CANADA Canada - Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou, 10, Montreal, 12 March 2018

[casesensitive]

This has been posted a few times already, but here it is again. Unfortunately, as the story is updated, some content is changed so some of the original news articles are difficult to find.

"Police divers spent Monday and Tuesday searching the waters of Riviere des Prairies, with investigators stating they have a credible witness placing Ariel near the waterfront at the time of his disappearance."

https://firenewsfeed.com/news/1322829

Otto, you are correct about the witness saying Ariel was close to the water. I found a CTV article that quotes a police spokesman.

"Lafreniere (police spokesman) told CTV Montreal a witness told police she saw Ariel near the river that morning and also cited camera footage putting him near the water in Bateliers Park. While the footage showed Ariel entering the park, there was no sign of him leaving."

""He could be somewhere else. We don't have any indication, 100 per cent of where he was, exactly," said Lafreniere. "We know he was close to the river, we know he disappeared and didn't appear afterward in the footage we have."

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/ariel-kouakou-s-disappearance-likely-a-tragic-accident-police-1.3853648

 

[Phei]

[h=1]Disappearance of Ariel Kouakou: gray areas in the investigation.[/h]

French : http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/2...el-kouakou-des-zones-dombre-dans-lenquete.php

English : https://translate.google.ca/transla...des-zones-dombre-dans-lenquete.php&edit-text=


Why was Ariel's father, who wanted to report the disappearance of his son in a neighborhood station (PDQ), sent home?

Why were Major Crime investigators not dispatched earlier?

Why did the investigators want to call back the mobile command post?

 

[eucalyptuz]

Okay, so I'm looking at the map with the benches. We know Ariel was on CCTV at 11:15 up by the Garage on the way to his friend's house, correct? How on earth did he get all the way down to Parc des Bateliers by 11:25 after knocking on his friends door? That's not a leisurely stroll, he would have to be almost running.

Google makes the distance from the eastern park entrance to the park benches about 500 meters and gives walking time as 6 minutes....I think this would mean that he could do it even at a leisurely pace. I remember when we saw the first footage of Ariel walking past the garage, I thought this guy’s got a fast stride.
However, I am not sure of the exact location of the witness sighting anymore....there has been a lot of crossed wires in the media.

 

[otto]

Otto, you are correct about the witness saying Ariel was close to the water. I found a CTV article that quotes a police spokesman.

"Lafreniere (police spokesman) told CTV Montreal a witness told police she saw Ariel near the river that morning and also cited camera footage putting him near the water in Bateliers Park. While the footage showed Ariel entering the park, there was no sign of him leaving."

""He could be somewhere else. We don't have any indication, 100 per cent of where he was, exactly," said Lafreniere. "We know he was close to the river, we know he disappeared and didn't appear afterward in the footage we have."

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/ariel-kouakou-s-disappearance-likely-a-tragic-accident-police-1.3853648

Thank you! It's difficult to find the links again even a few days after reading them. Great find!

 

[eucalyptuz]

I have started to look at ways that a child (or an adult coercing a child) could leave the park undetected. It’s not that I give an abduction theory any amount of weight, but I do think all possibilities should be rigously explored ��... and hey, insomnia.

If we go with LE’s statement that Ariel was not seen, or captured by CCTV leaving the park, the logic follows that:
A) he did not leave the park but entered the river by accident or force and is still in the water
B) he did not leave the park and is still there.
C) he left through an exit (public or private) unseen by witness or camera
D) he left though an exit monitored by cameras but was somehow concealed from view by a vehicle or other means
Are there any other options?

Option A) is our Occam’s razor and it seems LE’s preferential theory.
Option B) is very unlikely given the small acreage and the manhours of active search.
Options C) and D) I think, are worth exploring, if only to eliminate or lessen the potential of an abduction hypothesis.

If we work from the eastern entrance near Ariel’s friend’s apartment to the western end near his home there are at least 3 other entrances coming from cul-de-sacs. These potentially offer very short term parking possibilities but otherwise vehicular access and parking adjacent to the park is limited. In two of the cul-de-sacs, the dead-ends are blocked with concrete bollards leaving only pedestrian access. There are no assigned public parking spaces in these areas. The most easetern one has at least one house fitted with cctvs (see photos below)
I am still checking the second cul-de-sac.
At the western end of the park there is a turning circle, again with no parking, but potentially this area could be used for drop-offs and pick-ups etc. I am yet to find cameras on this access point either.
In addition, about 2 dozen homes seem to have garden gates backing up to the park allowing residential access that would be undetected by cameras along Blvd Gouin.

I am going to work on a map tomorrow to better explore Option C) & D)
If anybody else has info we can add to this re known access points and cctvs that would be great to add on.

 

[Hazel]

Last Updated: March 28, 2018 8:25 PM EDT

Police broke the ice around the shoreline near Parc des Bateliers in north-end Montreal to allow divers more access to the area.

The park, the last place where the boy’s image was captured on a surveillance camera after leaving his home to visit a friend — who proved to be not at home — has been the focal point for the police operation.

Montreal police suspect Kouakou drowned in the river, though his father has repeatedly said he believes his son was abducted.

During the past two weeks, the search has included the temporary launch of an Amber Alert, helicopter sweeps of the area, door-to-door canvasses as well as officers on horseback combing through snow-covered fields.

“Every day we’re trying something,” SPVM Inspector Ian Lafrenière said this week.

A Sûreté du Québec helicopter was dispatched to the river again on Wednesday and police are expected to keep searching the water Thursday.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/loc...-police-divers-return-to-riviere-des-prairies

 

[Breamworthy]

If the police will not disclose information concerning the witness or her identity, they probably have a good reason not to. It may hamper the investigation, or it may be for her safety...it was stated that she was in shock....

One excellent reason is that they want potential witnesses to come forward in the future (in general, not specifically for this case). If the public sees that coming forward as a witness means being identified to anyone outside of LE who wants to ask you their own follow-up questions, I imagine public cooperation with the police would take a nosedive.

 

[Phei]

It was 8 degrees today and there were groups of full grown adults on the ice with boats, and the ice didn't break. Hmm..

 

[matou]

Breakfast Television Montreal Verified account
@BTMontreal 1h1 hour ago


The search for Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou resumes this morning in Ahuntsic-Cartierville. 10-year-old boy went missing 17 days ago.

 

[juli99]

Google makes the distance from the eastern park entrance to the park benches about 500 meters and gives walking time as 6 minutes....I think this would mean that he could do it even at a leisurely pace. I remember when we saw the first footage of Ariel walking past the garage, I thought this guy’s got a fast stride.
However, I am not sure of the exact location of the witness sighting anymore....there has been a lot of crossed wires in the media.

I agree that it is possible, it just means that he did not stop along the way. I wonder why he would walk through the whole park along the riverfront not stopping and then when he got to the area with the benches, stop to check out the ice. That pace means he was probably heading straight home versus hanging around waiting for his friend or playing on his own. It's just a different scenario than I imagined. I wonder if the witness said something to him about staying away from the ice on the river, and then as a curious boy, he went over to check it out.

 

[otto]

It was 8 degrees today and there were groups of full grown adults on the ice with boats, and the ice didn't break. Hmm..

Was that in the same location as the volunteer who fell through the ice near the waterfront a week after Ariel disappeared from the park?

 

[always reading]

One excellent reason is that they want potential witnesses to come forward in the future (in general, not specifically for this case). If the public sees that coming forward as a witness means being identified to anyone outside of LE who wants to ask you their own follow-up questions, I imagine public cooperation with the police would take a nosedive.

What about if they only talk to her on the phone? She could still hide her identity.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[silverjug]

What about if they only talk to her on the phone? She could still hide her identity.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

If it were me I would not speak to them even on the phone. I understand they are very upset (rightly so) but they seem very confrontational, and I wonder if it would be a case of "you could have prevented this).

 

[Phei]

Was that in the same location as the volunteer who fell through the ice near the waterfront a week after Ariel disappeared from the park?

No idea.

 

[matou]

The parents have not been confrontational. The father stated on camera that he trusts the police to do their jobs, that they are the experts. He has been very understanding to the work they are doing. Understandably, he is worried about abduction. Ariel turned around on the sidewalk on video. A car went into the Habitations apartment complex parking lot around the same time Ariel was there.
It is possible that if Ariel went into the park, that he could have followed a trail and walked further away from where he entered. He would have had to have walked on a cleared trail inside of the park IMO, since there was snow on the ground in the park at the time. He was also wearing sneakers and not boots so he would have sunken into the snow if he had, getting his feet wet. I'm not seeing him walking on the ice when he would have had to walk over and into deeper snow to do that (from what I can tell.)

 

[matou]

IF Ariel was kicking a soccer ball around while walking in the park and it fell onto the ice causing him to move onto the ice, where is the ball? That would float for sure, even it is was deflated a little. Was this ball ever located if he did have it? Did the woman who spoke with him see this ball?

 

[Hazel]

If the police will not disclose information concerning the witness or her identity, they probably have a good reason not to. It may hamper the investigation, or it may be for her safety...it was stated that she was in shock....

:welcome5: Seekertrudy

Great first post!

 

[Hazel]

The parents have not been confrontational. The father stated on camera that he trusts the police to do their jobs, that they are the experts. He has been very understanding to the work they are doing. Understandably, he is worried about abduction. Ariel turned around on the sidewalk on video. A car went into the Habitations apartment complex parking lot around the same time Ariel was there.
It is possible that if Ariel went into the park, that he could have followed a trail and walked further away from where he entered. He would have had to have walked on a cleared trail inside of the park IMO, since there was snow on the ground in the park at the time. He was also wearing sneakers and not boots so he would have sunken into the snow if he had, getting his feet wet. I'm not seeing him walking on the ice when he would have had to walk over and into deeper snow to do that (from what I can tell.)

IMO it would be helpful to know if that car in the restaurant's footage was driving eastbound or westbound on Boulevard Gouin before it turned into the Habitations apartment complex.

If I'm not mistaken, Ariel was walking eastbound, right? So if the car was driving eastbound, it could be the reason why Ariel turned around twice.

Did any of the garage CCTV cameras show any vehicle driving (or person) after Ariel passes the cameras' views, or anything that could explain why Ariel turned around?

Or could it have been a dog barking, maybe across the street in the pathways?

 

[KayCherry]

IF Ariel was kicking a soccer ball around while walking in the park and it fell onto the ice causing him to move onto the ice, where is the ball? That would float for sure, even it is was deflated a little. Was this ball ever located if he did have it? Did the woman who spoke with him see this ball?

What a great point! The ball doesn't make much sense. Freezing winter snow covered ground, I find it hard to believe that a ball would just "appear" at the park, did he get it from the friend's house?

 

[silverjug]

The parents have not been confrontational. The father stated on camera that he trusts the police to do their jobs, that they are the experts. He has been very understanding to the work they are doing. Understandably, he is worried about abduction. Ariel turned around on the sidewalk on video. A car went into the Habitations apartment complex parking lot around the same time Ariel was there.
It is possible that if Ariel went into the park, that he could have followed a trail and walked further away from where he entered. He would have had to have walked on a cleared trail inside of the park IMO, since there was snow on the ground in the park at the time. He was also wearing sneakers and not boots so he would have sunken into the snow if he had, getting his feet wet. I'm not seeing him walking on the ice when he would have had to walk over and into deeper snow to do that (from what I can tell.)

Firstly I said seem confrontational, secondly that is my opinion with them wanting to speak to the witness.