MONTREAL — Quebec police continued their search on Tuesday west of Montreal for a missing three-year-old girl after her mother was charged with child abandonment.
Rachel-Ella Todd, 34, has been charged with one count of unlawful abandonment of a child. Claire Bell, 3, was last seen Sunday morning in Montreal's LaSalle borough, and was reported missing at around 3 p.m. that day in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., about 50 kilometres to the west.
Todd appeared briefly in court by video conference on Tuesday morning and is scheduled to return in person on Wednesday in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., west of Montreal. According to the charging document, the alleged offence is to have taken place on Sunday in Quebec or Ontario.
Wearing a maroon T-shirt and wrapped in a grey blanket, the accused appeared from a provincial police station in Vaudreuil, Que. Todd didn't speak as a court-appointed attorney asked Quebec court Judge Bertrand St-Arnaud to scheduled the next court date on Wednesday. The accused does not have a criminal record.
Outside the courtroom, Crown prosecutor Lili Prévost-Gravel said, "the investigation is ongoing," adding that the Crown opposes bail due to the gravity of the alleged crime. Todd will be taken to Leclerc detention centre for women in Laval, Que., Prévost-Gravel said.
Meanwhile, police searched on Tuesday for the child in several locations in the Montérégie region, including the Coteau-du-Lac area and near Highway 30 in nearby Vaudreuil-Dorion, where a dog that may have belonged to the girl was found on Monday.
Provincial police spokesman Jean-Raphaël Drolet said in a social media video that searchers were going to focus on the Vaudreuil-Dorion area, located about 35 kilometres from the boundary with Ontario. Police have been looking for the girl since Sunday.
"It's possible there are other areas that will be searched as well," Drolet said. "We will move based on the information we have."
Police released a video of Todd's 2007 grey Ford Escape with Quebec licence plate K50 FVE and a 'Baby on Board' sticker on the right passenger side corner of the back window. They asked anyone who might have spotted the vehicle between 9:45 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday to come forward.
Provincial police say Claire Bell is three feet tall, has brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a white long-sleeve shirt with a pink collar, grey pants, and no shoes. Anyone who sees the girl or has information about her whereabouts is asked to contact police.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2025.
Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press
