Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) urged parents in the Quadeville, Ont., area to keep their small children indoors or under close supervision on Wednesday, after a young girl was found the day before with severe injuries suspected to have been caused by an animal.
Emergency services responded around 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday to reports that an eight-year-old girl who had been missing for hours was found with potentially life-threatening injuries in woods in Quadeville, a village located about 60 kilometres southwest of Renfrew.
Little is publicly known about the nature of the girl’s injuries, but OPP said in a statement Wednesday morning that “investigators suspect this to have been an animal attack.” They cautioned that “further testing and analysis is required.”
They continued: “As a precaution, parents in the Quadeville area should continue to keep their small children indoors or under close supervision.”
OPP officers from the Upper Ottawa Valley detachment are investigating the incident with the Ministry of Natural Resources, under the direction of the OPP criminal investigation branch, with assistance from OPP forensic identification services and the OPP emergency response team.
Joseph Fiorentino, the pastor of Quadeville Pentecostal Church, said the incident had shaken the tiny township of about 300 people.
“The community is frightened for their own young children because of the ambiguity and the mysteries involved,” Fiorentino told CBC on Wednesday.
It’s still not known what had happened to the girl or what caused her injuries, he said. “There’s just no answers right now.”
Fifty members of the local community joined the search for the young girl on Monday evening after she went missing, Fiorentino said.
The girl was found in area of forest behind homes located on Quadeville Road, with OPP requesting help from Brudenell Lyndoch and Raglan Fire Department.
OPP officers cordoned off the area, leaving residents guessing what might have transpired, Fiorentino said. “We know nothing about her state or condition at the time she was found,” he said.
The injured girl was initially transported to St. Francis Memorial Hospital in Barry’s Bay, according to Fiorentino.
Later she was airlifted to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, with Ornge ambulance service confirming that they “transported a paediatric patient to CHEO with critical injuries relating to an animal attack.”
The girl is reported to be in stable condition in the intensive care unit, Fiorentino said. A doctor “did say it was a miracle she was alive,” he added.
