and then it dropped straight off into from from five feet of water, directly down to 50 feet. And at 50 feet, we found one car, and then we came back around on it. We found three more, but we found one that was the shape of a Jeep Cherokee with square back with a square window, which is a very unique car.'
Using a sonar and magnets, the divers were able to pull the car by its rim.
'I got the chills immediately. I knew that we had him,' said McIntosh. '[My colleague] Dan put his hand in in the rocks under the driver's side door, and the first bone that that he touched was a U-shaped bone.'
St-Louis lived very close to the spot in the river where the vehicles were found.
According to McIntosh, at least 11 people are missing in the area including Lucie Bouchard who went missing in 1996. Though there were at least five cars in the river, McIntosh and his team were focused on St-Louis.
'They've been waiting 37 years, and currently they might be waiting 37 hours to be able to get this vehicle out and to get all the remains out so they finally can bury their father,' McIntosh said of his family.
McIntosh said the depth of the water just off the boat ramp can make it a hotspot for 'nefarious activity' and 'self-harm scenarios.'
'None of these are accident related,' he told CTV News.
Police have taped off the area and are working to corroborate the divers' findings.
'The divers from the 'Exploring with a Mission' group will meet with investigators, and an examination of the vehicle and its contents will be carried out once it has been removed from the Mille-Îles River in order to confirm the information obtained,' the Lac des Deux-Montagnes police service said in a news release.
'The assistance of divers from the Sûreté du Québec was requested on site, as certain information leads us to believe that the vehicle may be linked to a missing persons case in Laval,' the police force added.
The group of divers has been on a North American tour searching for missing people.
On July 11, they found a car belonging to Yvon Guévin, who had been missing for 11 years, in the Saint-François River.
With files from The Canadian Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
15 minutes ago
- CTV News
Bodies of 2 men from Peel Region recovered after going missing in Stony Lake: OPP
The bodies of two men who went missing on Sunday in a body of water near Peterborough have been recovered, says the OPP. Police say two people were in the area of Stony Lake near Burleigh Falls on Sunday when one of them fell in from the shoreline and appeared to be in distress. 'Others entered the water to assist, resulting in two individuals being reported as missing,' the OPP's Peterborough County Detachment said in a news release. Police said they, along with local paramedics and fire services, were called to that area just before 5 p.m. on Sunday and subsequently launched a search of the water and surrounding area. The search continued on Monday, however searchers were unsuccessful in locating the two missing persons, the OPP said in a follow-up news release. Late Monday afternoon, the OPP said its Underwater Search and Recovery Unit helped with the recovery of the bodies of the two missing persons. The victims have only been identified by police as a 24-year-old man from Caledon and a 26-year-old man from Brampton.
CBC
35 minutes ago
- CBC
The location of his stolen bike is known, but this Winnipegger can't get it back
It only took a few minutes for Louis' bike to get stolen. He was picking up his son from daycare and briefly left his bike unattended and unlocked while he went inside to get his son. When he got outside, his bike was gone. "I immediately pulled up my Find My [app], so like an AirTag, which isn't the greatest tracker, but it is a tracker," the Winnipeg man said. "I decided to put one on because last year I also had a bike stolen … out of the backyard." CBC News has agreed to not share Louis' last name because his bike was stolen near his child's daycare and he's concerned for his family's safety. And while he's reported the theft to the Winnipeg Police Service, as of Friday, he hadn't heard back from them. Louis tracked his bike to a house on Disraeli Street in the Point Douglas area and knocked on the door. A man answered and said his roommate bought a bike earlier that day that matched the description of Louis' bike. "I mentioned that it was teal and orange in colour, and they mentioned, 'Ya, that sounds like the bike I have, that I bought today,'" said Louis. "He mentioned that he just wanted his money back, that he had paid for it." $50 to buy back bike? Louis went to a bank machine so he could buy his own bike back, but when he returned with the $50, the man was gone. That evening, he filed a police report online and registered the bike as stolen with 529 Garage, an anti-theft app. Louis continued to track his bike using the Find My app, hoping he might find it. "I did see a bright teal bike at an encampment on the other side of the bridge of Disraeli, but it was teal and black," said Louis. "There was probably five or six people around it … underneath the street lamp, kind of had three or so bikes around them and they could have been taking parts off, but I'm not sure." 3,000 bikes are stolen in Winnipeg each year Back in June, CBC asked police about bike thefts at the Disraeli encampment, and they said in an email they were investigating bike thefts and "chop shops." The city's website says around 3,000 bikes are stolen each year in Winnipeg. Louis said over the next few days the bike tracker moved around the downtown area. Eventually, it landed at a hotel on Main Street just north of Higgins Avenue. The AirTag says it's still there. He drove down Main Street to see if he could find it. "[Winnipeg Police Service] are probably busy with bigger things than a $500 bike, but when does it become a bigger problem?" said Louis. "I understand that one individual bike is not something they should be pursuing … but at the same time, I'm having to put myself in danger." Police response In a statement to CBC, Winnipeg Police said the stolen bike online report was triaged, and the property crimes unit has been assigned. "For their own safety, the Winnipeg Police Service advises citizens not to attempt to recover stolen property themselves. If someone knows the location of their stolen property, they can call the Non-Emergency Line," said a police statement. Police said anything requiring an immediate response should be reported over the phone. Louis said he did call the non-emergency line, but the automated phone service told him to report the theft online.
Globe and Mail
2 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Restorative justice and the Hockey Canada trial
The Hockey Canada case captivated the country — raising complex questions about consent, hockey culture and even how sports organizations handle accusations of assault. In late July, all five of the accused members of Canada's 2018 world junior hockey team were found not guilty of sexual assault. After the verdict, a lawyer for one of the players, Megan Savard, said her client, Carter Hart, would have been open to a restorative justice process instead of a trial. Some legal experts say restorative justice is an alternative to the court process that could offer healing for victims and offenders. Jennifer Llewellyn, law professor and chair in restorative justice at Dalhousie's Schulich School of Law, joins The Decibel today. She'll explain how restorative justice works and its potential to address issues like the ones raised by the Hockey Canada case. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@
