Six months after the death of Norah and Romy Carpentier in tragic conditions, the mother of the two daughters wonders about the work of the police in the first hours after their disappearance. Amélie Lemieux asked Maxime Roy, her lawyer, to share it on the show I.
Last summer, this terrible tragedy shook Quebec. The two young girls were murdered in the forest by their father, in Saint-Apollinaire. Martin Carpentier then took his own life, taking with him the answers to many questions about his motivations, the reasons that led him to commit these irreparable acts.
“I trust the SQ,” explains the lawyer. They have the expertise and the skill to draw conclusions from this event. It was not the Sûreté du Québec that killed the two girls. It’s Martin Carpentier. So I don’t understand why SQ isn’t more transparent in saying this worked, this didn’t work. ”
On the evening of July 8, Martin Carpentier swerved with his car on Highway 20 in Saint-Apollinaire, near Quebec. He had his daughters Norah and Romy on board. When his vehicle stopped, he left the scene with his children.
The father walked nearly two kilometers in the forest where he murdered his daughters, according to the Sûreté du Québec. He then walked about three miles in bare feet to reach a property where he took his own life.
Within hours of the swerve, firefighters from Saint-Apollinaire, paramedics and police immediately searched the immediate vicinity of Martin Carpentier’s car. But at that time, there was no large deployment in the forest.
The police asked Amélie Lemieux if her ex-spouse could represent a risk for her children. She told them that in her opinion he couldn’t be dangerous to Romy and Norah.
There were therefore checks made in hospitals, with taxi companies and relatives of Martin Carpentier.
“I do not understand, with the facts that were present, how the Sûreté du Québec could have worked on a scenario that they (Carpentier and his children) were safe, that they were elsewhere,” said the lawyer for the mother of Norah and Romy.
“We cannot hold Amélie Lemieux, who did not know Mr. Carpentier as a dangerous person, responsible for having told the truth to the authorities,” adds Me Roy.
In interview for the show I, the lawyer asks the question: “Isn’t it the mission of the authorities to prevent and anticipate the worst? I mean we got a wrecked car in the middle of Highway 20, where a father and his two daughters should be. One can easily find two or three disturbing scenarios. Isn’t it the role of the SQ to check to make sure it’s not the worst that has just happened? ”
“Here it is clear that it brings the question back. Should the Sûreté du Québec have an emergency response unit for events like this? Could such a unit have made a difference? This is what is difficult with Mme The best. A question she will bring to her grave. Could the faster intervention have made a difference? ” concludes the lawyer.
“Did we do everything to save these children?” Asks the director of the Association of Families of Murdered and Disappeared Persons (AFPAD) in an interview with the show. I.
“That’s the question you have to ask yourself in order to learn from it,” said Nancy Roy. Experts tell us that the first hours are crucial in cases of disappearance. It’s the same story repeating itself every time. Think of young Kouakou, Cédrika Provencher, Mélissa Blais. It is the rapid non-intervention of specialized police officers and we do not learn. ”
AFPAD has been asking for several years for a squad made up of specialists from several police forces who would have the mandate to intervene as soon as there is a disappearance in Quebec.
The Sûreté du Québec preferred to wait until the program I on the Carpentier affair is broadcast before its reaction is known.
