Several sightings reported of missing girl

TheStar.com - News - Several sightings reported of missing girl

August 22, 2007
Jonathan Montpetit
Canadian press

TROIS-RIVIERES, Que. – The father of a 9-year-old girl who has been missing for three weeks was given fresh hope and relief today 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.