Six years. So much time has passed since little 10-year-old Ariel Quago was last seen in Montreal's Ahansic district. The boy's family has endured six years of pain and grief, hoping to see him alive again one day.
The sky is gray at this dinner time in the borough of Ahnsik-Cartierville, March 12, 2018. The climate is mild, the mercury hovering just above freezing.
Ariel Kwakov walks from the family home to a friend's house. He would never reach his destination and would never be seen alive again.
Courtesy photo
Surveillance cameras — whose images aren't particularly good — captured the boy walking in the Parc des Batliers on the banks of the Rivière des Prairies.
He never left the park again.
What happened to the 10-year-old boy? All the police officials we spoke to on condition of anonymity believe the child had unfortunately drowned in the river.
“We are very sure that he drowned in the river, but his body was simply not found. The story is very sad,” said a police officer interviewed.
The Kouakou family never “bought” the drowning theory favored by investigators. For the teenager's parents, the abduction theory is a strong possibility. According to our information, the relatives still believe that Ariel may have been abducted, denying the drowning theory.
Photo archive QMI Agency, Joel Lemay
In 2018, around a hundred people came together to form a human chain in support of little Ariel.
In an interview with TVA Nouvelles last yearThe Kouakou family ruled that the police did not take the abduction theory seriously and spent too much time scanning the river bank.
Also, Réseau Enfants-Retour, a non-profit support organization for families affected by the disappearance of a child, made public the aging of Ariel Kouakou's photo on Tuesday.
Images provided by the Sûreté du Québec.
The portrait, produced by an expert from the Sûreté du Québec, shows what young Ariel would look like today, 16 years old.
According to our information, the aging of Ariel's photograph was not carried out at the request of the investigators or following the receipt of new details in the investigation.
At the request of the family, the portrait was taken by the Sûreté du Québec.
Ariel's father, Frédéric Kouakou, stressed the importance of photo-aging in a press release distributed by the Réseau Enfants-Retour.
“This initiative aims to revive public interest in my son and stimulate collective memory. We sincerely hope this will encourage anyone with information to help us in our search to find him,” he said.
Photo archive QMI Agency, Joel Lemay
In 2018, around a hundred people came together to form a human chain in support of little Ariel.
At the time of her disappearance, Ariel Quago was wearing a black coat, gray pants and yellow shoes. He was 1.40 m tall and weighed 90 lbs.
