Police in Montreal issue Amber Alert for missing 1-year-old

Montreal police released new photos of a suspect wanted in connection with an Amber Alert for a one-year-old child who was reported missing Tuesday morning.

Police issued the alert for Zeynab Cherrabbi El Alaoui, who was abducted at around 9:25 a.m. from a home on Louis-Basile-Pigeon Terrasse, in the Lachine borough. The one-year-old girl is two feet (60 centimetres) tall and is wearing a pale pink onesie with a pink and white unicorn on it, according to the alert that was issued shortly after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. 

Police are looking for the child’s mother, 18-year-old Miryanna Monterrosa-Laberte. The child’s mother has a scar on her upper lip and on her forehead. She is approximately five feet three inches tall and weighs about 120 pounds.

As the search stretched into the evening hours, police released recent photos of the suspect from surveillance footage. Two of them show the woman wearing a white hijab and a black winter coat with a fur-lined hood, as well as a white scarf with stripes. In the third photo, the woman is wearing a black hijab with a dark-coloured coat.

Police also released more details about her possible whereabouts. They said in a post published on social media shortly before 10 p.m. that she was seen Tuesday afternoon with the child in the Cartierville area, in the city’s north end. According to police, she may frequent Laval, a suburb north of the Island of Montreal.

Police located the child’s father, a 20-year-old man, in that city earlier in the day. Officers questioned him and considered him only to be an “important witness” in the investigation.

CHILD TAKEN FROM GRANDPARENTS’ HOME, POLICE SAY

According to Montreal police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant, the grandparents had legal custody of the child, who was staying at their home in Lachine. The child was put to bed Monday night, and when the grandmother went to check on her Tuesday morning, the child was missing, and the bedroom window was found open.

Police say they are not aware of a vehicle involved in the search, which spans an area 500 kilometres around the City of Montreal.

A command centre has been set up near the home where the child was living as police continue their search.

Anyone with information is urged not to approach the suspect and to call 911 immediately.

This is a developing story that will be updated.