Quebec police continue search for missing six-year-old boy
Provincial police say the father of a six-year-old boy who is the subject of an Amber Alert is still at large after being seen in a motel in northwestern Quebec and then in a town further south.
Louka Fredette went missing at about 5:35 p.m. on Thursday and police believe he is with Ugo Fredette, 41.
Spokeswoman Martine Asselin says the father was spotted at a motel in Rouyn-Noranda on Thursday night and was then seen Friday in Maniwaki, about 400 kilometres to the south.
Police do not know if the boy was with his father in either location.
Forensic teams initially inspected a white Ford F250 pickup truck that was abandoned in Lachute, northwest of Montreal. Police then found an abandoned grey Jeep Cherokee they believe Fredette had been driving.
Authorities have confirmed that a woman found dead in a home in Saint-Eustache was the boy’s mother. They say Veronique Barbe was married to Fredette and had four children, including three before her relationship with Fredette.
A sign for a home daycare she operated was prominently displayed as forensic teams milled about in front of the residence.
Ugo Fredette worked on a documentary about Cedrika Provencher, who was nine years old when she disappeared from her Quebec provincial police officers search the side of a road for evidence into the disappearance of a man and a young boy in Lachute, Que.
home in Trois-Rivieres 10 years ago.
Her remains were found in a wooded area in December 2015.
Her grandfather, Henri Provencher, who runs the Cedrika Provencher Foundation, posted an appeal on Facebook urging Fredette to turn over his son to police.
“I appeal to your father’s heart, do not commit the irremediable,” Provencher said. “Thank you for acting as a responsible father Ugo. Think of your child.”
Pina Arcamone, director of the Missing Children’s Network, says the Amber Alert program has been successful each time its been used since May 2003.
“In each of these cases, all the children to date were recovered within hours of the deployment of the Amber Alert,” Arcamone said. “And we’re really hoping that with Louka, we can continue this track record.”
Anyone with information asked to call 911. is