Missing teen rescued in Kanesatake

Kanesatake and surrounding communities came together this week for a search and rescue mission that had a happy ending, with a 14 year-old girl found safely in the Pines after losing her way on a frigid night.

“The thing that I really admired was seeing both Kanesatake and the village of Oka working together at the same time, and seeing different factions of the community that wouldn’t necessarily talk to each other come together,” said Kane Montour, head of Kanesatake Perimeter Security (KPS), who responded to the incident after receiving a call just after 9 p.m. on Tuesday night.

“I saw two guys who fought multiple times in the past, and now they’re working together, walking together, holding flashlights. It’s a true testament to Kanesatake,” he said.

The alarm was first sounded after some local youth called KPS just after 9 p.m. saying they had lost a member of their group, a girl from another community, after cutting through the woods when leaving a location near the school.

They said they’d lost her around 8 p.m. and temperatures were creeping lower, reaching –20 C that night.

The other youth also had the missing girl’s phone with them at the time.

“So she has no flashlight and no way to contact anybody, and she’s alone in the Pines,” Montour said. “It’s dark, it’s scary, and you can’t see anything.”

Because the group was only planning to cut through the trail briefly, the missing girl was reportedly without a winter coat, instead carrying only a blanket, and wearing sweatpants, running shoes, and a hat.

The KPS team posted on Facebook, urging any community members who had ATVs or other vehicles to come and join the search.

Around 30 people showed up to look for the missing girl. Montour said that number included a handful of Surete du Quebec (SQ) officers, fire department members, and locals from both Kanesatake and Oka.

“Everybody played a vital role in finding her,” Montour said. “We told everyone, ‘This is who it is, this is who we’re looking for, we’ve searched here, can you guys go there?’ And everybody just really listened and worked well together.”

People from Oka searched along the roads and in the village area, shadowing the woods, and Kanehsata’kehró:non searched the trail. Some of the group started following footprints they could see in the snow, at one point finding the blanket that the girl had been carrying.

As the night wore on, Montour had the idea to shut off all the flashlights, simulating what the girl would’ve seen in the dark.

“I thought it’d give us an understanding of whether something was brighter, something we couldn’t see when the flashlights were on, and that’s exactly what happened,” he said.

With the flashlights off and the Pines plunged back into darkness, Montour and his group saw a giant Santa figurine in the distance, illuminated in the backyard of someone’s house in Oka.

“I said, ‘If that was me, I would probably head towards that, because it’s the first sign of life,” he said.

Concerns mounted as the group headed in that direction and found the girl’s hat, as well as tracks that looked as if she had repeatedly collapsed in the snow.

Suddenly, around midnight, members of the search found her, laying down in the snow close to the rink. She was immediately taken to hospital by ambulance, and it’s understood that she suffered no serious injuries.

KPS supervisor Kayla Nelson, who was also part of the search, said that the team demonstrated immense professionalism under pressure.

“We’re KPS workers, but we’re also community members just trying our best to help the community,” she said.

The KPS team had completed a multi-day search and rescue training with Kahnawa’kehró:non Kellyann Meloche in the summer, which Nelson said came was extremely useful throughout the night. The crew also had pre-prepared questionnaires about a missing person’s physical features and circumstantial information, which they used to gather details quickly at the start of the search.

When the girl was found, a wave of emotion hit the search party, who had been hyper-focused on the task at hand.

“We all walked out together, and we were just so happy, we were so glad to know that she was found,” she said. “That was a really, really good feeling.”

Montour said that since the event, the KPS team has taken measures to enhance its rescue protocols, updating the questionnaire for missing persons to include even more details, like what kind of supplies the person had on them, and information such as the last time they’d eaten. The team will also carry night vision goggles and whistles going forward, having found it difficult to clearly communicate in the woods by just voice.

“Some of the fire department had whistles and we could hear them clear as day,” Montour said. “If people are yelling, you don’t know if it’s the person who needs help yelling, or a helper trying to get your attention. All of it was a learning experience, for sure.”

Many expressed relief on social media following the announcement that the girl was found. Community member Myrna Gabriel said that she was moved by the efforts of everyone involved in the search.

“It was so alarming and disturbing but there was such positive response to the callout for help, and that is what community is. It’s what we’ve been lacking for so long, but historically it’s how everyone would be,” she said. “If there was an incident, everyone would be there and respond. That spirit has been gone for a really long time, but seeing everyone be on board to help was freaking awesome.”

She said that what happened should serve as a reminder of what’s really important.

“We need to smarten up and work together like this, the way we used to,” she said, adding that she was reminded of the lessons shared at Midwinter to put grievances aside.

“We need to put our troubles in the fire and let them go,” she said. “This type of situation shows that people who have grievances can work together.”

Montour said that it’s extremely lucky that the girl survived multiple hours in the freezing cold and urged everyone to always prepare for the worst when navigating trails in the winter.

“Even if you think you’ll only be there for five or 10 minutes, always dress and pack properly because you’re in the woods, and anything could happen. You could get hurt, or attacked, there are so many unexpected variables that you can’t control,” he said. “This had all the recipes for disaster, and we’re just glad that the outcome is that she was found and returned home safely.”

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