Breakthrough in decades-old killing of Quebec 10-year-old girl

Content warning: This article contains details that may be disturbing to some readers. 

A Quebec inmate was arrested Tuesday in connection with the 1994 killing of 10-year-old Marie-Chantale Desjardins.

Quebec provincial police (SQ) say Réal Courtemanche, 61, was arrested at Établissement La Macaza, a medium-security prison about 190 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

On July 16, 1994, Desjardins, a Grade 3 student, vanished after leaving a friend's home in Sainte-Thérèse, Que., on her bicycle.

Multiple witnesses reported seeing her at the local billiard bar on Turgeon Street that day.

In a press release, police said the victim frequented this location, "especially in the two weeks prior to her disappearance."

She visited a friend's home in the late afternoon and was last spotted on her bike heading east on Turgeon Street around 9:30 p.m., according to the SQ.

Desjardins' body was found days later in the neighbouring Rosemère municipality, in a wooded area behind the Place Rosemère shopping centre. Pathologists believe she was strangled.

In a major breakthrough in the case almost 30 years later, "the suspect was identified and arrested thanks to the meticulous, long-term work of investigators from the Sûreté du Québec's unsolved case division, in collaboration with the forensic science and forensic medicine laboratory, and the innovative methods used today in forensic biology," another SQ news release stated.

Courtemanche was arraigned at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse on Tuesday and faces a first-degree murder charge. 

"For [the family], the filing today of accusations against Réal Courtemanche, it's bringing answers. I think the following months with the trial will give them more answers about, maybe, the circumstances of the disappearance of Marie-Chantale Desjardins," said prosecutor Alexandre Dubois, speaking at the courthouse. 

The accused has an extensive criminal record with dozens of convictions, including harassment, forcible confinement, theft, assault and various drug-related offences. He is currently awaiting trial on drug charges.  

Courtemanche's arrest marks the latest in a series of cold case breakthroughs in Quebec in recent years. 

In June, a man was charged in the 1996 killing of Patricia Ferguson, a young mother from Montreal; in May, DNA evidence revealed the 1975 killer of Montreal teen Sharron Prior; and in October 2022, a man was charged in the 2000 killing of Guylaine Potvin, a teenager from Saguenay.

Desjardins's remains, which were held in evidence for three decades, will finally be laid to rest. A private funeral will be held on Saturday.