Slain girls' mother breaks her silence
Online video opens with lullaby Lemieux often sang to daughters Norah, Romy
Amélie Lemieux, whose two young daughters were killed by their father last July in a wooded area near Quebec City, has shared her experience in a video posted online by Deuil-jeunesse, an organization that helps those dealing with the loss of a loved one.
The bodies of Norah and Romy Carpentier were discovered July 11 in a wooded area of St-apollinaire, three days after they disappeared.
The body of Martin Carpentier, who had killed his daughters, was discovered after a search of the area that lasted more than 10 days.
The video opens with a shot of Lemieux's face as she sings a lullaby she sang “for my daughters a last time” before they were taken from her.
“I sang them the songs I had sung for them since they were born, every night, giving them kisses, telling them a story, telling them good night,” she says.
Lemieux recalls how she was woken up by officers of the Sûreté du Québec on July 8, how they asked her if her husband drove a Volkswagen and if her two children were with her. Then police told her that her husband's car had been found, that it had been in an accident and no one was in the vehicle.
When questioned by police, Lemieux said her husband “could not be dangerous.” She described him as a loving father who always made sure they wanted for nothing even if they had separated as a couple.
Lemieux says that just prior to the killings she had spent the day with her husband and children in a “convivial atmosphere.”
“When they told me that they had found Norah, I still hoped she would be alive. ... I still hoped for a happy ending. I could not conceive that Martin could commit so irreparable an act.”
But when the police announced the body of her second daughter had been found, Lemieux collapsed.
“I literally fell, I heard people around me say, `She's dying,' and they told me I had turned white, even my eyes turned white.”
Lemieux explains how she went through the administrative procedures after her daughters' deaths.
“I wanted to get through it as quickly as possible because all that I wanted was to join them,” she says, explaining that even the most routine tasks became difficult and meaningless after her loss.
The public spotlight made things even more difficult, she says. “They started scraping through my life, looking for a why or a how.”
But the involvement of Deuil-jeunesse, her friends and family allowed her to believe in the possibility of better days.
Lemieux also shares her desire to become a mother again.
“When I look at my future I see myself with other children. My boyfriend has two ... but my daughters were unique and exceptional. ... I don't know if I'd be able to make a life without children of my own, so, yes, I see myself with other children and giving Norah and Romy a little brother or a little sister.”