On September 29th, 1996, 15-year-old Melanie Ethier disappeared while walking home from a night with friends. 25 years later, her mother, Celine, has not given up the search. Part one can be found here.
The search for Melanie began on the afternoon of Sunday, September 29th, 1996 around 2:30 PM and 3:00 PM after Celine called the New Liskeard Police Department to report her daughter missing. The community, the Ethier home, and Melanie’s trek home were all searched that day. Local police wanted the best chance they had of finding Melanie, so they called in reinforcements.
The following day, Monday, Spetember 30th, 1996, a formal request for assistance was made to the Ontario Provincial Police (the OPP). New Liskeard police also received assistance in the form of a helicopter from Sudbury, a police dog team from North Bay, and a search and rescue dog from the Office of the Fire Marshal of Ontario.
Dozens of officers, as well as volunteer firefighters, canvassed the community, and it’s surrounding areas, looking for Melanie. They paid special attention to the Armstrong Bridge, knowing that she would have had to cross it in order to get home. Police also looked at surveillance footage taken along the route Melanie would have taken home. Police have never recovered any security footage from the night that Melanie disappeared.
Melanie’s friends and family were interviewed extensively in the days following her disappearance. Police wanted to know what kind of mood Melanie was in, and in what shape she left Ryan’s home that night. They were all cleared of any involvement in her disappearance.
A week after Melanie’s disappearance, the 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron performed training exercises in the area in order to also participate in the search. On Tuesday, October 8th, 1996 an underwater search and rescue team became involved in the search. They began a search of the Wabi River between the Armstrong Bridge, and Lake Temiskaming. Neither search led to any new clues or leads in Melanie’s disappearance.
By mid-October, Melanie’s case was listed with Crime Stoppers. The listing asked the public to call in with with tips that could help police locate Melanie. The New Liskeard Police also placed billboards around the community. A very well-known billboard still remains to this day outside of Latchford. The billboard shows a photo of Melanie with the question: “You know what happened to me – So why don’t you help?”
Celine didn’t rely solely on the police in the search for her daughter. She rounded up friends and family to conduct searches as well. Jay Denomme, one of Melanie’s friends, was an enthusiastic participant. The group distributed poster all over New Liskeard, as well as Timmins, Ottawa, and Montréal. In December of 1996, ChildFind, a national organization dedicated to finding missing children, began circulating Melanie’s information through their network across Canada.
In early 1997, New Liskeard Police Sergeant Dwight Thib, and OPP Detective Constable Bill Deverell, were assigned to work Melanie’s case full-time. They re-interviewed Melanie’s friends, and other witnesses in order to exhaust all the leads that they possibly could.
In September of 1997, a year after Melanie disappeared, OPP Inspector Pete Burns had taken over as lead on the case. By February 1998, Sergeant Thib returned to regular duties. Later that year, the taskforce officially disbanded. Sergeant Thib and Detective Constable Deverell were committed, and vowed to continue to work on the case as new leads appeared.
As the years wore on, the investigation never remained stagnant – though it did fall to the back burner. Investigators continued to follow up on leads, and Celine never once gave up on finding her daughter.
In 2010, an eyewitness account was made public, and the details of the sighting were formally released in 2021. The witness stated that her husband was driving them home from a wedding, when they spotted a young woman fitting Melanie’s description crossing the Armstrong bridge. The witness stated that the night was clear, and they saw no other vehicles or pedestrians on the bridge.
The witness stated that she hadn’t come forward to police until around 1997 or 1998 when they saw a photo Melanie, and linked her to the girl they’d seen on the bridge. At the time, the tip wasn’t properly logged with police. The witness was not approached by police again until the 2000s, when she approached Celine directly, who urged the police to speak to the woman and her husband.
In 2008 or 2009, a second witness came forward stating that they had seen Melanie on the bridge the night she disappeared. The witness had been at the King George Tavern, two blocks away from the Armstrong Bridge, and then had gone to Norm’s Forum for food and coffee. As they were being driven home around 1:45 AM and 1:50 AM, they saw a girl walking around the mid-point of the bridge. The witness also stated that they saw a car pull over next to her, and two young men exist the vehicle.
The witness then stated that the men cornered the girl, and then coerced her into their vehicle. The men followed her in, and then sped off. The witness described the vehicle as a small blue or light-coloured four-door car. They could not remember what the girl looked like, and could not positively say whether the girl was Melanie or not.
In 2019, another witness came forward to police with her story. The witness stated that at around 1:45 AM on September 29th, 1996, she heard a girl screaming outside while the witness was up doing homework. The witness initially ignored the sound, but heard it again nearly a minute later. Startled, the witness checked that her doors were locked, and then snuck to peer our her front bay window. As she took a peek, she saw three silhouettes or people running down the street, though she couldn’t make out any features.
In 2020, the OPP made public a portion of Melanie’s best friend’s statement from that night. The best friend told them that she’d been spooked by a vehicle that seemed to have been following her as she left Ryan’s house that night after watching a movie.
At this time, the investigation is being led by the Temiskaming Branch of the OPP, in collaboration with the OPP Crime Unit. The investigation is led by Detective Inspector Rob Matthews, and lead detective Inspector Kori Betts. The province of Ontario is offering a $50,000 reward for information that lead to the arrest or conviction of those responsible for the disappearance of Melanie Ethier.
Through the 25 years of the investigation, there are many theories that have been floating around both social media, and news media, in regards to Melanie’s disappearance, and those responsible for it.
In April of 1996, just twenty minutes away from New Liskeard in the town of Thornloe, 47-year-old Louis Gauthier was murdered by Michael Lafreniere, and Robert Goulet, two minors who were half-brothers, with the help of their uncle Gregory Crick, who helped them with the murder.
(I won’t go into the details, as I plan on covering this case at a later date.)
While no link could definitively be established between Melanie’s disappearance, and those responsible for the murder of Louis Gauthier, the theory was made popular when a young girl, who was incarcerated in a juvenile facility with Michael Lafreniere allegedly confessed that he and Goulet had murdered Melanie.
In October or November of 1996, a witness attended a party with Robert Goulet, who allegedly confessed to Melanie’s murder, and then claimed that he had disposed of her body in a wood chipper. It’s heavily suggested that Goulet had been “inspired” to confess by the recent release of the film Fargo.
Investigators do not believe that Crick, Lafreniere, or Goulet have anything to do with Melanie’s disappearance.
Another theory states that a family friend of Celine and Melanie’s may be involved in her disappearance. That family friend was Denis Léveillé.
Léveillé was the long-term partner of Sylvie Chartrand, Celine’s best friend, whom Melanie visited the day before she disappeared.
That weekend, Léveillé, his step-son Jason, his brother Andre, and Jason’s friend Joel all went out of town to go fishing. At a later date, Léveillé alleged that this had been a lie – instead, the group had attended a motocross competition in North Bay. In 2021, Jason corroborated this, but also stated that his memory was spotty due to the trauma of losing Melanie.
Upon his return to New Liskeard, Léveillé began exhibiting odd behaviour that drew Melanie’s family’s attention right to him.
That day, September 29th, 1996, Léveillé went to the Ethier home, where Celine’s mother was remaining in case Melanie came home. Léveillé went to the basement, and smoked a cigarette. This struck Melanie’s grandmother as odd, as Celine did now allow smoking in her home, nor had Léveillé ever done that before.
A few days later, three days into the investigation into Melanie’s disappearance, Léveillé approached Celine and commented that whomever had taken Melanie must have been very strong. He then showed her scratch marks all over his arms. He went on to explain that he and Melanie had been “play fighting”, where she’d inflicted the damage. Léveillé surmised that Melanie would have defended herself, and kicked up a major fuss had she been abducted.
Celine had already believed Léveillé to be odd, but this behaviour further solidified her suspicion that Léveillé may be involved in her daughter’s disappearance. However, if his alibi were to be believed, it would have been impossible for him to encounter Melanie in the early morning hours of September 29th.
As the years wore on, Celine’s suspicions never diminished. As a result, she distanced herself from Léveillé, as well as Sylvie. On a couple of occasions, Celine got her hopes up – Léveillé would call her, and threaten to take his own life, stating that he had a secret. On those occasions, Celine would find him, hoping he would confess. He never did.
Léveillé may never have confessed to being involved with Melanie, but he certainly did have run ins with the law.
In 2006, Léveillé was charged with failure to comply to with orders not to associated or communicated with several people. In 2012, he was charged for making death threats, committing assault with a vehicle, possessing an illegal taser, and violating the terms of his parole. In 2013, he was charged for sexual interference with someone under the age of 16.
That last charge took no one by surprise. It was an open secret around the community that Léveillé would harass, target, and assault young girls.
While he was in prison, Celine visited him, and directly asked him if he had been involved in her daughter’s disappearance. Léveillé denied any involvement, claiming that he could never hurt Melanie. He went on to suggest that Robert Goulet, Micheal Lafreniere, and Gregory Crick had murdered Melanie.
Upon his release, Celine attempted to make contact with Léveillé again. According to his family, he was extremely anxious leading up to his conversation with Celine. The evening before they were to meet, he suffered a hugely debilitating stroke.
A few hours before his stroke, Léveillé had a conversation with his daughter Steffany. Steffany stated that her father told her he’d lied about his alibi the weekend of Melanie’s disappearance. He confessed to her that he hadn’t gone fishing, and instead had gone to a motocross competition. He claimed to have driven his sister-in-law’s vehicle, either a beige Ford Tempo, or a blue Toyota Tercel hatchback.
On January 9th, 2016, two weeks after his stroke, Denis Léveillé passed away in hospital.
Celine maintains that she believes Léveillé to either be responsible, or be involved in Melanie’s disappearance. Investigating officers have spoken to Steffany, and have investigated Léveillé as a suspect both prior to, and after his death. They offer no further comment at this time in regards to his involvement.
Anyone with information regarding the disappearance of Melanie Ethier is asked to contact the director of the Criminal Investigation Branch of the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or 705-329-6111 or their nearest police authority.
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Sources:
Christmas a difficult day for mother of missing teen, Melanie Ethier – Jeff Turi – Bay Today
Investigation into Melanie Ethier’s disappearance still ongoing – Timmins Today
Morbid podcast – Episode 245: The Mysterious Disappearance of Melanie Ethier
The Next Call with David Ridgen – The case of Melanie Ethier – CBC Podcasts