Disappearance of Melanie Ethier

Melanie Ethier was an honours student at École secondaire catholique Sainte-Marie in New Liskeard, Ontario. In September 1996, Ethier stood 5'5" tall; weighed approximately 120 lbs; and had brown eyes and long, braided black hair. She was fond of wearing hair extensions. She had not been diagnosed with any mental illness and was not taking any medications, and friends who knew her at the time of her disappearance do not believe she was suffering from an undiagnosed condition. ==Disappearance==

On the morning of Saturday 28 September 1996, Ethier visited the home of her mother's close friend, Sylvie Chartrand. At 22:00 that evening, the group arrived at the Ethier home to watch the movie. or about six blocks. According to those present, the teens watched the movie quietly in the basement while Chatwin's parents were asleep upstairs, and consumed no alcohol or drugs that evening; investigators have stated that they believe this to be true. It was uncommon for Ethier to walk home by herself, but without phone service she could not call home for a ride. One of the boys escorted her to the door and watched her walk west down Pine Avenue East. At this time, she was wearing a green Nike windbreaker, a white t-shirt with a blue heart Pepe logo, blue jeans, a black belt with a silver buckle, black boots with a short heel, a necklace, and a watch. Ethier's route would have taken her through three intersections, over the Armstrong Street bridge, past a gas station and apartment building, up a back alley or along a main road, and finally to the top of Church Street where the Ethier residence was located. After the bridge, the last stretch of her walk home involved a poorly-lit back road where the video rental store she had visited earlier in the day was located. The weather that evening was clear, and as it had only been two days since the previous full moon it is believed that there would have been some natural light along Ethier's route. Celine became aware of her daughter's absence the next morning, when Melanie's alarm clock roused her at 06:00 or 07:30 and she discovered her daughter was not in her bedroom. As it was not uncharacteristic of Melanie to spend the night at her friend's house, Celine went back to bed and did not wake again until 08:00–09:00. Melanie's grandparents arrived at the house at 10:00 to celebrate her grandmother's birthday, at which point Melanie was supposed to have finished preparing the cake she had bought materials for the day before. Celine did not immediately suspect anything was amiss due to Melanie's habit of responsible behaviour, but she was alarmed when it became clear Melanie had not made it home the night before. Celine and her father drove to Tim Hortons to purchase a cake and call around in hopes of reaching Melanie, where she learned her daughter had left the Chatwin residence heading home. Melanie also did not appear at her daycare job as scheduled, prompting her mother to phone the New Liskeard Police Service at around 13:00 and report Melanie missing. ==Investigation==

Initial search The search for Melanie began on the afternoon of Sunday, 29 September 1996 at around 14:30–15:00. New Liskeard police dispatched officers to the Ethier residence and began a search of the area around the Armstrong Street bridge and along the banks of the Wabi River within hours of her being reported missing. Deverell later said that he remained on the case up until the day of his retirement, 31 December 2002; Thib continued working on the case until he was attached to the OPP in 2007. According to the witness, she and her husband were driving across the bridge when both spotted a teenaged black girl walking south on the eastern sidewalk. In a 2021 interview, this witness (known to the public only as "Denise") disclosed that at around 01:45 on 29 September 1996 she was doing schoolwork in her room when she heard a girl screaming outside. Although she initially ignored the outburst, she heard more screaming about 45 seconds later and became frightened. After checking that her front door was locked, the witness snuck to her bay window and saw three silhouettes of people running down the street towards Pine Avenue, but no vehicles or headlights. Her husband, who was also home at the time, did not witness the event as he was asleep. In 2020, the OPP declassified parts of Ethier's female friend's account of the evening, in which she described being spooked by a vehicle after leaving the Pine Avenue residence. Remaining anonymous, this friend has only ever spoken to the media about her experience twice and has since moved overseas. The release of The Next Call, a podcast about Ethier's case from the creator of Someone Knows Something, led to another witness coming forward in 2021. According to police, the anonymous male witness was unknown to investigators before getting in touch after hearing the podcast. The tip led police to Larocque Field in North Cobalt, roughly 10 km from Ethier's last known location, where OPP officers and the Northeast Emergency Response Team surveyed the site with the assistance of search dogs and drones on 12–14 October 2021. The heavily forested terrain made looking for evidence difficult, and police suggested they would have to schedule additional days to continue searching the area. Current status The police investigation into Ethier's disappearance has remained active since 1996. and is led by senior officer Detective Inspector Rob Matthews The province of Ontario currently offers a $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction for those responsible for Ethier's disappearance. All of the OPP's information about the case has been uploaded to Powercase, a newly implemented major case management system which alerts detectives to similar details in other investigations and could tie Ethier's disappearance into a wider crime spree. Tips generated by this system have led to several digs in the Temiskaming area which have failed to uncover Ethier's remains. In 2010, the OPP stated having received over 700 tips from 500 witnesses relevant to the Ethier case, as well as having over 300 persons of interest; in 2020, they were receiving on average 2–3 tips per month about the case. The OPP has also gone on record to say they follow up on tips offered to them by psychics, Crick suspected Goulet was drawing unwanted attention to their family and that he had informed the police of their involvement in Gauthier's murder. Goulet went missing in New Liskeard on 6 or 8 November in what appeared at the time to be another teen vanishing. Goulet's body was found in a Hilliardton gravel pit in April 1998, and was ultimately determined to have been stabbed by either Lafreniere or Crick. The surviving brother and Crick were arrested for the murder of Gauthier in December 1996. No link was ever formally established between the Gauthier murders and Ethier's disappearance. Investigators - including OPP Detective Constable Bill Deverell, who worked both cases; then-New Liskeard Police Chief Doug Jelly; and OPP Detective Inspector Rob Matthews, senior officer on the case as of 2021 - have denied any connection. Andre has denied any memory of where they had gone that weekend. Joel has said he was at a large house party in New Liskeard that weekend, and if they had attended a motocross competition it would have only been a day trip. Martel estimated the marks were about one or two days old, as they were only just starting to scab, and believed they were caused by nail scratches. Neither of Léveillé's children believe they ever witnessed him play fight with Ethier. Léveillé had a long history of making sexual advances against minors, though not everyone in his life was aware of the extent of this behaviour. His partner was aware of at least a few occasions on which he had made advances towards his daughter's friends, She had also spoken to police before the incident, providing information on the activities of a group of three local boys. Sarah, who lived on Pine Avenue at the time, was not made aware of the Ethier disappearance until Monday 30 September. At this point, Sarah (who also went by the name "Sierra") began to refer to herself as "Melanie" and dress in clothes similar to those worn by Ethier on the night of her disappearance. Days after the incident, Sarah told several people that she was Ethier at a bowling alley in Haileybury. Sarah moved to North Bay sometime after 1998, and appears in her school yearbooks in 1997 and 1998, despite a rumour which alleged she left town weeks after the disappearance. She then moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. Aside from a voicemail left for her mother in February 2020, she has cut off all contact with her friends and family; her current whereabouts and status are unknown. Peers who attended school in the area at the same time as Ethier have doubted someone would be targeted over a debt, as the illegal drugs circulating at the time would not have been expensive enough to justify murdering someone who could not afford to pay back what they owed. said in a 2020 interview that he doubts one popular theory which suggests Ethier was killed by hunters from the United States. At the time of Ethier's disappearance, the only hunting seasons that would have been open would be for small game and bear, and in the 1990s most bear hunting took place in the spring rather than the fall months. The small game season rarely draws anyone to the community, and big game hunters would be required to stay with a licensed outfitter or lodge. Of particular interest to the case is the suspicious vehicle encountered by the two girls who were with Ethier on the day she disappeared. Samya Benchabi, who had briefly walked with the group on the afternoon of 28 September 1996, left them and returned home after sunset, either at around 19:00 or 22:00. Paul Alan Hachey was a repeat violent offender who was ultimately convicted of three sexual assaults which took place in Edmonton and two murders which took place in Ontario. Hachey murdered 46-year-old Larry Arnold on 14 October 1994 and hid Arnold's body in a ravine in Rosedale, Toronto, where it remained hidden until 19 November nearly five weeks later; and 20-year-old Sarah Whitehead on 7 August 1997 while she was walking home from the mall along a footpath in North Bay. Hachey was arrested in Calgary in December 1997 for another sexual assault. Police in Hachey's hometown of Sturgeon Falls, Ontario made the connection between him and the murder of Sarah Whitehead using DNA retrieved from a cigarette butt at the crime scene in Calgary to tie Hachey to the crime as well as the assaults in Edmonton; he also confessed to the murder of Larry Arnold while in police custody. Although he was active in the area, his modus operandi (or "MO") does not match the details of the Ethier disappearance and the OPP do not consider him a suspect. Michael Wayne McGray was a serial killer who was active and transient at the time of Ethier's disappearance. Between 1985 and 1998, McGray killed at least six girls between the ages of 7 and 18 years old, and has since claimed to have been responsible for eleven more which have yet to be linked to him. McGray's confirmed crimes took place in Dartmouth, Moncton, Montreal, Saint John, and Weymouth; but he claims that his yet-undiscovered crimes occurred in more distant locales including Calgary, Seattle, and Vancouver. McGray was arrested on 1 March 1998. ==Public reaction==

Initial reaction The New Liskeard community helped search for Melanie and support the Ethier family. A special prayer service was held at New Liskeard's Church of St. John the Evangelist on 2 October 1996, three days after Melanie disappeared; and a second was held shortly afterwards at Paroisse Sainte-Croix. Parents whose children were enrolled in the Garderie Richelieu, the daycare where both Celine and Melanie Ethier worked, began organizing a trust fund for the Ethier family after the disappearance. Another vigil was held on 9 December, and was attended by roughly sixty people. Approximately 300 masked marchers attended a "Walk for Awareness: Bring Melanie Ethier Home" event on 7 November 2020, raising awareness for the case and advocating for better child welfare. Social media Celine Ethier created a Facebook page entitled "Let's Work Together to Find Melanie Ethier" on 11 August 2009 to raise awareness for her daughter's case. As her mother never directly revealed any details about the investigation to her, Jessie Ethier learned much of what she knows about the case from interactions on the Facebook page. Celine Ethier also criticized the federal government for voting down legislation which would expand the DNA database. OPP Detective Constable Bill Deverell has refuted criticism that the police overlooked tips and didn't consider every possible lead in the investigation. ==In media==

Television • Celine Ethier appeared on The Camilla Scott Show in January 1998 to raise awareness for her daughter's case. • Chasing Ghosts, a special report on the television program W5, covered the Ethier case on 20 November 2010, renewing calls for a missing persons index to be added to Canada's National DNA Databank. Other • "The Invisible Man", a poem by New Liskeard writer Joyce Weatherbie about child abduction, was inspired by the disappearance of Melanie Ethier and published in a 1998 anthology. Melanie Ethier was one of the eighteen people portrayed in the installation. • Shedding Light, a podcast focused on investigating unsolved cases in Canada, launched in July 2020 with a five-episode season focused on the disappearance of Melanie Ethier. According to detectives involved in the investigation, new tips were reported following the podcast's release. • The Next Call, a podcast by David Ridgen and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has five episodes centered on “The case of Melanie Ethier” wherein the host investigates the case through phone calls with witnesses, family, and other locals who may have information about Ethier's disappearance. At least one credible lead was called in as a result of the podcast. ==See also==