MONTREAL -- The discovery of the body of Martin Carpentier last night ended a frightening saga in Saint-Apollinaire.
The final shock came to the local resident who found the man’s body, spotting it behind a shed on the person's property, right in the yard.
The spot was about five kilometres from where the bodies of Carpentier’s two daughters, 11-year-old Norah and six-year-old Romy, were found 10 days ago.
It was within the same 50-square-kilometre area the police had been searching, validating the fears locals have been living with for the past two weeks, first waiting for news of his daughters then knowing a potentially dangerous, unstable man was at large nearby.
“I don't find the words to describe the words to describe the situation,” said one local man, Sebastien Valliere.
“It’s awful to kill...the two kids.”
During the nearly two weeks the manhunt continued, locals were on edge.
“Every time I left the house I was constantly looking over my shoulder, “ said Carmel Martineau. “I was very worried.”
At one point, police said Carpentier had broken into someone’s RV and taken supplies. They ended up telling residents not to search their properties without police present.
The formal identification of the body will happen during the autopsy, but police say they’re certain it’s him. On Monday they said the death appears to be a suicide. They didn’t provide further details on Tuesday.
Police investigators could be seen carrying a body out of the area on a stretcher on Monday night.
Locals said it’s weighing on them that Carpentier’s death will deny the girls’ family—and the people in their area—the chance to understand more about what happened.
“At least we’re safer, but we definitely would have liked to have found him alive to know the final story of all this,” said Nathalie Lamontagne.
The sisters' funeral was held a few hours before the discovery of Carpentier's body.
