CANADA • Adam BENHAMMA, 3 (deceased) ~ Laval QC

Missing child - Adam Benhamma, 3 ~ Laval QC
April 04, 2011


Adam Benhamma, 3, has been missing since Sunday afternoon.

Police are racing to find a three-year old boy with autism who vanished Sunday near woods in Laval, Que., but the search is being complicated in part because he can't hear or speak.

Adam Benhamma was with his family visiting friends on Pointe-aux-Ormes Street in Laval's Auteuil neighbourhood.

"He was playing outside with other children, and at a certain point he just disappeared," Const. Nathalie Lorrain with Laval police said Monday. "The children who were with him started looking for him and they couldn't find him."

The home is in a remote area of Laval, between a wooded area and the Mille-Îles River.

Police said the search for the boy was complicated by the terrain, as well as the boy's condition.


Police are using Zodiac inflatable boats, divers, and all-terrain vehicles in the race to find Adam.

"It's almost impossible to communicate with him, and also if something happened he couldn't scream or anything like that," said Lorrain.

Police looked for the boy Sunday afternoon using sniffer dogs and the Quebec provincial police helicopter.

The search was called off at night, although Lorrain said four officers continued to comb local streets overnight.

Divers with Quebec provincial police were to join the search Monday morning.

Police are also using Zodiac inflatable boats, all-terrain vehicles and sniffer dogs in the race to find the boy Monday.

Adam is two feet tall and weighs 25 pounds.

He was wearing a black and purple tuque and a black jacket and jeans when he disappeared.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/04/04/montreal-autistic-boy-missing.html

Anyone who sees the boy is asked to immediately call 911. Anyone with helpful information about the case is asked to call Laval police at 450-662-4636.

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Crews searching river, woods for missing autistic boy

LAVAL — On Monday morning search crews in Laval resumed their hunt for a missing three-year-old boy.

Adam Benhamma is autistic, deaf, and mute.

He was playing outside a home on Pointe-aux-Ormes Rd. on Sunday afternoon with his seven-year-old sister when he went missing.

"His older sister was playing outside the house, and at one point she came inside and said she could no longer see her brother,"said Laval Constable Nathalie Lorrain.

Up to 30 police officers spent Sunday afternoon and evening searching the nearby woods while helicopters provided an eye overhead.

"Today we will be looking more closely at the river with the aid of divers," said Lorrain, while sniffer dogs will try to follow the boy's scent onshore.

Adam weighs 25 pounds and has black hair.

He is wearing a black coat, and a black and purple tuque.

Anyone who sees him is asked to call 9-1-1, and to approach him very calmly and gently.

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110404/mtl_adam_search_monday_110404/20110404/?hub=MontrealHome

Aerial view of the search area

The area being searched is about a five-minute drive down a muddy road to a small group of houses, which are surrounded by marshland and located next to the Mille-Iles River.


Police are asking would-be volunteers to stay away from the area because they don't want the scent of more people to interfere with the dogs.


Marshy woods in the vicinity where young Adam disappeared.


Police rescue searchers combing the Mille-Îles river in Laval for 3-year-old Adam Benhamma.


A provincial police rescue searcher combs a river close to a wooded area in Laval, Que., near Montreal, Monday, April 4, 2011

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Search for missing autistic boy called off for the day
April 04, 2011


Adam Benhamma, 3, has gone missing from a home in the Auteuil district of Laval.

LAVAL — Search crews and volunteers in Laval spent a rainy Monday searching for Adam Benhamma, a three-year-old boy who is autistic, deaf and mute and has been missing since Sunday afternoon.

But by 5:30 p.m. Monday the search was called off for the day after coming up empty, ramping up fears about the young boy's safety.

The overnight weather forecast calls for warming temperatures, but more rain and windy conditions.

Adam was playing outside a home on Pointe-aux-Ormes Rd. on Sunday afternoon with his seven-year-old sister when he went missing.

"His older sister was playing outside the house, and at one point she came inside and said she could no longer see her brother,"said Laval Constable Nathalie Lorrain.

The children's mother, who was not at the house at the time, reportedly went into nervous shock and had to be hospitalized when told.

. . . . .
Police officers are searching the woods around the house where Adam was playing.

Divers searched river on Monday

"[Monday] we will be looking more closely at the river with the aid of divers," said Lorrain, while sniffer dogs will try to follow the boy's scent onshore.

By noon on Monday, 23 hours after Adam went missing, search crews had turned up no signs of the boy.

"The more time that passes of course the less hope we have of finding the little boy alive," said Lorrain. "We are leaning more and more to the fact that he might have fallen into the river."

Up to 30 police officers spent Sunday afternoon and evening searching the nearby woods while helicopters provided an eye overhead.

No signs of boy in muddy marshland

Jonathan Poirier has lived in the Auteuil neighbourhood all his life.

"We know these woods like the back of our hand," said Poirier.

He says it is very easy to get lost in the nearby woods where the ground is muddy and wet year-round.

The area being searched is about a five-minute drive down a muddy road to a small group of houses, which are surrounded by marshland and located next to the Mille-Iles River.

Much of the river is still covered in ice.

Police are using ATVs to patrol the woods, but the vehicles were sinking into the mud and slowing down the search.

However, despite the slow-going, police are asking would-be volunteers to stay away from the area because they don't want the scent of more people to interfere with the dogs.

Description

Adam weighs 25 pounds and has black hair.

He is wearing a black coat, a black and purple tuque, blue jeans and blue running shoes.

Anyone who sees him is asked to call 9-1-1, and to approach him very calmly and gently.

http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110404/mtl_adam_search_monday_110404/20110404/?hub=OttawaHome

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Police comb icy river for signs of missing boy
April 05, 2011



A search for a missing autistic boy remains focused on a part of the Mille Iles River, near a waterfront property where three-year-old Adam Benhamma was last seen alive.

Police increasingly suspect that the young boy, who is also unable to speak or hear, fell into the river after he went missing on the weekend.

Benhamma was playing outside with his sister at a home of a family friend in Laval, Que., whom the two siblings were visiting with their father.

The boy slipped out of sight during a game of hide-and-seek while his father was momentarily inside the house.

The boy's absence was quickly reported to police, who brought in dogs, ATVs, extra officers and eventually divers to try to find him.

CTV Montreal's Cindy Sherwin said police have put "all their resources" into the desperate search for Benhamma, including flying a helicopter over the property.

But after two nights of cold and wet weather, Laval police spokesperson Nathalie Lorrain said it seems unlikely that the young boy could have survived on his own, without food or shelter.

"Definitely the hope that he would still be alive if he was outside is very slim," Lorrain told CTV Montreal on Tuesday.

Sherwin said police divers are now trying to remove ice from the surface of the river, in anticipation of the tragic possibility that they will find Benhamma's body in the water.

Earlier Tuesday, CTV's Genevieve Beauchemin reported that police intended to speak to Benhamma's seven-year-old sister on Tuesday, with hopes of obtaining more clues as to where her brother may have went when he disappeared.

Benhamma's parents have been keeping a low profile since their son went missing and they have not spoken to the press about their ordeal.

The boy's mother was not at the property when Benhamma went missing. Police say she went into shock when she heard what happened to her son.

Carol Namur, the founding president of the volunteer group Sauvetage Canada Rescue, said it is well possible that Benhamma stayed relatively close to the area where he was last seen.

Namur said autistic children "are more likely to just stop, and rock back and forth, and save energy" when they end up separated from loved ones. The fact that Benhamma is only three years old may also have limited how far he wandered.

"When you combine those two elements, it means that there's a very good chance also that he has found a hiding place," Namur told CTV's Canada AM during an interview from Montreal on Tuesday morning.

Benhamma has dark hair and was wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and a striped toque when he went missing. He is two feet tall and weighs 25 pounds.

Police are asking members of the public to approach the missing boy gently if they see him and to contact authorities as quickly as possible.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110405/missing-boy-110405/

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Police lose hope of finding Que. boy alive
Police believe 3-year-old with autism may have fallen into icy river
April 5, 2011 7:55 PM ET


Adam, 3, has been missing since Sunday afternoon.

A search is scheduled to resume Wednesday morning for a three-year-old autistic boy who went missing near Montreal on Sunday.

The search for Adam Benhamma focused Tuesday on an icy river in Laval, Que.

Police say they do not expect to find him alive at this point.

Adam, who cannot hear or speak, has not been seen since Sunday afternoon, and police now believe he fell into the Mille-Îles River.

"In our minds, we are searching for a body," said Laval Const. Nathalie Lorrain. "We don't think we will be finding the little boy alive, unfortunately."

Benhamma was last seen on Pointe-aux-Ormes Street in Laval's Auteuil neighbourhood , where he and his family were visiting friends. The home is in a remote section of Laval, metres from the river and the wooded area.

Adam's autism and his inability to hear or speak have complicated search efforts.

"The biggest concern is that he cannot hear us and cannot respond to our signs," Laval Const. Simon Charette said earlier in the search.

Police divers searched the river Tuesday and firefighters worked to break the ice along the shoreline.

Sniffer dogs, all-terrain vehicles and foot patrollers searched neighbouring woods all day Monday but did not find any evidence of the boy.

The boy was playing outside with his seven-year-old sister Sunday afternoon, while their father watched them.

According to police, Adam's father had just stepped inside the house for a minute, when his daughter rushed in to say she could no longer see her younger brother.

Adam's mother, who was not there at the time of the disappearance, was treated for shock on Sunday but has since been released from hospital.

Adam is two feet tall and weighs 25 pounds. He was wearing a black and purple tuque and a black jacket and jeans.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/04/05/montreal-police-search-continues-missing-boy.html



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Hope fading as search for autistic boy focuses on river
April 06, 2011


A rescue worker searches the Mille Îles River in Laval near Montreal this week.
Three-year-old Adam Benhamma went missing Sunday.

MONTREAL — Hope for the safe return of a missing three-year-old autistic boy was fading Wednesday as the fourth day of the search ended without a sign of him, leaving his family devastated by the tragic disappearance.

Authorities called off the ground search for Adam Benhamama, focusing their attention instead on the river near where he disappeared. Divers equipped with sonar equipment searched many portions of the waterway, but police admit chances of finding the boy alive are extremely slim.

His father had gone to Laval on Sunday to visit a sick friend who is in a wheelchair. When he arrived at the house with two of his children, he was carrying some groceries and a cake, hoping to cheer his friend up.

But shortly after the father greeted his friend, Adam disappeared while playing hide-and-seek with his sister and another child outside the house on the Mille Iles River.

His mother has since been hospitalized for shock while the father is having difficulty dealing with the tragedy, a family friend told reporters.

"He is an excellent father, a great friend who everyone can count on," said Chaker Chraibi, who described himself as a longtime family friend. "He is so attached to his children. It is such a tragedy."

Chraibi said that Adam's father had taken his son into the house, but said the boy was "opening the door and coming down the stairs."

The father followed him outside and then asked his seven-year-old daughter to watch her brother "for a few seconds," Chraibi said.

Adam's parents, who live in Montreal, also have a two-year-old son.

Chraibi said the little boy's sister feels badly for what happened.

"Yesterday she saw a picture of the kid, and she started crying," he said.

Chraibi spoke to reporters as police divers continued to search for the boy's body in the Mille Iles River, north of Laval.

The land search was called off Wednesday after police failed to find any trace of the boy over the past few days.

Laval police Const. Nathalie Lorrain said that police have checked two square kilometres of land and shoreline.

"Everything has been checked at least three times," she said.

Read more

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Son’s disappearance devastates father
Police divers continue to search river for 3-year-old missing since Sunday


Chaker Chraibi speaks to journalists as police search the Mille Îles River in Laval Wedesday for his son, 3-year-old Adam Benhamma, who went missing on Sunday.

Adam Benhamama’s father went to Laval Sunday to visit a sick friend who is in a wheelchair.

When he arrived at the house with two of his children, he was carrying groceries and a cake, hoping to cheer his friend up.

But shortly after the father greeted his friend, Adam, 3, disappeared while playing hide-and-seek with his sister and another child outside the house on the Mille Îles River.

Three days after the boy vanished, a family friend told reporters Wednesday that Adam’s father is devastated by the tragic event.

“He is an excellent father, a great friend who everyone can count on,” said Chaker Chraibi, who described himself as a longtime family friend.

“He is so attached to his children. It is such a tragedy.”

Chraibi said Adam’s father had taken his son into the house, but said the boy was “opening the door and coming down the stairs.”

The father followed him outside and then asked his 7-year-old daughter to watch her brother “for a few seconds,” Chraibi said.

Adam’s parents, who live in Anjou, also have a 2-year-old son.

Chraibi spoke to reporters as police divers continued to search for the boy’s body in the Mille Îles River, north of Laval.



The land search was called off Wednesday after police failed to find any trace of the boy during the past few days.

Laval police Constable Nathalie Lorrain said police have checked two square kilometres of land and shoreline.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/disappearance+devastates+father/4551907/story.html#ixzz1Iol5qsu8

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Laval boy presumed dead as search ends
Last Updated: Apr 7, 2011 11:09 AM ET



Laval, Que., police say they have done all they can do to find a missing boy with autism and have ended their search and recovery mission.

Adam Benhamama, 3, has been missing since Sunday after he was last seen playing with his older sister at the home of a family friend.

Police believe he fell into the frigid waters of the Mille-Îles River, which runs just metres behind the home in the Auteuil neighbourhood of the city, north of Montreal.

The father had just stepped inside the house for a few minutes when his daughter rushed in to say that Adam was nowhere to be seen.

"We've done all we could do as far as the ground search and the river," said Laval police Const. Nathalie Lorrain.

Divers using sonar had searched the river for days but by nightfall on Wednesday they had come up empty-handed.

"There was no clue whatsoever, nothing has turned up — no piece of clothing, absolutely nothing," said Lorrain.

Lorrain said investigators will discuss Thursday if there is anything else they can do besides wait for the boy's body to surface.

Police explain misinformation

Early on in the search for the boy, police said Adam was deaf, unable to speak and was autistic. Investigators said his health condition made the search effort more difficult.

However, the Benhamama family has confirmed through a friend that the boy was only hearing impaired and was capable of limited speech.

His form of autism was also mild, the family said.

Police explained the discrepancies Wednesday, saying the misinformation came from a hectic 911 call from the home.

"[The operator] asked the question if the child spoke French. The answer that was given to us is that he is deaf and can't speak," said Lorrain.

Police do not believe the misinformation affected the search.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/04/07/search-ends-laval-autistic-boy.html



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Terrain dangerous, police warn after missing boy's father asks volunteers to keep searching
April 7, 2011 7:38 PM

Laval police say they are surprised that the father of an autistic 3-year-old, missing since Sunday, has asked that volunteers continue the search.

“Find my child, that’s all I ask,” a distraught Bouazza Benhamama, father of Adam, told TVA news Thursday after police who have combed the area and probed the nearby river, found no trace of the boy and suspended the search.

Laval police responded that they may be prepared to help, but warned the low-lying terrain is dangerous, with pools of water from the spring thaw.

“It’s very nice of people to want to help, but without proper experience it could be very dangerous,” Constable Nathalie Lorrain told The Gazette.

Still, the force did not close the door to a possible resumption of the search.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Terrain+dangerous+police+warn+after+missing+father+asks+volunteers+keep+searching/4578436/story.html

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Dad of missing Laval boy plans volunteer search
April 08, 2011


Bouazza Benhamama is asking the public to search the area around the Mille-Îles River on Saturday for his missing son, Adam.

The father of an autistic Laval, Que., boy who is presumed drowned is calling on the public to help find his son.

Bouazza Benhamama is asking people to search the shores and forests along the Mille-Îles River on Saturday for any sign of his three-year-old son, Adam, who hasn't been seen since Sunday.

Police believe Adam fell into the frigid waters of the river, which runs just metres behind a home the family was visiting on Pointe aux Ormes Street in Laval's Auteuil neighbourhood.

Police ended their search Wednesday after spending three days combing the water, shoreline and nearby forest.

'We are living on the hope that he will be found.'— Bouazza Benhamama, father of Adam

In his first interview since his son disappeared, Bouazza Benhamama told CBC News the family will not give up trying to find him, even if he has died.

"It’s agony at our home," said Benhamama, a father of three. "My wife, she cannot sleep, she cannot eat. Her life has been overturned. I do not know how she can continue. I do not know."

He struggled to explain his own feelings.

"He's my son. I would rather have died in his place. I cannot express my feelings."

Read more

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Search to resume for missing Quebec autistic boy
April 09, 2011


Police officers look at the woods near the site where 3 year-old Adam Benhamma
went missing in north of Laval Montreal on Monday, April 4, 2011.

LAVAL, Que. — Quebec police announced Friday afternoon that a ground search for an autistic three-year-old boy missing since last Sunday will resume at sunrise Saturday in Laval.

Adam Benhamama’s father had invited volunteers, but that invitation has been rescinded.

Instead, Const. Nathalie Lorrain of Laval police said the search would be conducted by about two dozen Emergency Services staff.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Search+resume+missing+Quebec+autistic/4588785/story.html#ixzz1J2cG4WW1

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Stormy weather snags search for Montreal boy
Search party called off Monday for boy with autism believed drowned
April 11, 2011



Bad weather has forced a halt in plans to scour a river near Montreal for a missing toddler with autism.

A Laval police spokeswoman says searchers had hoped to check a small bay near the shoreline home where three-year-old Adam Benhamama was last seen.

But a lightning storm and poor weather Monday forced officials to cancel their plans to resume the search.

Laval police Const. Nathalie Lorrain says the search is coming an end, although no firm decision has been made yet to stop looking for the boy.

She says warm weather is melting ice on the Mille-Îles River, but Lorrain expects operations to wrap up once a search of the small bay is completed.

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Police to search islands in final effort to find missing Laval boy
April 12, 2011

LAVAL — A last-ditch attempt to find a missing autistic toddler in Laval will centre around two islands across the river near where he vanished.

Three-year-old Adam Benhamama was last seen near a shoreline home on Riviere des Mille-Iles while playing with his seven-year-old sister on April 3.

His father had momentarily gone inside a friend's house when his daughter alerted him the boy had vanished.

Authorities say the child has a hearing impairment and can make sounds but is non-verbal.

Laval police spokeswoman Nathalie Lorrain says police and firefighters will take one final look at two uninhabited islands on Wednesday.

She says this will be the final attempt to find the missing boy.

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110412/mtl_missing_110412/20110412/?hub=MontrealHome

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Help Find My Child - Adam Benhamma

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Adam Benhamama's body found in river in Terrebonne
May 10, 2011


Police remove the body of Adam Benhamama, 3, from the Milles-Iles river on
the north shore of Ile St-Jean, where he was discovered by a pedestrian Tuesday morning.

TERREBONNE — Laval police have confirmed that the body of a young child found by a pedestrian Tuesday morning in the Mille-îles River is that of Adam Benhamama, the three year-old boy with autism who went missing near an Auteuil home five weeks ago.

The discovery was made just after 11 a.m. near the corner of W. Joubert and Leandre Beausoleil Streets on the north shore of île-St-Jean, a Terrebonne island that sits just north of Laval and is approximately 15 kilometres downriver from where Benhamama went missing on April 3.

Laval police met the family at the morgue, and Benhamama's father had the difficult task of identifying his son's body.

But a close family friend said that difficulty will provide some degree of closure to what has been a brutally long month for the family.

"At least we found the body," said Chaker Chraibi. "So now the family can bury the child and you know at least he wasn't kidnapped, he wasn't lost."

Benhamama disappeared while playing with his seven year-old sister in the backyard of his Pointe-aux-Ormes Rd. home after his father had stepped inside the house for a few moments.

It triggered nine days of intense searches by police in the marshy woodland around the home and also in the icy waters of the Mille-îles River nearby.

The pedestrian who discovered the body Tuesday was unable to identify the object in the water at first sight, called 9-1-1 and Terrebonne police arrived on the scene.

Once the police officers were able to get close enough they could tell it was the body of a child that was about three to five years of age, and Laval police investigators arrived to assist since the Benhamama case was still open.

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110510/mtl_child_drowned_110510/20110510?hub=MontrealHome