A missing-child folder is being maintained by the Missing Children's Network of Quebec. A computer-aged photo of Jolène Riendeau shows what she might look like today, at 18 years of age.
(Photo: Courtesy)
Holding out hope: Dolorès Soucy and family hold out the fight
Dolorès Soucy has been waiting for her little girl to come home for supper for the last eight years. On April 12, 1999, Jolène Riendeau, 10, set out from her family's home to go play at a friend's house after school. She never arrived. Since then, she hasn't ever been seen, despite the intense searches by police and an army of volunteers that searched every inch of her Pointe St. Charles neighbourhood in southwest Montreal.
Soucy granted us an interview because the recent events surrounding the disappearance of Cédrika Provencher have brought a flood of emotions back for the family, which has since moved to Tétreaultville partly because the interminable wait for news of Jolène was just too much to bear.
Since her disappearance, more than 2,000 tips have been called in to police. Some were far-fetched, others more serious, but still, there was no news. In 2005, on a good tip, police dredged the Lachine Canal, but still, found nothing.
"The disappearance of Cédrika brought us back to the beginning of the case, to when Jolène disappeared," said the 42-year-old mother of two other children. She described Jolène as active and popular in the neighbourhood.
"She was like a grown woman in a child's body. Jolène was not afraid of anybody and could get along fine on her own, and was very likeable and nurturing. She could've helped the whole world. That made me think of Cédrika's disappearance, because a man who was asking for help is a suspect. Something like that could've happened to Jolène. She would've helped somebody find their dog," she said.
Jolène had run away from home once, but her mother's not buying that hypothesis. As far as she is concerned, he daughter's disappearance was a criminal act, because Jolène had once more gotten excited about attending school and was eagerly anticipating her little sister's first communion. If she had run away, Soucy said, she would've come back.
"We have to keep up hope, because if you believe your child is dead, when your child returns home, they will have felt abandoned. Yes, the lack of progress has affected me, but it's not the police's fault, because she disappeared without a trace. Pointe St. Charles fell all over themselves to help find her, and searching the canal yielded nothing. We are still at the start line," she said. "My goal is to find Jolène, alive or not, so we can sleep at night like everybody else. As long as we don't find her, I'll hold out hope she's alive."
No feelings of guilt
Contrary to standard logic, Soucy said she doesn't feel any guilt over her daughter's disappearance.
"I don't feel at all guilty. Jolène was active and we were in broad daylight when she was taken. Yes, we lived in a tough neighbourhood – my mother told me not to raise my kids there – but this happened in the middle of the afternoon. We're talking about a child who was 10-and-a-half years old who knew everybody in Pointe St. Charles and who hasn't yet been found. There's something not right there. I hold out hope, because we've never even found a shred of her clothing or even a shoe," Soucy said.
The family finally moved in order to catch its breath, not to forget their missing daughter and sister, of whom they are always thinking. "I was waiting and waiting and on the verge of killing myself waiting when I made a 180-degree turn and we moved. We needed a change of scenery for the whole family. While we were waiting for news, we lived with her disappearance. We learned to live with it, but we never lived above it," she said.
(Translated by Marc Lalonde)
(Photo: Courtesy)
Steven Guilbeault - 
