Kidnapped by her father and kept in a crawl space: Court documents reveal Montreal horror story

A Montreal father who kidnapped his daughter who has autism and lied to police when they asked where she was should serve three years in prison, a Crown prosecutor said.

When a Montreal father got a knock on his door from police officers in 2021 asking if he had seen his estranged 15-year-old daughter who was missing, he told them he didn't know where she was.

Except he knew exactly where his daughter was: he had kidnapped her hours earlier and kept her at his relatives' house where she was temporarily forced into a dark and dusty crawl space under a trap door to conceal her location from the police.

After the police had issued a missing person report to the media with her physical description, the relatives dyed her brown hair red and openly discussed asking for a potential $75,000 ransom for the teen girl, who had the mental age of an eight-year-old child and has trouble recognizing dangerous situations. The father even went so far as to send fake messages to his daughter over Facebook Messenger pleading with her to "please go home" to make it seem like he was actively searching for her.

The details of the dad's plan are summarized in an agreed statement of facts filed in court after he pleaded guilty last December to public mischief and abduction of a person under 16. Both charges carry a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment.

The girl's identity and any information that could identify her are protected by a publication ban.

Her father was scheduled to attend a sentencing hearing on Wednesday but it was postponed due to staffing issues at the Montreal courthouse. Had the proceeding gone ahead, the Crown prosecutor would have asked the judge to impose a three-year prison sentence, while the defence would have asked for house arrest.