Three weeks to the day after a ten-year-old boy disappeared in Montreal, police have stopped searching the river for the missing child.

Over the past several weeks police have gone door-to-door in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville neighbourhood where Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou lives; they have repeatedly searched the Parc des Bataliers, where Ariel was last spotted, on foot, horseback, and on ATV; divers have frequently gone into the fast-moving river in hopes of finding any clue about the boy.

On Monday police also closed the command post at the nearby Galeries Normandie, and said anyone with information is invited to call police and offer tips.

Inspector Ian Lafreniere said that police have been in touch with the Kouakou family every day, and have informed them of the decision to suspend the search of the water.

"A lot of different possibilities have been tried but now we went to a conclusion that this is enough for the moment. There won't be any search in the river for the moment," said Lafreniere.

"This is not over, but for the moment we have to stop searches of the river."

He added that with the increase in water flow because of melting snow and ice, it was simply too dangerous to have divers re-enter the river.

This past weekend police brought in a dog from Nova Scotia that specializes in ice and water searches, while crews from Hydro Quebec broke up ice on the shore.

On Saturday dozens of volunteers conducted another search the entire length of the park, but found no sign of Ariel.

Police have questioned about 40 people in connection with the case, and said they believe the most-likely event is that Ariel slipped on icy rocks at the river's edge and drowned.

Lafreniere would not say that everything about the case has been perfect, "that would be stupid," but he said that everything about the search for Ariel would be examined at a later date.

"After the investigation we'll do the investigation on the investigation and if we can do better next time believe me, we'll do. But for the moment we've put a lot of effort, thanks to the public, thanks to so many partners; just the canine unit from Halifax the guy drove 13 hours straight just to help us out," said Lafreniere.

Ariel's father said he believes his son was kidnapped, and that he does not think his son would have gone near the water.