66-year-old woman found dead in Montreal West apartment amid power outage and extreme cold
Posted January 26, 2026 8:24 am.
Last Updated January 28, 2026 12:31 pm.
Montreal police (SPVM) say they found a 66-year-old woman dead in her apartment, Sunday, in Montreal West amid a power outage in the neighbourhood. She was identified by the Coroner’s office on Wednesday as Miriam Foox.
SPVM officers were called to the scene around 6 p.m. by firefighters after finding the woman unconscious at an apartment on Hudson Avenue near Radcliffe Road.
The firefighters were doing a wellness check in the area, which has seen power outages since Saturday morning. The tenant living in the home above where the woman was found asked firefighters to check on the woman because she hadn’t answered her phone, according to the tenant’s sister. The home reportedly did not have electricity from 10 a.m. Saturday until 3 p.m. Sunday.
The Greater Montreal region was gripped by a cold snap over the weekend with windchills reaching minus-30 Celsius on Saturday.
READ: Montreal snowfall warning: power outages, schools closed, REM slowdown
“After verifications, police officers had confirmed that it wasn’t a criminal act,” said SPVM spokesperson Ann-Sophie Simard.
The coroner’s office has been mandated to determine the cause and circumstances of the death, according to spokesperson Jake Lamotta Granto.
“We have tendencies in the neighbourhood to try to call at least the neighbours that are one or two houses that we meet every day when we come out,” said Mauro Degano, who lives across from the woman. “So it’s sad to know that maybe no one checked on her or she didn’t call anyone or she decided to stay there. Again, we don’t know what the cause is, so unfortunately we can’t really determine what could have been done.”
An equipment failure at the Hampstead substation had caused widespread power outages in the west end of the island of Montreal, including Côte-Saint-Luc, Notre-dame-de-Grâce, Côte-des-neiges areas starting Saturday morning.
About 15,000 addresses were affected during the peak of the outage before crews were able to repair and gradually restore power to residents starting Sunday.
–With files from Gareth Madoc-Jones
