The disappearance of Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou, the 10-year-old boy missing since March 12, was a tragic accident, according to Montreal police.

SPVM spokesperson Ian Lafreniere said police are convinced Ariel died on the day of his disappearance by falling into the Riviere des Prairies.

Lafreniere told CTV Montreal a witness told police she saw Ariel near the river that morning and also cited camera footage putting him near the water in Bateliers Park. While the footage showed Ariel entering the park, there was no sign of him leaving.

"That's the reason it's impossible for us to tell you we're 100 per cent sure this is an accident, that we know that he drowned," said Lafreniere. "We don't know that for a fact but we have all the reasons to believe this."

Early in the search, police said Ariel had been seen in the park close to 2:00 p.m. The witness Lafreniere cited said she had seen the boy and spoken to him closer to 11:25 a.m. which was more consistent with the time Ariel had left his home to visit a friend. Lafreniere said the discrepancy was due to bad communication.

"We shared the info as soon as we got it and it's really our fault, the communications side," he said. "Yesterday, I spoke to the investigator in charge, just to clarify that and it's really 11:25 the last time Ariel was seen inside the park. This is the last credible witness we have who was talking to Ariel."

Lafreniere said police would keep searching and thanked the public for their help in the investigation. More than 700 tips were submitted to police regarding the Kouakou case.

"We got more than 500 volunteers that showed up last weekend," said Lafreniere. "This is not over, we'll be there, we're asking the public if they have information to contact 911 and people living on the riverside to give attention to the fact they could see, unfortunately, Ariel show up one of these days."

While police and volunteers have canvassed in the Cartierville area since Ariel’s disappearance, police have also focused much of the search on the river. They initially deployed boats equipped with sonar and later divers spent two days searching for any sign of the boy.

An Amber Alert was issued for Ariel shortly after he was reported missing but was later retracted, as police said there was no evidence of any abduction. As the search dragged on, Ariel’s family said they were convinced the boy had been kidnapped.

"He could be somewhere else. We don't have any indication, 100 per cent of where he was, exactly," said Lafreniere. "We know he was close to the river, we know he disappeared and didn't appear afterward in the footage we have. As a father myself, it's hard to believe Ariel could disappear like that. That's why I want to answer that question; it's why we searched so often."

 

The boy's father has repeatedly said he believes his son was abducted and that he would never have gone to the river.

Frederic Kouakou said he was "astonished" to hear about the police theory, which he learned about through the media.

"For me, it's confusion, because my family and I, until proof to the contrary, maintain the theory of abduction," he told reporters.

He called on police and volunteers to "keep the flame" and to continue to investigate the possibility his son could be alive.

"We still haven't reached our objective, which is to find Ariel," he said.

Police divers searched the river on six different occasions this week but found no clues.

More than $100,000 was raised for a reward leading to Ariel being found.

Lafreniere said the case has touched the officers tasked with finding Ariel.

"I spoke yesterday with the two investigators in charge of this case, they have kids the same age," he said. "It's very hard for us talking to the family and not being able to answer the number one question, what happened? Where is he?"

  • With files from The Canadien Press