Father of missing girl found dead
CROWSNEST PASS, Alta. — A simple note scrawled on the door of the Pure Country Bar & Grill on Highway 3 illustrates the disarray gripping this mountainside community. “Closed due to family tragedy.” Terry Blanchette, 27, a cook at the bar, was found dead Monday morning at a home in the Blairmore district. Police are treating the case as a homicide.
By evening, his two-year-old daughter remained the subject of an Amber Alert spanning Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan and Montana.
RCMP believe Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette was abducted from the home where her father died, and are linking the two investigations.
Late into evening, the duplex and much of the block remained behind police tape, as officers canvassed scores of neighbouring houses and looked for evidence.
Investigators in white protective suits gathered evidence at the scene as darkness fell.
“We could be dealing with a single suspect or more than that,” said Supt. Tony Hamori, the RCMP’s assistant district head for southern Alberta, in an evening news conference.
Hamori said the death and missing girl were “concerning to the highest degree,” as officers sought an unknown person in connection with Hailey’s disappearance.
Meantime, the missing toddler’s mother is scrambling for answers.
Cheyenne Dunbar said she just found out Monday afternoon that her daughter had been missing since about 3:30 a.m.
“I don’t even know what’s going on myself,” Dunbar, who lives in Edmonton, said in a phone interview in the late afternoon.
Just hours earlier, Dunbar posted on her Facebook page: “Someone anyone with information about the incident on 21st ave blairmore please call me my baby lives there!!!!”