A little girl, just 3 years old, was found alive walking alone on the side of a highway in Ontario, Canada, about 145 kilometers from her home in Montreal - after a frantic search that lasted four days.
Meanwhile, police have discovered that her mother had made some disturbing searches online before the girl's disappearance, including organizing funerals for children and purchasing urns (a special container where a person's ashes are stored after cremation).
Claire Bell was last seen on Sunday morning leaving an emergency exit of the building where she lived, along with her mother, Rachel Todd, and their dog.
That same afternoon, the mother reported the girl missing in another area, Coteau-du-Lac, about 100 kilometers from where they were first seen.
Immediately after the report, police launched a major search operation in Quebec and Ontario, involving hundreds of officers and citizens.
Claire was finally found alone, walking along Highway 417 in Ontario, after a tip from a witness and the use of drones in the search. Her dog was found dead near a nearby souvenir shop, where the mother claimed to have lost her daughter.
Police are currently looking for a witness who could help shed light on the hours between the disappearance and its reporting. The woman lives on a farm and is said to have met the girl's mother on the day of the disappearance.
Rachel Todd, 34, has been arrested and charged with child abandonment.
Investigators found that she had made repeated searches on her phone for "children's urns" and "funeral ceremonies," which authorities have described as alarming.
"This whole story is going in a very dark direction," a source close to the police working on the case told the media.
Todd's court hearing has been postponed until Friday.
A video posted to the mother's TikTok account, the same day she reported her daughter missing, shows her holding her daughter in her arms, visibly angry.
Source: NY Post
