Father of missing Montreal boy still confident he will be found safely

As firefighters, an ice rescue unit and police on all- terrain vehicles and horseback trudged through fresh- fallen snow in their search for a missing Montreal boy Wednesday, his father held out hope he will come home safely.

“I’m talking and thinking about those people I don’t know and who are here to help us, so I have hope, I have hope,” Frederic Kouakou told reporters at a police command post set up to help find Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou, 10.

“My son (will) come back. I have that feeling.”

The search was centred on a park and riverbank near where the boy was last seen Monday afternoon after telling family he was heading to a friend’s house.

Montreal police spokesman Jean-pierre Brabant said officers from nearby communities as well as a canine unit were assisting in the search, and police were also assessing whether to send divers into the river.

“There’s an evaluation that was done by our SWAT team to know if there’s a dive that could be done later today, but we’re still evaluating for now because we don’t have any target space where we could do some searches,” Brabant said.

But Kouakou said he didn’t believe his son would have gone to the river because the family never went there.

He said a security camera at a nearby garage had captured his son’s image, leading to believe the boy had been heading to visit his friend as planned.

“He was walking to the place he was supposed to go,” he said.