Inquest hears more about process to issue Amber Alert after crash involving girls, father

Another Sûreté du Québec (SQ) investigator testified at the coroner’s inquest on Tuesday into the July 2020 deaths of Norah and Romy Carpentier at the hands of their father, who then also took his own life.

More details were revealed on the process to issue the Amber Alert.

Martin Carpentier and his daughters were involved in an accident July 8, 2020 on a highway in St-Apollinaire, southwest of Quebec City – but they disappeared from the scene.

It took until the next afternoon for an Amber Alert to go out.

The SQ investigator said it took time to understand the father’s psychological state – if he was showing signs of depression – to fully see if this was an actual kidnapping and if the girls’ lives were in danger.

The coroner’s inquest has heard that others close to the family did tell SQ officers about Carpentier’s state that same night, but that information wasn’t shared.

MORE FROM CORONER’S INQUEST:

• Police delayed sending Amber Alert until learning more about father’s psychological state, inquest hears
• Police dog handler tells Quebec inquest he had trouble getting scent of girls, father
• Father seemed agitated ahead of girls’ murders, grandmother tells Quebec inquiry
• Inquest hears from mother of two Quebec sisters killed by their father in July 2020

The coroner questioned the investigator, asking if it would not have been quicker to write a release to media to help find the trio and alert the public to the search, but the officer said it wasn’t his expertise and he couldn’t comment on that.

The search itself was moved eight kilometres away from the initial crash site when witnesses contacted police about screams being heard in the middle of the night in a wooded area, but nothing was found.

The bodies of the sisters were discovered on July 11, less than two kilometres from the accident site.

Martin Carpentier’s body was discovered July 20.