CANADA • Julie SURPRENANT, 16 (1999) ~ Montreal QC

Police back on Julie Surprenant case
16-year-old girl vanished in 1999
January 19, 2011


Photo of 16 year old Julie Surprenant, who went missing Nov. 16, 1999.

MONTREAL – It took a single phone interview broadcast on French-language TV Tuesday morning to reactivate a longtime cold case – the disappearance of 16-year-old Julie Surprenant in late 1999.

Two Sûreté du Québec investigators, accompanied by a Terrebonne municipal police officer, spent several hours on the site where Surprenant’s body was allegedly dumped into the Mille Îles River by Richard Bouillon, a convicted sexual predator.

They were following up a lead contained in an account of an alleged deathbed confession from Bouillon more than four years ago, one that included a location for his disposal of Surprenant’s body.

The tip was relayed by a woman whose name was not provided and whose face was not shown, but who said she was one of Bouillon’s hospital caregivers during the final weeks of his life. During the interview, aired by TVA crime reporter Claude Poirier, the woman said Bouillon told her he’d left Surprenant for dead in a sports bag that he dumped into the river near a Terrebonne church.

On that basis, SQ investigators were deployed near the Église chrétienne des Moulins, along the riverfront where Highway 25 intersects with the south side of Île St. Jean.

“In a case of this magnitude,” SQ spokesperson Sgt. Benoit Richard said, “people could come on the scene with little bits of information that could help us to solve the case.”

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Police+back+Julie+Surprenant+case/4126994/story.html#ixzz1BXsaB4af

Police back on Julie Surprenant case
16-year-old girl vanished in 1999
January 19, 2011


Photo of 16 year old Julie Surprenant, who went missing Nov. 16, 1999.

MONTREAL – It took a single phone interview broadcast on French-language TV Tuesday morning to reactivate a longtime cold case – the disappearance of 16-year-old Julie Surprenant in late 1999.

Two Sûreté du Québec investigators, accompanied by a Terrebonne municipal police officer, spent several hours on the site where Surprenant’s body was allegedly dumped into the Mille Îles River by Richard Bouillon, a convicted sexual predator.

They were following up a lead contained in an account of an alleged deathbed confession from Bouillon more than four years ago, one that included a location for his disposal of Surprenant’s body.

The tip was relayed by a woman whose name was not provided and whose face was not shown, but who said she was one of Bouillon’s hospital caregivers during the final weeks of his life. During the interview, aired by TVA crime reporter Claude Poirier, the woman said Bouillon told her he’d left Surprenant for dead in a sports bag that he dumped into the river near a Terrebonne church.

On that basis, SQ investigators were deployed near the Église chrétienne des Moulins, along the riverfront where Highway 25 intersects with the south side of Île St. Jean.

“In a case of this magnitude,” SQ spokesperson Sgt. Benoit Richard said, “people could come on the scene with little bits of information that could help us to solve the case.”

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Police+back+Julie+Surprenant+case/4126994/story.html#ixzz1BXsaB4af

Father of missing teen still holds out hope
12-year-old case; Deathbed confession by sexual predator
September 29, 2011


Sûreté du Québec officers search a bank of Mille Îles River between Terrebonne and
Laval yesterday for clues in the case of Julie Surprenant.
Photograph by: PHIL CARPENTER THE GAZETTE, The Gazette

Michel Surprenant said the recent discovery of the remains of 10-year-old Jolène Riendeau has given him renewed hope that police will one day find his daughter, Julie, who has been missing for 12 years.

"If Jolène was found, why can't we find Julie? It could happen," Surprenant said Wednesday as police divers waded in waist-deep water of the Mille Îles River looking for evidence to solve the mysterious disappearance of the 16-year-old student.

Police were searching the river just off Île St. Jean, between Laval and Terrebonne, close to where Julie had lived when she disappeared in November 1999 after getting off a bus.

At the time, one of her neighbours was Richard Bouillon, a convicted sexual predator who lived in the same apartment complex as the Surprenant family in Terrebonne.

Bouillon, 52, died of cancer in 2006 in a Laval hospital.

However, in the last few days of his life, he allegedly made a deathbed confession to a caregiver admitting that he was responsible for killing Julie. The caregiver has told police that Bouillon said he had left the teen for dead in a sports bag and dumped the bag into the Mille Îles River behind a church - the spot where divers were searching on Wednesday.

Bouillon's alleged confession has given new hope that the enduring mystery of the missing teen can finally be solved. The confession to his caregiver carries some weight because it was made on his deathbed, Julie's father said as he watched divers search for his daughter's remains.

"I still have hope that we will find her," Surprenant said. "It doesn't mean we will, but I have hope."

Surprenant noted that Bouillon had bragged to fellow prisoners he was the main suspect in the case and had given false information in the past. Sûreté du Québec Sgt. Benoît Richard said the police returned to the Mille Îles River on Wednesday because "this is the time of year when the river level is roughly similar to what it would have been in November 1999 when she disappeared."

Police divers scanned the riverbed with metal detectors looking for evidence, but came up empty. Although 12 years have passed, the bizarre case remains on the minds of many people who lived close to Julie at the time she disappeared.

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