Ontario police face questions over timelines in assault investigation of 8-year-old girl
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Nearly 100 people filled a small community centre in Quadeville, about 170 kilometres west of Ottawa, for a town hall organized by Ontario Provincial Police to address residents' questions and concerns about their investigation.
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Some have asked why the OPP alerted the community about a suspected animal attack on the eight-year-old girl before announcing two weeks later that a 17-year-old boy had been charged with sexual assault and attempted murder.
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Police have said that they never ruled out other possibilities, and that their initial theory was supported by medical and pathology experts.
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The community centre was packed, with no empty seats to be found. As people filed in, the temperature in the room started to increase on a sweltering evening, especially after someone shut off the portable air conditioning unit that was making noise.
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'It's a very traumatic time for this community because everyone knows everyone involved,' OPP Supt. Derek Needham said at the meeting punctuated by some tense moments.
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The OPP have said that they began their search for the missing child around 9 p.m. on June 23, and found her with life-threatening injuries not long after midnight.
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Police asked people to keep their small children indoors amid fears of an animal attack, but as their investigation continued, they discovered that there were no traces of animal DNA from the victim's wounds. Police have not said what kind of evidence led them to arrest the teenage suspect, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
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