A card distributed by the family depicts Romy, right, and Norah Carpentier, at a funeral home in Levis, Que., Monday, July 20, 2020. A coroner investigating the deaths of two Quebec girls who were killed by their father in July 2020 has described the police response in the case as "too little, too late." THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
MONTREAL – A coroner investigating the deaths of two Quebec girls who were killed by their father three years ago has described the police efforts to find them as “too little, too late.”
Coroner Luc Malouin says Quebec provincial police erred in not quickly launching a ground search for Romy and Norah Carpentier after they and their father mysteriously went missing after a car crash on the evening of July 8, 2020.
After crashing his car on Highway 20, Martin Carpentier fled the scene and later killed 11-year-old Norah and six-year-old Romy in the woods near St-Apollinaire, Que., southwest of Quebec City. He then killed himself.
While witnesses told police after the crash that Carpentier was a good and loving father, Malouin said they also suggested that he’d been struggling with depression, was scared of losing custody of his daughters and his behaviour was out of character.
Malouin said that should have been enough for police to immediately call an emergency response team and launch a ground search at first light.
The coroner said the first two days of searching were marred by a lack of planning and a shortage of qualified personnel, but he said it’s uncertain whether searchers could have found the girls alive even if proper procedures had been followed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2023.
