MONTREAL -- The search for a teen girl who has been missing since Saturday afternoon in the Eastern Townships is being scaled down, police said Wednesday.
Coralie Lessard, 15, left her home in the Omerville sector of Magog on foot around 4 p.m. but never returned home.
Police have used a drone, a helicopter, a boat and a dog to help in the search efforts that involved around 200 people, including firefighters and volunteers.
In a post on their Facebook page Wednesday evening, Magog police said after four days of intense searching, officers will stop canvassing the area between Route 112 in Omerville and the Magog River.
“Other very targeted inspections will be carried out in the sector over the next few days with the assistance of specialized security personnel in Quebec, but with less intensity,” the police said.
Lessard was in mental distress and left a cryptic note prior to her disappearance, according to police, who say they have not found a single clue in the desperate, multi-day search.
A group of hunters spotted her in a wooded area about an hour after she left home Saturday and told her how to get back to the main road. That was the last time she was seen.
“I can’t describe the pain. She’s my little girl,” Lessard’s father, Stephane Fortin, told CTV News on Tuesday.
In the meantime, police say the search is not over.
“Obviously, for the family we would have wished for a quick and happy recovery,” police said on Wednesday.
“However, we would like to mention to them that even if we cease intensive searches in the sector, we are not giving up and we will continue to collect any information that can advance the case.”
Residents in the area are being asked to be on the lookout for any sign of Lessard and to contact police with information that might be helpful.
