Melanie Nadia Ethier
Missing since: September 29, 1996
Missing from: New Liskeard, Ontario, Canada
Date of Birth: December 25, 1980
Age at Disappearance: 15 years
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Hair: Black, Long, Braided
Teeth: Good
Height: 165cm / 5ft 5in
Weight: 55 kgs / 121 lbs
Physical Build: Medium
Melanie was last seen wearing: Green Nike jacket, blue jeans, white t-shirt with blue heart Pepe logo and black boots.
On the morning of Saturday, September 28, 1996, 15-year-old Melanie Ethier visited the home of her mother’s close friend, Sylvie Chartrand. Only Melanie, Sylvie and Sylvie’s six-year-old daughter, Steffany, were at the house. Sylvie’s partner, Denis Léveillé, and her son Jason were out of town.
During the visit, Melanie broke a nail and became upset. Sylvie later wondered whether the small incident had simply been the final frustration in what had already been a difficult period for Melanie’s family. Their car was broken down, and telephone service to their home had reportedly been disconnected the previous day because of unpaid bills.
After leaving Sylvie’s house, Melanie headed downtown. Near the New Liskeard Public Library, she happened to encounter her best friend at a bus stop. Her friend had been working on homework inside the library but decided to put it aside and spend the rest of the day with Melanie instead.
The girls spent the afternoon moving around New Liskeard. They stopped at Pizza Pizza for lunch, and while they ate, Melanie talked about her future. She mentioned the possibility of becoming a teacher and volunteering in Botswana, where her father was from.
Melanie also had plans for the following day. It was her grandmother’s birthday, and the family intended to celebrate before her grandparents went out of town. Melanie bought candles, frosting, candy hearts and a new cake pan so she could make her grandmother a birthday cake. She and her friend also travelled to nearby Dymond to collect money owed to Melanie for babysitting.
At some point that day, the girls met up with Melanie’s boyfriend, Neil Fortier, whom she had been dating for about three weeks, along with friends Dave Bromley, Jay Denomme and Ryan Chatwin. Neil later remembered Melanie as being in a good mood throughout the day and evening.
At approximately 9:00 to 9:30pm, the group stopped at a video rental store and rented the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Sudden Death. Around 10:00pm, they went to Melanie’s home intending to watch it there.
Melanie’s mother, Celine, was spending time with Melanie’s grandmother in the living room. Because Melanie’s bedroom was messy, Celine suggested that it wasn’t really suitable for entertaining a group of friends. Melanie could have watched the movie there, but instead told the others they would have to find somewhere else.
The group next tried the home of Dave’s then-girlfriend, Samya Benchabi. Her family was preparing to move, so she couldn’t have everyone over. Samya nevertheless joined the teenagers for part of their walk toward another friend’s house. When they reached the Armstrong Street bridge, Samya turned around and headed home. By then, the night had become noticeably colder.
Shortly after 10:00pm, the group arrived at Ryan Chatwin’s house on Pine Avenue, roughly six blocks – or a 10 to 12-minute walk – from Melanie’s home. Ryan’s parents were home but remained upstairs in their bedroom. Dave went home around this time.
The teenagers settled into the basement to watch Sudden Death. Those present later maintained that they spent the evening quietly watching the movie and that no alcohol or drugs were consumed. Investigators have said they believed this account.
As the night progressed, the group gradually became smaller. Jay Denomme left sometime around 12:30 to 1:00am. Melanie’s best friend also left around that time because she had arranged for Melanie’s grandparents to pick her up at the Ethier residence and drive her to Haileybury.
Her walk back toward Melanie’s home produced one of the more intriguing events of the night.
As she crossed an intersection, Melanie’s friend noticed a light-coloured vehicle approaching slowly. She felt as though its occupants were watching or assessing her. Frightened, she ran toward the next intersection near the Armstrong Street bridge, where the lighting was better.
She later described the vehicle as a white or light-coloured Chevrolet Monte Carlo, or a similar two-door car, that appeared to be in poor condition. A grey patch on its right side may have been covering damage or a hole. She believed two teenage boys or young men were inside. She could not remember seeing the vehicle in the community again.
Her route was essentially the same route Melanie would take a short time later.
Melanie’s friend reached the Ethier home shortly before 1:00am. She watched the final few minutes of Saturday Night Live before Melanie’s grandparents drove her home. Back at Ryan’s house, only three teenagers now remained: Melanie, Neil and Ryan.
Sometime around 1:30 to 2:00am on Sunday, September 29, Melanie decided to go home.
Because the Ethier family’s telephone service had been disconnected, Melanie could not simply call home and ask for a ride. Walking home alone was reportedly unusual for her, but her house was only about one kilometre – just over half a mile – away.
One of the boys accompanied Melanie to the door and watched as she began walking west along Pine Avenue East.
It is the last confirmed sighting of Melanie Ethier.
Melanie was wearing a green Nike windbreaker, a white T-shirt bearing a blue heart Pepe logo, blue jeans, a black belt with a silver buckle, black short-heeled boots, a necklace and a watch.
The walk should have been relatively short. Melanie would have passed through three intersections before crossing the Armstrong Street bridge, continuing past a gas station and an apartment building and eventually making her way toward Church Street, where her family lived. Friends and relatives said Melanie usually preferred taking a back alley for part of the journey.
Conditions along the route varied considerably. The bridge was brightly illuminated and could still see traffic even at that late hour. Other sections were much darker. Beyond the bridge, part of Melanie’s likely route passed along a poorly lit area near the video store the teenagers had visited earlier that evening. The weather was clear, and with the full moon having occurred only a couple of days earlier, there would likely have been some natural moonlight.
But somewhere during that short walk, Melanie disappeared.
The following morning, Melanie’s alarm went off. Celine discovered that her daughter was not in her bedroom, but initially wasn’t alarmed. Melanie sometimes stayed overnight at a friend’s house, and there was no immediate reason for Celine to believe something terrible had happened.
At approximately 10:00am, Melanie’s grandparents arrived for the planned birthday celebration. Melanie was supposed to have prepared the cake for which she had bought supplies the previous day, but she still wasn’t home.
Concern began to grow.
Because the Ethier home had no working telephone, Celine and her father drove to Tim Hortons, where they could buy a replacement birthday cake and make telephone calls looking for Melanie. It was during those calls that Celine learned something disturbing: Melanie had left Ryan’s house during the night intending to walk home.
She had never arrived.
Melanie also failed to appear for her scheduled daycare job. By approximately 1:00pm, Celine contacted the New Liskeard Police Service and reported her daughter missing.
The search began that afternoon, at approximately 2:30 to 3:00pm. Officers concentrated on the area surrounding the Armstrong Street bridge and the banks of the Wabi River. The following day, New Liskeard police requested assistance from the Ontario Provincial Police.
Resources were brought in from across the region. A helicopter arrived from Sudbury, a police dog team came from North Bay, and a search-and-rescue dog from the Office of the Fire Marshal of Ontario joined the effort. An OPP emergency search-and-rescue team and an Ontario Hydro helicopter were also deployed as the search expanded.
More than a dozen police officers and volunteer firefighters participated, while police services throughout Ontario were alerted to Melanie’s disappearance. Investigators conducted a door-to-door canvass, although homes in the neighbourhood were not searched. Police said surveillance footage available from businesses along Melanie’s likely route was reviewed, as was the visitor log from the Wheel Inn Motel near Pine Avenue.
Two New Liskeard police officers initially led the investigation. During the first week of October, two detectives from the OPP Major Crime Unit in Orillia joined them.
The friends who had been with Melanie on the night she disappeared were interviewed. In the days afterward, investigators also conducted surveillance involving three local girls who may have been potential targets of an attack intended for Melanie. Sightings further complicated the investigation: local teenagers and even an exotic dancer in Notre-Dame-du-Nord who reportedly resembled Melanie were occasionally mistaken for the missing teenager and reported to police.
None of it led investigators to Melanie.
Over the decades, numerous theories have surrounded the case. Some have suggested mistaken identity. Others have questioned whether someone within Melanie’s social circle knew more than they admitted. There have been theories involving a driver accidentally striking her, a serial offender, and even speculation about a local white-supremacist group. None of these scenarios has been established as the explanation for Melanie’s disappearance.
Investigators have instead publicly discussed the possibility that Melanie left the immediate search area in a vehicle – either because she was abducted by a stranger or because she willingly entered a vehicle belonging to someone she knew. The nearby Trans-Canada Highway has always complicated the case because someone passing through the community could potentially have left the area quickly.
Twenty-five years after Melanie disappeared, the case received renewed attention through journalist David Ridgen’s CBC podcast The Next Call. The renewed publicity produced something investigators had hoped for: a witness they had apparently never previously interviewed.
In October 2021, information from that witness led Ontario Provincial Police to Larocque Field, a heavily wooded area near North Cobalt, approximately 10 kilometres from where Melanie had last been seen.
Detective Inspector Robert Matthews, who had taken responsibility for Melanie’s case in 2019 and cooperated with Ridgen on the podcast, confirmed that investigators had not previously been aware of the witness. After hearing the podcast, the person came forward and spoke with police.
OPP officers searched the area on foot and brought in police dogs and drones. The forest proved extremely dense, slowing the search considerably, and Matthews indicated that additional days would be needed to continue examining the area.
The search represented a significant new effort, but it did not publicly produce the answer Melanie’s family had waited decades to receive.
Melanie was only 15 years old when she disappeared. She had spent September 28 doing the ordinary things of teenage life – having pizza with her best friend, spending time with her new boyfriend, watching a movie with friends and buying everything she needed to make her grandmother a birthday cake.
Then, sometime during a walk of barely one kilometre, she vanished.
Melanie Ethier remains missing. Her mother, Celine, has publicly said that after so many years, she does not believe her daughter is still alive. Yet the question at the heart of the case remains exactly where it has been since that Sunday morning in September 1996:
What happened to Melanie during the short walk between Ryan Chatwin’s house and her home?
If you have information on Melanie’s case, please contact any of the following:
Temiskaming OPP OPP ONCMPUR:
Telephone: 1-877-934-6363 or 1-705-330-4144
Email: opp.isb.resolve@opp.ca
Reference Case#: 96-3875
Canada’s Missing Case reference: 2006014699
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
Sources:
Canada’s Missing, Doe Network, CBC, Timmins Today (1), Timmins Today (2)
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