I’m neither a police officer nor a coroner. I’m not a member of any legal or other organization. I’m not funded by any association; I’m just a private citizen working voluntarily and at my own expense to try to restore this boy’s identity.I heard about the discovery of a body in Tadoussac in 2003 through a friend. Over the years, I followed the developments in the case. As the years went by, I was always reminded of the tragic fact that this young man’s loved ones had never heard from him; his parents were somewhere living in the anguish of not knowing.

More recently, cases of murder victim identification and unidentified bodies have begun to surface in the news following the use of DNA and the very popular online genealogical databases. I suspected that the Tadoussac case had been languishing in police archives for over twenty years, amidst the overworked police forces struggling to respond to the many new active cases.

So I called the coroner at the time and requested his report, which is a public document. My goal was to try to convince the police in charge to seek help from an American genetic investigation foundation dedicated to identifying similar cases. I contacted this organization, and they confirmed that they were available to take Canadian cases, but the responsible police agency had to forward them directly.

However, several elements in the coroner’s report made me realize that there were still many points to be clarified before moving on to the DNA phase. For example, the coroner’s report stated a death in October 2002, although the condition of the body described in his report was, in my opinion, incompatible with that date; the body would have been kept frozen under the snow the vast majority of the time. As explained above, it was later established that the death probably occurred in October 2001. Since the luggage, which likely contained identification documents such as a passport, was never found, revisiting the Tadoussac accommodation sites and focusing the search on 2001 seemed logical. However, more than 23 years have passed since the death, it is unlikely that this latest search would bear fruit.

The coroner’s report stated the body was found north of the lake. It also seemed logical to me to return to the forest to search the area in the less likely event that he had taken his backpack with him on his hike. The park trail that leads there runs along the lake along its entire western shore and turns 90 degrees before heading away from it. An attempt to take a shortcut to reach the village visible from this precise point on the trail by cutting through the woods would explain why he ended up in this area. Continuing north from this point, a triangle of forest is then delimited by the north shore of the lake and by two cliffs that meet further north. It was in this densely wooded area that I found, during my first visit to the site in June 2025, the remains of long strips of red ribbon that had surely been used to originally delimit the investigation area. No backpacks have been identified there to date, but I will return soon to search the forest more systematically. Inspecting the cliff with a drone was on my initial plan, but since it is made up of wooded levels, this approach is impossible. Similarly, the planned assessment of the bottom of the northern part of the lake using sonar was not carried out because, following my visit, the scenario of a fall from the cliff without immediate death became so obvious that this approach would not, in my opinion, add anything more.

Another element that I found discordant in the coroner’s report was the length of jeans at 34 (UK) that a 6’2″ individual would wear while the coroner spoke of an individual of 1.78m (5 »10″). Not having had access to the police file due to confidentiality, I had to do my research without having all the information necessary to properly understand the case. For example, throughout the winter, I devoted myself to reviewing numerous databases of missing persons in Europe and North America in search of a brown-blonde man of about 5’10 » tall. Today I will have to start all over again, looking instead for an individual of probably 6’2″ (1.88m) and with hair that is perhaps more red than blond according to some sources. I am currently in the process of discussing these last two elements, among other things, with a forensic pathologist who could review the autopsy report and photos. He could also confirm whether there were signs of spinal or knee injuries from the fall, as I suspect.

I therefore initially contacted the Tadoussac police to report my observations on the possible date of death, the importance of resuming the search for the backpack likely containing the identity papers, taking this new date into account, the discrepancy between the individual’s height and the length of the jeans, and other considerations. They provided me with invaluable assistance. They initially agreed to relaunch the investigation in light of the evidence I presented to them and offered their support in my subsequent efforts. A new coroner has also taken charge of the file to reactivate it and is extremely motivated.

The focus of my future work will be on this website, linked to the Facebook account, which will allow me to post regularly on the multiple missing persons search sites in all European and American countries. By forwarding my messages to all their contacts, the members of these sites will certainly help finally identify the Tadoussac boy and reunite him with his family. The DNA already on file could then be used to confirm these family ties.

About Tadoussac, why there?, page 4, click here