Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou, 10, is seen in this undated police handout image.HO/The Canadian Press
Montreal police said Tuesday they want to talk to a woman they believe may have seen a boy who is the subject of a Quebec-wide Amber Alert.
The woman told a passerby she saw a boy who matched the description of 10-year-old Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou, who has been missing since Monday, Insp. Ian Lafreniere said in an interview.
According to the passerby, the woman said she saw someone with the same description in a park, he added.
“At 2 p.m. Monday, a lady might have seen the missing person in a park which is close to his home and his friend’s home,” Lafreniere said.
“It makes sense because he left home at 12:30 … and the park is right in the middle. We believe this is accurate, but we need to speak to this lady because it was reported to us, but we haven’t spoken to her.”
Lafreniere said the passerby, another woman, had no indication at the time the boy was missing, but reported it when she learned about the missing child.
Kouakou’s parents say the boy was headed to the friend’s house before he went missing.
His father, Frederic Kouakou, told Radio-Canada that as far as he can remember, “it’s the first time he went on his own to his friend’s house.”
“He had asked permission from his mother,” he said. “(Monday) was a pedagogical day. When he got to his friend’s house the friend wasn’t there, he was at daycare. There was a lack of co-ordination. That’s all we know.”
The family lives in the north-end borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville.
Police say the boy, who is French-speaking, is black, has black hair and black eyes and was wearing a black coat with a hood, grey pants and yellow shoes before he disappeared.
Authorities also urged local residents to scour their neighbourhood for any signs of the missing boy.
“We need citizens to please look around — look around your yard, your garage, look at possible locations where a 10-year-old kid could be hiding because of the weather,” Lafreniere added.
Anyone with information is being asked to call 911 or 514-393-1133.
Montreal police Sgt. Laurent Gingras said an Amber Alert normally isn’t issued without certain factors being known.
“For example, we don’t have a description of a person who would have kidnapped the boy, we don’t have a description of the vehicle involved,” Gingras said.
“But we do have the fact that, since it’s 24 hours, since he’s only 10 years old and since we don’t have any historical reports of him missing and the fact it’s winter and pretty cold, that’s why investigators from the Montreal police decided to issue an Amber Alert.”
Gingras said it is too early to talk about a kidnapping.
“We do not know at this point if a criminal hand is involved or not,” he said. “We cannot exclude that hypothesis — but we’re not putting it forward either at this point.”