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MONTREAL — Quebec provincial police used tracking dogs and called for help from the public Friday to help solve the apparent kidnapping of an aide to a high-profile provincial cabinet minister.
“We fear for her life,” said Constable Claude Ross, a provincial police spokesman, of Nancy Michaud, a 37-year-old aide to Natural Resources Minister Claude Bechard.
Ms. Michaud was apparently taken from her home in Riviere-Ouelle, Que., some time overnight, police said, leaving her two young children asleep and alone in her two-storey house.
Her husband reported her missing when he came home around 2 a.m. and couldn't find her. He had been working late.
“The husband returned from work and his wife wasn't there,” Constable Ross said.
“It made her disappearance very suspicious because she's not in the habit of abandoning her children.”
More than 50 police were called in to work the case, including detectives from squads in nearby Rimouski and Quebec City.
A helicopter roared above the residential neighbourhood where Ms. Michaud lived and police dogs roamed at the end of long leashes, sniffing fields around the house for clues.
Anxious neighbours and residents of the small community of 1,200 people watched the process intently, with some telling reporters they feared for their safety and would lock their doors at night.
Jean-Guy Charest, the prefect of the Kamouraska regional municipality, was shocked by Ms. Michaud's apparent kidnapping.
He had been in regular contact with Ms. Michaud because of her political duties and has known her for several years.
Mr. Charest said she was “like one of my own children.”
“She was an extraordinary young woman,” Mr. Charest said in a telephone interview. “She always did good work – a perfectionist. Always in a good mood.”
Mr. Charest said “it's a big shock for the area.”
“It's incomprehensible how someone could do this.”
Ms. Michaud is the devoted mother of “two beautiful children,” Mr. Charest said. The youngest child is 18 months and the other is six.
Another man who lives on the same street as Ms. Michaud said he had seen her around town in the past.
“She's a nice person,” said Bernard Richard.
Police have interviewed Ms. Michaud's husband and neighbours. She was apparently last seen at a community function in the town about 120 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.
“We were working it as a disappearance at the start,” Constable Ross said. “But early this morning the depth of the investigation transformed it into a kidnapping.”
Constable Ross said police did not believe Ms. Michaud's work had anything to do with the case and said she had not received any threats.
“We're asking people to contact us if they've seen anything strange that relates to this case.”
