CANADA • Jolène RIENDEAU, 10 (1999) ~ Montreal QC

Jolène Riendeau found dead 12 years after girl disappeared, Montreal police confirm
10-year old was victim of homicide: cops
May 4, 2011


Dolores Soucy holds a picture of her missing daughter Jolene Riendeau, in this May 5, 1999 photo.
Photograph by: John Mahoney, THE GAZETTE

MONTREAL – Police announced Wednesday that they have found the remains of Jolène Riendeau, a 10-year-old Point St. Charles girl who went missing in April 1999.

Montreal police Sgt. Ian Lafrenière refused to say where or when the remains were found or under what circumstances, citing the ongoing investigation to locate a suspect in the case.

“Sadly, what we can say is that it was definitely a homicide,” Lafrenière said. "We have a very serious lead and we don't want to jeopardize it and allow a guilty person to escape justice."

Riendeau becomes the 16th homicide of 2011. Police considered her a missing person until her body was found, Lafrenière explained.

Pina Arcamone, executive director of Missing Children's Network in Quebec, said she accompanied members of the Riendeau family Wednesday morning to a police station to receive the news.

Arcamone said the family was told police were doing tests and meeting with witnesses in the case. "We hope to have some answers very soon.

"Of course they are wondering when did this happen and what happened to their daughter, where was the body of their daughter found and, especially, who did this and why someone wanted to harm a young girl, not even 11 years old?" Arcamone said.

"It's too soon to talk of grieving or closure," Arcamone said. "They still have a lot of questions. Their pain, their suffering, their anxiety will continue until the investigation will be finished.

Lafrenière said police recieved 1,500 tips from the public about the case. "It's a very sad moment for the family."

The family was gathered together and did not plan to make any statements to the media Wednesday and probably not in the next few days either, Arcamone said.

"This is another nightmare that is starting for the family."

The disappearance of Jolène terrified her community and elicited an unprecedented response from police, community organizations and neighbours, who helped look for her. The outgoing, street-smart youngster, became a household name as almost one million posters were plastered on telephone poles and shop windows across the province.

It was on a spring afternoon 12 years ago that Jolène Riendeau returned home from school and helped her dad prepare supper. The feisty 10-year-old girl loved to peel potatoes, something she did that afternoon in the kitchen of her Point St. Charles apartment.

After she had finished, René Riendeau gave his daughter $2 so she could buy something at the local dépanneur. Jolène put on her roller blades and left home, telling her dad she would be back an hour later for dinner.

It was 4:30 p.m. on April 12, 1999.

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Jolene disappeared 10 years ago
May 4, 2011



On a spring afternoon 10 years ago, Jolène Riendeau returned home from school and helped her dad prepare supper. The feisty 10-year-old girl loved to peel potatoes, something she did that afternoon in the kitchen of her Point St. Charles apartment.

After she had finished, René Riendeau gave his daughter $2 so she could buy something at the local dépanneur. Jolène put on her roller blades and left home, telling her dad she would be back an hour later for dinner.

It was 4:30 p.m. on April 12, 1999.

Jolène skated to a dépanneur on Charlevoix St., about six blocks from her home. A neighbour saw her munching on potato chips outside the store a few minutes later. But instead of returning home, the young girl mysteriously vanished. No one saw her being kidnapped; no one heard cries for help and no one saw her leave with anyone.

Although Jolène sometimes came home late, her parents were particularly worried that night because she had not called them.

The disappearance of Jolène terrified her community and elicited a unprecedented response from police, community organizations and neighbours, who helped look for her. The outgoing, street-smart youngster, became a household name as almost one million posters were plastered on telephone poles and shop windows across the province.

Now, a decade after the girl vanished, her parents and the Missing Children’s Network are organizing a walk through the Point next Wednesday to commemorate the 10th year of her disappearance.

Jolène’s mother, Dolores Soucy, said she has not given up hope that one day her daughter will be returned to her.

“If anyone knows where my daughter is, or anyone has my daughter, I think that after 10 years it would be nice for them to let me have my daughter back home,” Soucy, 43, said in an interview this week. “Easter will be very black for us.”

When the family sat down for dinner that terrible night 10 years ago, Soucy was annoyed that her daughter had not come home on time. Jolène had a history of running away and sometimes came home late. The problem became so serious in 1997 that Soucy had her daughter placed in a group home for four months after she arrived home at 12:45 one morning.

On the day she vanished, Soucy called the police about 1 a.m., after her daughter failed to come home once the buses and métro stopped running.

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Gallery: Jolène Riendeau: A time line

Jolène Riendeau's remains found after police pursued 1,500 tips
May 4, 2011


Jolene Riendeau disappeared Aug. 12, 1999, after going to the corner store to buy a bag of chips.
Her remains were found 12 years later.

Montreal police have found the remains of a girl who disappeared 12 years ago and say they are pursuing a "serious lead" in the cold case that rattled the city's Pointe-Saint-Charles neighbourhood.

Montreal's major crimes squad said Jolène Riendeau's disappearance in 1999 is now being treated as a homicide.

But police are not disclosing any information, including where the body was found or in what circumstances, because they are closing in on a suspect.

"For the past 12 years, we met so many witnesses and suspects, and no one has been accused so far," said Sgt. Ian Lafrenière. "Now we got a serious lead, and we'll do everything possible to accuse someone."

Riendeau's mother Dolores Soucy has held out hope for years that her daughter would be found alive.

Her family was called into Montreal police headquarters Wednesday morning.

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News video-Girl's body found

It was a spring afternoon in 1999 when 10-year-old Jolène Riendeau
went out to buy chips and never returned home. And on a spring morning
in Montreal this week, her parents learned the news they had come to
dread.At 6 a.m. Wednesday, Dolores Soucy and René Riendeau were
summoned to a conference room at the Montreal police’s major crimes
offices. The lead investigator in their daughter’s case spoke to them
from across the table.“I know we’ve talked about how frustrating
it’s been that so many years have passed without an answer about what
happened to your daughter,” the officer said. “Now, we have an answer
for you.”Twelve years after she vanished, Jolène’s remains had been found.
Her parents fell into each other’s arms.“They just wept,” said Pina Arcamone,
head of the Missing Children’s Network, who was in the room and witnessed the scene.The
development brought a breakthrough to a case that had long stymied
police. For years there was a missing girl but no crime scene. Jolène
seemed to have disappeared without a trace. Now police confirm she was
murdered, although they’re refusing to disclose where or when her body
was found, citing the continuing investigation.“From the moment
we have a body, our investigation progresses tremendously. We have
serious leads now,” said Sergeant Ian Lafrenière, a spokesman for the
Montreal police. DNA and other forensic analysis could help steer police
to “one or several suspects,” he said.



The discovery also brought
a form of grim closure to a family that lived out a daughter’s
disappearance in public. At the time she went missing, Jolène Riendeau
became “everybody’s daughter,” Ms. Arcamone recalls. She was everywhere,
her smiling face on shop windows, on utility poles, on the America’s Most Wanted television show.Finding
a body snuffed out the hopes that stubbornly linger in the minds of
parents of missing children. It’s hope that’s revived with stories like
that of Jaycee Lee Dugard, the 11-year-old abducted in California in
1991 and found alive 18 years later.With the finality of Wednesday’s news,
her mother posted a message on the wall of the Facebook page Find Jolène Riendeau.“Our
angel was found so here till we meet again rest in peace my little
angel,” Ms. Soucy wrote. “Love you Mom kiss you hug you miss you but
will always love you.”Jolène’s case was always kept active by
investigators. She disappeared April 12, 1999, after heading to the
corner store in her blue-collar neighbourhood of Point St. Charles. Her
father gave her $2 to buy a bag of chips. At first police suspected she
had run away because she had done so before. But this time, she didn’t
come back.Over the years, police received over 1,600 tips and did
countless searches. They lowered the water in Montreal’s Lachine Canal
twice, tipped off that they might find a body.The case even got
under the skin of seasoned officers like André Bouchard, a police
commander who kept up the investigation for years. As head of the
police's major-crimes squad, he investigated hundreds of disappearances
and murders, but Jolène’s case always stayed with him.“It was a
child, and we never found her. It was hard on me and hard on my guys,”
the now-retired officer said in an interview. “The hardest thing in a
murder case is when you don’t have a crime scene, and in this case, we
didn’t have one. But a homicide case is never closed. I think we’re very
close now.”Even when Jolène’s case faded from public view, her
mother never gave up. Specialists at the RCMP updated her
missing-person’s photo twice to show how she might look as she aged.
Three weeks ago, on the 12th anniversary of her daughter’s
disappearance, her mother posted a message on Facebook.“Hi my love
today is the worst day of every year … I miss you so much cannot describe it …” she wrote.On
Wednesday morning, police had a psychologist and two paramedics on hand
when they brought in Jolène’s parents. They won’t give the couple
access to their daughter’s remains while the investigation is ongoing,
but in time the family will be able to have a burial. The couple has two
other children.“You can never ask a parent of a missing child to
grieve,” Ms. Arcamone said. “Now, there’s at least a sense of relief.
They know where their daughter is. They know she isn’t suffering.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/montreal-girls-body-found-12-years-after-she-disappeared/article2009480/

A timeline of the hunt for Jolène
May 5, 2011


The store on Charlevoix St. in Point St. Charles, where Jolene Riendeau was last seen.
Photograph by: JOHN MAHONEY, Gazette files

APRIL 12, 1999

Jolène Riendeau is seen alive for the last time late in the afternoon. One of her friends later tells police she saw Jolène eating chips outside a convenience store on Charlevoix St., six blocks from her home in Point St. Charles. The 10-year-old was expected home for dinner but never showed up. The next day, Montreal police begin their investigation into her disappearance.

APRIL 14, 1999

More than 30 police officers are working full time on the search for Jolène. They scour Point St. Charles, St. Henri, the Old Port and parts of the downtown core, with no luck. A canine unit is assigned to look for signs of Jolène along the Lachine Canal. The police also conduct a door-to-door campaign asking residents in the Point if they have seen the 10-year-old. Meanwhile, 400,000 posters, printed by the Missing Children's Network and bearing a photo of Jolène, are posted in the western part of Montreal and beyond. The intensive search by police continues for several days.

APRIL 20, 1999

A police diver is called in to make the first search of the Lachine Canal. A boat equipped with a sonar device is also used to search the canal the same day but nothing of use to the investigation is found.

APRIL 23, 1999

A $5,000 reward is offered through the Sun Youth Organization for information to help locate Jolène. The reward is doubled eight months later. Despite having received more than 1,200 calls from the public at that point, in December 1999 the police have no solid leads.

JUNE 20, 2001

Sûreté du Québec investigators question Mario Bastien, who had recently been convicted of killing 13-year-old Alexandre Livernoche in Sorel. It was not the first time Bastien had been interrogated about Jolène. The first time was after Montreal police recalled, following Bastien's arrest, that the strange man had pestered them with nuisance calls during the search for Jolène. But three days of interrogation by the SQ produce nothing new, according to Jolène's mother, Dolores Soucy.

MAY 5, 2005

Montreal police invest a significant amount of time and resources searching a specific section of the Lachine Canal, hoping to find Jolène's body. The following day, it is revealed the search was based on information passed on to police by an inmate at a detention centre who claimed another inmate admitted to killing Jolène. The tipster passed a lie-detector test but police could find nothing to suggest the other inmate's supposed confession was genuine. The search is called off on May 13 after nothing is found. But during the search an investigator reveals that Montreal police seriously looked into a different man earlier in their probe. The man resided in Point St. Charles when Jolène disappeared and was later convicted of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl in 2000. The same man is currently charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement.

AUG. 2, 2010

In advance of what would have been Jolène's 22nd birthday, on Aug. 8, the Missing Children's Network releases an age-enhanced photo in the hope she is still alive.

MAY 4, 2011

Montreal police announce they discovered Jolène's remains on a date yet to be revealed and at a location they refuse to divulge. The police say only that they believe they are "on a serious trail" and that Jolène's death was a homicide.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/timeline+hunt+Jol%c3%a8ne/4729541/story.html#ixzz1LWkItsV6

Montreal police question suspect in Jolène Riendeau case
May 6, 2011



Police have arrested a man in his 40s in the homicide of Jolène Riendeau, who vanished from Montreal's Point St. Charles district in 1999, when she was 10 years old.

But it is not certain the man will be charged with a crime, said Montreal police Sgt. Ian Lafrenière, a spokesperson for the police department.

"We are still questioning him," Lafrenière said. "We're not 100 per cent sure if he will be charged with anything."

He said the man, a Montrealer, was arrested in Montreal on Friday morning.

"We don't want to say anything about who he is or what his relationship to the family might be because if we do people might start figuring out who he is."

If the man is to be arraigned, it won't be until Saturday, Lafrenière said, as it was already too late in the day Friday to arrange for a court appearance. Police have the right to detain someone for 24 hours for questioning, he noted.

Asked to explain how police could proceed with an arrest without certainty of guilt, Lafrenière said: "We had enough information to question him."

Lafrenière refused to divulge any details on how the Montreal police found Jolene's remains except that they were found in Montreal.

He limited his description of the suspect to "a man in his 40s."

The spokesperson said police are being very careful about what they make public, as investigators need to know, when they are questioning a suspect or a witness, if they are talking to someone who has genuine information on the homicide or someone who is merely repeating what he or she heard from the media.

Lafrenière said investigators have been led down false paths in the Riendeau case before.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Montreal+police+question+suspect+Jol%C3%A8ne+Riendeau+case/4739132/story.html

May 7, 2011 - Police say they've released the man arrested Friday in connection with the 1999 disappearance of a Montreal girl whose remains were found last week.

Montreal police Sgt. Ian Lafreniere said that the 47-year-old man was released without charge at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday.

Continuing investigators' reluctance to release many details about the case, Lafreniere said the probe continues, but will not reveal any more information to the public before Monday.

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Sunday was the first Mother’s Day that Dolores Soucy knew for certain
that her missing daughter Jolene Riendeau was not coming home.Even
as 12 years went by with no news, Soucy refused to consider the
possibility that Riendeau was not still alive, said Pina Arcamone,
executive director of the Missing Children’s Network.“She did not
want to hear that her daughter was not alive, and she clung to that
hope for 12 years,” Arcamone said Sunday. “That dream she held on to for
such a long time no longer was.”Riendeau disappeared on April
12, 1999 after leaving her family’s home in the Montreal neighbourhood
of Point St. Charles to buy a bag of chips at a corner store a few
blocks away from the apartment she shared with her parents, older
brother and younger sister. She was not seen again.Riendeau’s
family believed that she was perhaps being held against her will, or
maybe part of a cult, said Arcamone, who is a spokeswoman for the
family.Last week they learned that not only had Riendeau’s
remains been recovered, but that police believe she was murdered. Then,
as the family began to make plans for her funeral, Montreal police
arrested and then released a convicted sex offender as a suspect in the
case.After questioning the man Friday, police released him around
3 a.m. Saturday, on the same day Soucy was attending her sister’s
funeral. Arcamone said it has been a difficult week for the family,
especially with Sunday being Mother’s Day.“How much bad news can one family go through in a matter of just a few days,” she said.The police department has made no comment on the case since Saturday, when it announced the man’s release.Lorraine
Marcoux’s family has owned the corner store where Jolene was last seen
since 1979. For years, they kept a poster of Riendeau in the window,
Marcoux said Sunday. She remembered Riendeau as a beautiful girl who
often came into the shop.“She’d come in to talk, and would offer to help me put things on the shelves,” Marcoux said. “She was a nice little girl.” Now Riendeau’s family is anxious for police to find the person responsible for her death, Arcamone said.“Without
any doubt, they want to make sure this is the right person, and that
this person will face justice and not ever be allowed to harm any other
child,” Arcamone said. The past 12 years have left the Riendeau family in a state of “suspended animation”, Arcamone said. “Someone
has not only robbed them of their daughter, but also robbed them of the
last 12 years as a family,” she said. “In order for them to start the
grieving process and start healing, someone has to be arrested, charged
and convicted of kidnapping and murdering their daughter.”
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Woman+copes+with+first+Mother+after+daughter+found+murdered/4747975/story.html#ixzz1Lp3tp5i0

Police kept silent for more than 7 months after finding body of missing girl
May 9, 2011



MONTREAL — For more than seven months, Montreal police knew they had the body of a girl who went missing in 1999 and avoided telling anyone — not even the girl's family.

Jolene Riendeau's body was found on Sept. 9, 2010, when a citizen's tip led police to a spot underneath a bridge in an industrial sector on the southern tip of Montreal.

The girl had gone missing years earlier in the same part of town and was the object of a massive search operation, making her a household name in the province.

But police kept silent until a few days ago. A family friend said not even Riendeau's parents were told until last Wednesday.

Pina Arcamone, director of the Missing Children's Network, says family members had plenty of questions when they finally found out last week that the remains had been found:

Where was the body? Who led police to the site? What were the circumstances of the death?

Even then, police remained tight-lipped. Family members were only made aware of the site when they were brought there for a visit on Monday morning.

"Until we arrived . . . they did not know the exact location," said Arcamone, who joined the family for its emotional pilgrimmage.

"(It) was also a bit frustrating for the family, when they found out that they had recovered the body in September.

"But the detectives also explained the reasons why."

Arcamone says investigators said they didn't know how long ago the body had been placed below the bridge and didn't want to destroy any evidence that might still have been on the remains.

The body also had to be sent to the coroner's office for analysis.

A funeral service is now planned for Friday morning at a church in the area where the girl lived.

During the visit Monday, the girl's family laid flowers underneath a set of scaffolding, where construction workers were repairing parts of the Champlain Bridge.

They were led to the site by detectives — before the journalists, photographers and TV cameras arrived.

Two bouquets were placed at the base of a cement wall where the body was found.

Arcamone said one bouquet with tulips was placed by the family and the other from the Missing Children's Network contained daisies.

"We chose some of Jolene's favourite colours," she said. "It was a very emotional moment."

When questioned by reporters on Monday, police remained mum on basic details of the case — such as how their tipster came across the body, why their investigation required discretion, and why the family was among those kept in the dark.

Montreal police Sgt. Ian Lafreniere said only that there were operational reasons for the decision.

"We kept a lot of information secret for ourselves because of the investigation," Lafreniere said in an interview.

Lafreniere says it took more than a month to establish that it was, in fact, the 10-year-old girl who went missing all those years ago.

He says investigators have decided to go public now, hoping that someone might have seen something unusual. The site is close to a paved roadway regularly used by cyclists and joggers.

Riendeau's case is now being treated as a homicide. Police picked up and questioned a man in his forties last Friday, but he was released.

The man, who has a criminal record, remains a suspect.

"He is still a prime suspect for us. . . It's not over," Lafreniere said. "We're still working on the case and we hope to bring him back to justice."

Riendeau was last seen on April 12th, 1999, after leaving a corner store near her home in southwest Montreal.

Police are now hoping that a witness, made aware of the significance of the bridge location, might recall seeing something strange in the area years ago. Any such witness is being encouraged to contact authorities.

"That could make a difference between a suspect who was questioned and released — and a suspect who will finish his days in prison," Lafreniere said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gtzL-QaMniRH_DUdlkUNOp8hnEOg?docId=6798930

Jolène Riendeau's body found under bridge: Montreal police
Citizen 'guided' police to remains on Sept. 9
May 9, 2011


Montreal police revealed Monday the location where the remains of Jolène Riendeau were found. The 10-year-old girl's body was found on Sept. 9 underneath a small bridge, a section of Highway 15 on the approach to the Champlain Bridge on the Montreal side.


Montreal police Constable Daniel Lacoursière examines the site near the Champlain Bridge where the remains of Jolène Riendeau were found. The scaffolding is part of a construction project.
Photograph by: Phil Carpenter, The Gazette

The Montreal police have released the location of where they found Jolène Riendeau's remains.

The 10-year-old girl's body was found on Sept. 9 underneath a small bridge, a section of Highway 15 on the approach to the Champlain Bridge on the Montreal side. It is just across from Nuns' Island.

Police said a citizen "guided" them to the remains. The section of Highway is near a bike path.

Jolène's parent were brought, Monday morning, to the spot where their daughter's remains were found. They were able to lay a bouquet of flowers there and left before the media were advised of the location. The spot is next to a support for the bridge that is easily accessed by foot. The Tennis club on Nuns' Island is visible from the spot.

Montreal police Sgt. Ian Lafereniere said the police won't reveal how the body was hidden or if it was buried by the person who killed Jolène.

Lafreniere would not say how long investigators believe Jolene's body was at the location before her remains were found. He said investigators still want to hold back on information that only Jolene's killer would know.

When asked to comment about how a suspect was arrested in connection with Jolène's death on Friday but then released early Saturday morning, Lafreniere said there is a "difference between knowing something and proving it." The 47-year-old man was released without being charged but Lafreniere said the investigation is not over.

Court records indicate that in 2000, the man lived just blocks away from where Riendeau disappeared on April 12, 1999 in Point St. Charles.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Jol%C3%A8ne+body+found+under+bridge+police/4751553/story.html

More than 12 years after Jolene Riendeau went missing from the
Montreal neighbourhood of Pointe St-Charles, her mother said goodbye to
the 10-year-old girl with a powerful eulogy.
In the closing address at her daughter's funeral, Dolores Soucy said
she would honour Riendeau's memory through work advocating for missing
children and their families.
"I will be the No. 1 militant," Soucy said. "Jolene, mommy will always be there."
Riendeau disappeared from in April 1999 after buying a bag of chips
at a local convenience store. Her body was found in September 2010, but
police only announced the discovery last week to avoid affecting the
investigation into her death.
The girl's aunt also spoke at the funeral, held at a Pointe
St-Charles Catholic church. She said the family is relieved that her
niece's body was found, but anxious that the killer is still at large.
Late last week, police detained a 47-year-old man in relation to the
girl's death, but he was later released. He remains the prime suspect in the case.
On Friday, hundreds filled the church's pews, including homicide
detectives and parents of other missing children who attended to support the family.
The family chose to hold the funeral in Pointe St-Charles to honour
Riendeau's memory, despite moving away after the disappearance. The
priest who presided over the service had a long history with the family,
having officiated at the girl's baptism, her communion, and the wedding of her parents.
Ten doves were to be released after the funeral in Riendeau's memory.
The service came a day after Riendeau's loved ones held a visitation
in the working-class neighbourhood where she disappeared. It was a
packed house inside the Laurent Theriault Funeral Home, where they
showed a video of a girl described as a caring and happy child with lots of friends.
"(She was a) very good kid," her great-aunt Janine Soucy told CTV
Montreal on Thursday. "She was always laughing, all the time."
"It's not easy for us -- imagine (how it is) for the family," said
family friend Joanne Maille. "At least now we know where she is."
Instead of flowers, the family asked guests to the visitation to
donate to The Missing Children's Network in Riendeau's name.
Another visitation was held Friday morning at the Paroisse Ste-Charles.
When Riendeau disappeared, her case made national headlines as police mounted an extensive search.
Her body was finally found last September under the nearby Champlain Bridge.

http://m.ctv.ca/topstories/20110513/riendeau-funeral-110513.html

Doves released after Jolène Riendeau's funeral in Montreal
Mourners pack church in Point St. Charles
May 13, 2011



People gathered at a church Friday in the Point St. Charles district to bid a final farewell to Jolène Riendeau, the 10-year-old girl who disappeared in 1999 and whose remains were found more than a decade later.

The body was found Sept. 9; Montreal police announced the discovery last week.

Family and friends entered Paroisse St. Charles on Centre St. before the funeral started at 11 a.m.

Three men who have been in charge of the Montreal police major-crimes unit at varying points during the investigation into her disappearance - André Bouchard, Richard Dupuis and current head Clément Rose - were also seen arriving together.

The death has been classified as a homicide.

A man was arrested May 6 and questioned in Jolene's death but the 47-year-old Montrealer was released without being charged.

Conservative Senator Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu, whose daughter was kidnapped and murdered in Sherbrooke in 2002, said he came to the funeral Friday to support Jolène's family. He started an organization for families of missing people and continued his call for a centralized data-gathering system in Quebec for missing people.

A simple rectangular table, covered in a white cloth, was placed at the front of the church, which is more than a century old. Behind the table was a photo of Jolène used on leaflets posted in the hopes of finding her. The image became etched into the memories of many Montrealers after she disappeared on April 12, 1999.

A bouquet of white roses was placed on the table in front of the photo.

Jolene's cremated remains, kept in an urn that bore a stained-glass image of a monarch butterfly, rested on the table throughout the funeral. Jolene's aunt, Jo-Ann Soucy, later explained that Jolène loved that type of butterfly and always wanted to bring them home with her when she was about 5 years old.

“You know how people want rabbits and dogs? She wanted a monarch at home, knowing that we can’t keep those at home," Soucy said.

"In all those 12 years (she was missing), every time a monarch would go by, we’d say, ‘Hi, Jolène.’ ”

Soucy also said the family tried to arrange to have Montreal’s Insectarium provide monarch butterflies for the funeral, but that was not possible. She said the Insectarium instead agreed to arrange for a memorial to Jolène next year on the day, usually held in March, when it releases hundreds of the butterflies from a greenhouse.

The church, which can easily accommodate more than 1,500 people, was almost full after the funeral mass began.

After the funeral ended, Jolène's family gathered outside on the steps of the church.

They each held a dove and released the white birds in the air, a moment that had been carefully planned.

But a moment of true emotion came immediately after. The dead girl's parents released a group of helium-filled balloons into the air as well. The balloons floated a few metres before they became stuck in a tree.

Someone shouted, "She doesn't want to leave!" In response, Jolène's mother, Dolores Soucy, managed a smile and pumped her fist in the air.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Doves+released+after+Jol%C3%A8ne+funeral/4778927/story.html