Young mother’s slaying stuns small community
Body of ex-Alexandria resident, recently back from East Coast, found in rural area
On an otherwise perfect fall morning, three days after a young mother disappeared, shock tore through the small community of Alexandria at the easternmost reaches of Ontario.
Ontario Provincial Police said the body of Emilie Maheu was found Saturday at the edge of a cornfield along a gravel road barely 10 kilometres from the home where she was raising her 22-month-old daughter.
Police weren’t saying much more than that on the weekend, not even why the case is being investigated as a homicide.
As Kelly Egan reports, in the little town where Emilie Maheu was raised, the town to which she had returned just before her daughter was born, those who knew her and her large extended family, were in disbelief.
Condolences poured in on social media.
Maheu’s oldest friend recalled a “really extraordinary mom” whose daughter “was everything to her.”
“It’s terrible for the family,” who are well known in the area, added the local councillor.
“We don’t know what happened,” said a semi-retired community activist and friend of the young woman’s father.
“We don’t even know where the body was found.”
The body of a young mother raising a toddler was found in a rural area outside Lancaster on Saturday, the victim of a homicide.
Emilie Maheu, 26, who had been missing since Thursday, was found at about 11:30 a.m. along the edge of a cornfield.
OPP in Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry did not give the precise location for the discovery but Concession Road 3 in South Glengarry Township — a gravel road flanked by cornfields, about 15 kilometres east of Lancaster — appeared to be the focus of attention.
A portion of the road was closed to regular traffic, blocked by OPP cruisers and ringed with yellow crime scene tape.
OPP were not available Sunday to explain why homicide detectives were called in. An autopsy is to take place this week at the General campus of The Ottawa Hospital.
On Facebook, condolences poured in for Maheu, who has a 22-month-old daughter. Her online page said she worked as a secretary at a chiropractic clinic in Alexandria, the town where she was raised and attended École secondaire catholique Le Relais.
She had earlier spent a couple of years in Halifax, where she worked for Mills Heavy Hauling, a trucking and heavy-equipment company, as a receptionist and accounts payable clerk. A member of the family-run firm said she returned to Ontario just before her child was born.
Roxanne Paquette, 27, attended high school with Maheu and the pair worked together at a rest stop and restaurant along Highway 417 for a couple of years.
“She was courageous. She never gave up. She was always positive,” Paquette said. “She was the kind of girl who loved to do things.”
After high school, Paquette said, Maheu took a massage-therapy course in Cornwall, later moving to Nova Scotia. They lost track of each other for a while but had reconnected in the past few weeks. When Paquette heard about the missing person report, she thought her friend had merely gone away for a quiet weekend.
“It’s a big tragedy,” she said. “She was a good mom, really extraordinary. (Her daughter) was everything to her.”
At about 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Maheu was reported missing from a residence in Green Valley on County Road 34, which runs from Alexandria, about 100 kilometres east of Ottawa, south to Lancaster on the St. Lawrence River. The OPP missing-persons bulletin said she was last seen leaving her workplace in Alexandria at about 1 p.m. on Thursday.
The Maheu family is well known in the area. Mike Depratto, the councillor for Alexandria ward, said he knows Emilie’s father.
“It’s always scary when you hear stuff like that happening in a small community like Alexandria. You’re sure not used to that at all.” He said local residents were anxious to know what became of Emilie.
“It’s terrible for the family. You don’t like to see that in anybody you know.”
Raymond Quesnel, 64, a semiretired painter, is a community activist in Alexandria and a friend of Emilie’s father, Claude.
“We don’t know what happened. We don’t even know where the body was found,” he said Sunday. “It’s a small community. When something like that happens, we’re all surprised.”
Anyone with information concerning the Maheu case is asked to contact Det. Const. Lise Durocher at the SD&G OPP Crime Unit at 1-888-310-1122. Anyone who wishes to remain anonymous is invited to call the Seaway Valley Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
She was courageous. She never gave up. She was always positive ... She was the kind of girl who loved to do things.