“I was right next to them. I was so close and I didn’t even know it. Amélie Lemieux, the mother of little Norah and Romy Carpentier, testified at the opening of the coroner’s public inquiry into the death of the little girl and her father Martin Carpentier of the horror she has been feeling since July 8, 2020.
• Also read: 21-day hearing to get to the bottom of the Carpentier case
The mother reported on Monday morning the hours that followed the evasion that is the catalyst for this tragedy that will have affected all of Quebec.
While the search operation was organized and the first critical hours passed, Amélie Lemieux did her best to make the information available to as many people as possible. The Amber alert was not raised until around 3pm on July 9 and the inquest found the girls would have died around the same time around 6pm following their disappearance.
While police closed the scene, the mother acted on her side, notably arresting passers-by at a nearby rest area by showing photos of her daughters or asking truckers to transmit the information through their radio transmitter.
“I have a friend who told me to make an announcement on Facebook. And my spouse requested the Amber Alert. I even provided photos,” she testified before coroner Luc Malouin. “We asked about the helicopter, we asked about the Amber alert, but it took a very long time. There was a long time between the moment I was told there would be one and the act of triggering it.
“We have to find him”
Photo archive, TVA Nouvelles
Amélie Lemieux was clear in her statement. She said as soon as she arrived at the scene of the accident within minutes of the accident that time was running out.
She recounts being “locked in a police car” where she “choked to death” while she was just trying to find her daughters, and recalls telling a patrol officer the urgency of the situation.
“I don’t know when, but I said: ‘Martin doesn’t come from the forest’. He’s afraid, it doesn’t look like him, we have to find him,” said the little one’s mother and spoke of “a feeling”. who found her ex-husband particularly thin in the weeks leading up to the tragedy.
“I don’t remember everything. I got caught on the 20 today,” she introduced herself to explain how everything stopped for her that evening.
- Listen to the Gibeault-Dutrizac meeting with retired judge Nicole Gibeault on the microphone of Benoit Dutrizac QUB radio :
So close
Amélie Lemieux also said she returned to the scene of the accident on Autobahn 20 after taking evasive action early in the morning of July 9, less than 12 hours after her daughters and father went missing.
Accompanied by a friend, the mother crossed Bourret Road, which borders Highway 20 in Saint-Apollinaire. As she turned to the intersection of Chemin du Bois-de-l’Ail and Chemin Bois-Joli, Amélie Lemieux said there was no point in going there as Norah lost a sandal and she couldn’t walk on the stones anyway .
Two days later, however, the two small bodies were found nearby.
“I was right next to them. I was so close,” the mother reiterated through tears in a heartbreaking statement. “I was screaming the girls’ names.”
The mother found out about the death of the little one two days later when an investigator showed up at her parents’ house.
“I fell. I fell and didn’t feel anything anymore.
When prosecutor Dave Kimpton offered her an opportunity to take a break to regain her senses, Amélie Lemieux served up a response that revealed the extent of her suffering.
“There is no rest in my pain, sir. It’s been consistent since day one,” said the woman, who has remained unemployed since the tragedy.
Long public inquiry
The lawyers of the parties involved can cross-examine Amélie Lemieux early Monday afternoon. His testimony will be followed by that of his wife at the time, a friend of Martin Carpentier’s and Martin Carpentier’s wife as the drama unfolded.
The public inquiry by coroner Luc Malouin is scheduled for a total of 21 days, ie 13 days of the scheduled hearing and 8 more days of “overflow”. About fifty witnesses will be interviewed in the proceedings, which are designed to provide insight into the tragedy, its circumstances and the investigative efforts undertaken.
More details to come…