MONTREAL - The mother of Jolène Riendeau has a warning for her daughter's killer: your time is running out.
Dolores Soucy spoke Wednesday to the media for the first time since the shocking news of the discovery of her daughter's remains -- some 12 years after she vanished in 1999.
Soucy fought to keep her emotions in check, her hands trembling as she made clear that what drives her now is making sure that her daughter's killer is brought to justice.
She said police are within striking distance of making an arrest.
"He ran for 12 long years. He ain't gonna run no more," Dolores Soucy told a news conference Wednesday.
"Let's make sure he's the (right suspect), let's make sure that he'll not roam the streets, let's make sure to (charge) him and incarcerate him."
A 47-year-old man has already been detained and released in the case. He is considered the prime suspect by police.
Soucy is hopeful that a $30,000 reward now being offered will help police get the missing information they need, and she urged people to come forward with any details they might have.
Soucy thanked Quebecers, police officers and the media for their support over the years; she singled out the company that printed one million missing-child posters, along with the Missing Children's Network that has provided her with support for years.
On Wednesday, she talked about how difficult the last dozen years have been and how it culminated with a torrent of events in less than a month.
In May, she's saw her daughter's 12-year disappearance solved, only to be given the brutal news it was a murder. She's witnessed an arrest in the case, only to see the suspect released. Then she finally laid her daughter to rest.
What troubles her now, Soucy said, is knowing that the killer is free.
"It's hard knowing that he's roaming the streets and knowing that he did do this 12 years ago," Soucy said.
"He is still roaming the street, with other kids (out there)."
Soucy thanked police detectives for all their hard work on the case all while calling them out for failing to keep her in the loop throughout.
The Montreal department that investigated Jolene's case -- major crimes -- is one of the busiest and most crucial in the force. Soucy said communication wasn't always the best.
"I always had to phone in and it was hard as a parent to ask because Jolene was a victim but the family became a victim too," Soucy said.
"As a victim, I don't think we're supposed to call them, they're supposed to call us and let us know what's going on."
Jolene was 10 when she was last seen on April 12, 1999. She was seen near a convenience store in the Montreal neighbourhood where she lived, munching on a bag of chips.
Her remains were found just three kilometres from her former home, by a construction worker, underneath a bridge in September 2010.
But police kept the information to themselves until last month. That's when they publicized the discovery and announced the launch of a homicide investigation.
Montreal police officers watched from the sidelines on Wednesday, mainly to offer support to Riendeau's family.
But they had nothing new to divulge on the ongoing murder investigation.
Soucy said that, for her part, she plans to be an outspoken advocate for missing children.
She called on the Quebec government once again to create a special police task force to deal with high-profile missing children's cases.
Soucy said there are 14,000 police officers working in Quebec -- surely some can be trained to work on these types of high-profile missing children's cases.
"It's for our children. It's the least we can do," Soucy said.
The request for a specialized unit has been rejected countless times by the government when families of other missing children have demanded it.
Pina Arcamone, head of Quebec's Missing Children's Network, said the public security minister has never seen the request as a priority.
"He maintains that our police are well trained and competent and we're not saying that they're not competent," Arcamone said.
"But we've set up squads for so many reasons in the past few years but there's nothing more precious than the life of a child."
