Police find body of toddler missing after car swept into Gaspé's Sainte-Anne River
CBC News | Posted: June 13, 2017 11:06 AM | Last Updated: June 13, 2017
Body of 2-year-old girl found 1.5 kilometres away from spot where car was washed away by current
Provincial police have recovered the body of a two-year-old girl, who went missing after the car she was in was swept into the Sainte-Anne River in Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula last month.
Officer with the Sûreté du Québec found the body Tuesday afternoon around 3 p.m., several hours after they relaunched the search operation.
The search effort included SQ officers walking along the shores of the river, boats, divers and the canine unit.
The toddler's body was found lying in branches, about one-and-a-half kilometres from the spot where the car was swept away by the current.
In May, as parts of Quebec were hit by heavy rain and flooding, Mike Gagnon, his partner and her two-year-old daughter were in an SUV driving along a road in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, Que. that had been closed to traffic due to the overflowing river.
The woman managed to get out, but Gagnon, 37, and the girl could not.
Rescuers searched for the man and toddler for several hours. Gagnon's body was found a day later.
At the time, police suspended the search for the little girl because the water was too murky and the water level too high, but the conditions improved enough to resume the search Tuesday morning.