Montreal police have received more than 700 tips about a missing boy who vanished nine days ago, but investigators still don’t know what happened to the child.
Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou disappeared on March 12 after walking to a friend’s house. Since then, few clues have emerged about the 10-year-old’s whereabouts.
Media relations officer Jean-Pierre Brabant says Montreal police still don’t know whether Ariel’s disappearance was an accident or an abduction.
“We’re trying to understand if it’s a criminal act or anything else,” Brabant said.
Dozens of volunteers have canvassed the north-end Montreal neighbourhood, and police divers have searched nearby Riviere des Prairies more than six times.
The lack of answers has some parents in the region on edge. Melodie Maurice, owner of the company FamiliSecur, sells GPS-enabled watches designed for parents looking to monitor their children.
Maurice says that, in the last week, she’s been inundated with requests.
“Since Ariel went missing, parents have been telling me that they want to be able to know where their child is without giving them a cellphone, and this does the trick,” Maurice said.
There are plenty of similar products on the market, including AngelSense, Pocketfinder and the My Buddy Tag. Many are linked to smartphone apps and allow parents to watch their children’s movements throughout the day on a map. Some devices allow children to send their parents alerts or short messages.
Manufacturers market the products as potential lifesavers for kids. But parenting expert Alissa Sklar says parents should think twice before buying one.
“I think that we really need to be careful not to give our kids the message that the world is a dangerous place,” Sklar said.
In the case of Ariel, it’s still unclear what happened, Sklar said, and parents would be wise to not make decisions out of fear.
“I think that we need to take a deep breath. My heart goes out to this family, we still don’t know what happened, but we live in a safe country. Montreal is a safe city,” she said.
“Statistically, anything happening from a stranger who wishes to do something to our kids is very, very rare. Our kids benefit much more from feeling that there are people out there to help them, that they can approach someone if they need help.”
Frederic Kouakou, Ariel’s father, has repeatedly rejected the suggestion that his son may have fallen in the river. He believes his son was abducted.
"Since the very beginning we've thought it was a kidnapping because we're convinced our son would never go near the water," Kouakou said.
A $100,000 reward is being offered for any information that leads to Ariel being found.
With a report from CTV Montreal
