Unsolved Cases Nationwide

File Number: 104200048

Terrebonne, QC, Canada - Surprenant disappeared in November 1999. Her neighbour a repeat sex offender Richard Bouillon was suspected of abducting and killing his 16-year-old neighbour Julie Surprenant, but the authorities had insufficient evidence to charge him.

In 2006, this same neighbour made a deathbed confession to her murder. He described where he had dumped her body, stuffed in a sports bag, into a river in Terrebonne, north of Montreal. "He looked me straight in the eye and said, "I was the one who killed her," "nurse's aide Joanne Dubois testified, specifying that he referred to "Julie.", but Bouillon was never charged.

Even diagnosed with terminal cancer and serving a sentence for unrelated 2003 sexual-assault convictions, lay dying in a guarded hospital room, police investigators had failed to pin the suspected murder on him.

Police divers only searched for the body in September 2011. Ms. Surprenant's body had never been found since she vanished after getting off a bus a few blocks from her home.

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File Number: 104200054

Montreal, QC, Canada - Renda was born on September 10, 1939, in Cattolica Eraclea, Sicily, Italy. He immigrated to Canada in 1954 and married Vito Rizzuto's sister Maria on September 5, 1964.

On May 20, 2010, Renda went golfing in the morning and then went to a funeral home owned by his family in Saint-Leonard, Quebec. He told his family he would be picking up steaks for dinner on his way back from a funeral, but he never arrived. Him and his steaks vanished.

After not arriving home by 15:00 ET, Renda's son-in-law decided to search for him by tracing his usual route. He was presumed kidnapped after his car was found with the windows down and keys in the ignition along his route.

The family believes he was killed in retaliation for his role in a 1970s murder of brothers Paolo and Franceso Violi of the Bonanno crime family. Renda's disappearance occurred almost a year after Nicolo Rizzuto's grandson Nicolo was murdered, and six months after his disappearance, Nicolo would be murdered at his home.

Renda was arrested on November 22, 2006, along with dozens of others including Nicolo Rizzuto, Rocco Sollecito, Francesco Arcadi, Lorenzo Giordano and Francesco Del Balso, as part of Project Colisee (the most expensive RCMP investigation, and the largest raid against the Italian Mafia in Canadian history). His family 2013 attempt to have him declared legally dead was denied on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

On September 2, 2018, the courts had reportedly declared Renda dead.

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File Number: 104200058

Saint-Romuald, Quebec - Marilyn Bergeron, 24, left her parents' home around 11 am on 17 February 2008 ostensibly to go for a walk, leaving all her identification at home besides a credit card. She attempted to withdraw money from a nearby ATM, where security camera footage released later showed her looking nervously over her shoulder. Her attempt to withdraw CAD$60 was declined. Five hours later, she used her credit card to buy a cup of coffee in Saint-Romuald, 20 kilometres (12 mi) from her parents' house.

Quebec City police (SPVQ), who continue to investigate, have theorized that Bergeron committed suicide. Her family, who has put up a reward for information leading to the resolution of the case, believes she may have instead met with foul play. Shortly before her disappearance she had moved back to Quebec City from Montreal, where she told her parents, without being specific, that something had happened there and she no longer felt safe living on her own.

Due to this, and the jurisdictional limitations of the SPVQ, the family has repeatedly petitioned the provincial Ministry of Public Security to order the case file transferred to either the Montreal police or the Surete du Quebec, both of whom they feel could make more progress; the request has been refused.

In 2017, a friend who knew Bergeron in Montreal confirmed that she had grown increasingly fearful and reclusive there in the two months before her disappearance. He said he had asked her if she had been raped or witnessed a crime. She said what had happened to her was "worse" than that, but refused to elaborate.

Her family said it was obvious something was deeply troubling her. "Is there light at the end of this tunnel?" she asked her sister, Nathalie, over the phone. She said she did not want to return to Montreal again. But she would not say why. "We tried to get her to talk but she wouldn't talk, she would only cry", Nathalie told the Montreal Gazette a year later.

Her mother Andree Bechard confronted her about what had happened in Montreal that so perturbed her that she had to return home so quickly and leave behind her life there, apparently for good. Marilyn specifically denied that her problems involved drugs, debts, or a relationship. When Andree then asked Marilyn if she had been "assaulted", Marilyn said nothing.

Many sightings of her have been reported since her disappearance, especially in areas of Ontario just outside Quebec, but none have been confirmed.

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File Number: 104200066

It was March 1, 1991, when someone who worked at a city dump in Cartierville, a neighborhood in Montreal, Quebec noticed blood on a box wrapped inside of garbage bags. Inside of them was the mutilated, naked body of a white male, who had both of his hands cut off and had been stabbed a total of 127 times, including to his face and genitals, rendering him unrecognizable due to the trauma inflicted. According to the Doe Network, it had snowed recently, but there was a lack of snow on the surface of the box which indicated it hadn't been there long.

Investigators believe that the murder was probably a crime of passion, and haven't ruled out the possibility the killing was a "settling of accounts" by organized crime.

John Doe was aged anywhere between 30-49 years old, stood between 5'2"-5'3" (157-159 cm), weighing 99-117 pounds (45-53 kg), and had brown hair. The man sported a gray mustache, which had been noted as growing in an "odd circular pattern". His teeth were in good health and he had a vaccination scar on his right arm.

If you have any information regarding the identity and/or killer(s) of Cartierville John Doe, please contact the Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477) or the Service de police de la ville de Montreal at 514-393-1133.

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Any update on this case, please contact us at fileupdate@unsolvedcasefiles.ca (File # 104200066).

File Number: 104200112

Saint-Janvier, Quebec - On January 16, 1980, the body of a man completely frozen and fully dressed was found by police officers patrolling on montee Saint-Victor, in Saint-Janvier. Gerald Lapierre, a man in his fifties, had been shot and killed.

The victim used to go to various licensed establishments in Montreal, including the Barachais. The last person who saw the victim alive was a waitress at that bar. If you have any information that could help solve this crime, contact the Centrale de l'information criminelle of the Surete du Quebec at 1 800 659-4264.

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File Number: 104200119

Montreal, Quebec - Paul Frappier (May 8, 1977 to February 11, 2011), better known by his stage name Bad News Brown (at times, also as BNB and Briz Brown), was a Montreal-based Canadian entertainer, musician, and hip hop MC of Haitian origin. He was well known for pairing the sound of his chief instrument, the harmonica, with hip-hop beats and rhymes.

Frappier started out busking in Montreal, taking his signature sound as a teenager to the streets and subway stations. He later toured and opened for many well-known hip hop acts or as background musician. He also appeared as an impromptu host in Music for a Blue Train, the 2003 documentary about busker musicians in the Montreal Metro subway train system.

Brown's corpse was found in an alley on February 11, 2011. Police said "there was evidence of violence at the scene". His body was found in an industrial area near the Lachine Canal in Montreal. He was reportedly preparing for a show in Quebec City that was to be held a day later. So far, no arrests have been made and the motive for the killing is unknown.

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File Number: 104200156

November 25, 2020 - Cedrika Provencher (born 29 August 1997), disappeared aged 9 on 31 July 2007. Her disappearance resulted in one of the biggest police searches in Quebec's history. She was declared "missing" on 31 July 2007 (but some media already believed that she was kidnapped), and "likely abducted" 72 hours later.

Despite the offer of a reward, her whereabouts remained unknown for more than eight years.

On 12 December 2015, Quebec provincial police (SQ) announced that her remains had been found by hunters in a woody area not far from Trois-Rivieres. No one has been charged in relation to her death.

Early in the search, witnesses reported her asking for help finding a man's lost dog. Four other girls also came forward to report that a stranger had asked for their help tracking down a dog.

She cycled around the area, knocking on doors and asking residents if they had seen the dog. She was seen emerging from a wooded area with a friend, closely followed by a man. She was then seen on her bike in a local park and on various nearby streets. At 8:30 pm, her bicycle was found leaning against a fire hydrant on the corner of streets Chabanel and Chapais.

On 2 August 2007, 72 hours later, municipal officers suggested that she had been abducted, even though it was already known since day one that a man asked her about a dog.

On 11 December 2015, three hunters stumbled upon a set of human remains in the woods in Saint-Maurice, a small town near Trois-Rivieres close to Highway 40, about 15 km from the last place Cedrika had been seen.

This case remains unsolved.

Some facts about child abductions in Canada

More than 42,000 children were reported missing across Canada last year. By the numbers:

27: Abducted by strangers

31,000: Runaways

58%: Female

73%: Runaways

62%: Cases resolved in 24 hours

92%: Cases resolved within a week

SOURCE: Statistics Canada

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File Number: 104200154

November 9, 2020 - It's been nearly 12 years since two Indigenous teenagers disappeared from Maniwaki, QC., just outside Kitigan Zibi First Nation.

On September 9, 2008, Maisy Odjick's family went to the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Police Department to report her missing.

On September 10, 2008, Shannon Alexander's father went to the Surete du Quebec de la Vallee de la Gatineau police station to report her missing.

The investigation revealed that the two young women were last seen together at Shannon Alexander's home located in Maniwaki on the morning of September 6, 2008.

Here's a look back at the major developments in the case, so far.

The disappearance - September 2008

One year later - September 2009

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