In the winter of 2018, Donna Paré quietly disappeared from the streets of downtown Montréal. For many people, she had simply become another face in the crowd—a woman experiencing homelessness who spent her days navigating one of Canada’s busiest cities. But to those who knew her, Donna was much more than that. She was an Inuk woman from Iqaluit, Nunavut, someone who spoke both English and Inuktitut, and a person whose absence would eventually leave friends, outreach workers, and loved ones searching for answers that have never come. Donna was 32 years old.
She was known to frequent Montréal’s downtown core, particularly around Place Émilie-Gamelin, the Berri–UQAM and Place-des-Arts métro stations, and restaurants along Sainte-Catherine Street East. These were places where many people experiencing homelessness gathered and where outreach workers regularly checked in with those living on the streets.
Sometime in December of 2018, Donna was seen for what investigators now believe was the last time. No one knew that she had vanished.
Because Donna did not own a cellphone or have a bank card, there was no electronic trail to follow. She had no credit card purchases to track, no text messages to pinpoint her location, and no financial activity to tell investigators where she had gone. Life on the streets often meant that days or even weeks could pass without anyone realizing something was wrong.
As winter turned to spring, outreach workers and friends slowly began asking the same question. “Has anyone seen Donna?” The answer was always the same. No one had. On March 26, 2019, Donna was officially reported missing to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM). By then, investigators believed she had already been gone for several months. Police quickly became concerned for her safety.
Donna stood 5 feet 1 inch tall, weighed approximately 105 pounds, and had brown eyes and black hair with a small beauty mark under her left eye. Investigators noted that the clothing she had been wearing when she disappeared was unknown, making it even more difficult for the public to recognize her. They also believed she may have been associating with individuals who placed her at risk before her disappearance but the investigation revealed few clues.
Without surveillance footage, financial records, or a cellphone to examine, detectives had little evidence to reconstruct Donna’s final movements. They appealed to the public for information, hoping someone had seen her during those final days in December.
One of the people most determined to find Donna was Jessica Quijano, coordinator of the Iskweu Project at the Native Women’s Shelter of Montréal. Having met Donna through outreach work, Jessica knew the challenges she faced while living on the streets. After Donna’s disappearance, she helped distribute missing-person posters throughout the downtown core and encouraged anyone with information to contact police.
Donna’s disappearance also highlighted a painful reality. People experiencing houselessness can disappear without immediate notice, especially when they have few close contacts and limited access to communication. For Indigenous women, those risks are often compounded by systemic barriers, making disappearances more difficult to detect and investigate in their earliest stages. Community organizations refused to let Donna be forgotten. Volunteers searched the streets she once walked, posters appeared across Montréal, and Jeunesse au Soleil (Sun Youth) offered a reward of up to $2,000 for information that could help locate her.
Despite those efforts, no confirmed sightings have ever been made public. Years have passed since Donna was last seen and her disappearance remains unsolved. The RCMP’s National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains and the SPVM continue to list her as a missing person, urging anyone with information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to come forward.
Somewhere within Montréal’s busy streets lies the truth of what happened to Donna Paré after she disappeared in December 2018. Until that answer is found, her family, friends, and the outreach workers who knew her continue to hope that one day her story will finally have an ending.
If you have information on Donna’s case, please contact any of the following:
Service de police de la Ville de Montréal: 514-393-1133
Reference Case#: MTLEV1900282581
Canada’s Missing Case reference: 2019015560
Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-TIPS(8477)
Online at: https://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/submit-a-tip/submit-a-tip
Crime Stoppers provides anonymous tipping
Send email to the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains at: canadasmissing-disparuscanada@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
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Sources: Canada’s Missing, Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), Journal de Montréal, TVA Nouvelles
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