MONTREAL — On Jan. 23, 2005, 13-year-old Mélina Martin hopped out of her mother's car in Farnham, Que., and ran in the direction of a winter festival at a local park, excited to see the sled dogs.
Her mother, Françoise Algier, had told her daughter it might be too cold to go out, but Mélina was undeterred. It was the last time her family saw her.
"It’s been 20 years, and when I pass by there, I still see her, crossing," Algier said in a phone interview.
Two decades after Mélina's disappearance, her family hasn't given up hope of finding her. That's despite the fact there have been no solid leads, even with years of effort from the family, police and the missing children's network, which highlighted the anniversary of her disappearance on Thursday.
Algier said her daughter was supposed to meet her later in the day at a fast food restaurant, but Mélina never showed. She had vanished, seemingly without a trace.
Over the years, people have called in many tips, none yielding anything concrete. "There was a lot of hearsay, everyone saw her everywhere, saw her in one place and the other," Algier said. "I don’t even think it was her."
Farnham, located 55 kilometres southeast of Montreal, had fewer than 8,000 people in 2005, and Algier said it wasn't a dangerous place.
Algier, a mother of seven, hasn't given up hope of finding out what happened to her daughter. Mélina, who she remembers as a typical fun-loving teen who enjoyed music and spending time with her siblings, would today have just turned 33. Even though the anniversary of the disappearance is "like a knife turning in a wound," Algier continues to speak out in the hope that a member of the public will call in with a solid lead.
Every Jan. 12, on Mélina's birthday, she sets out a plate and lights candles for her, although she decided not to this year. "It's been 20 years and nothing comes of it, so I'm trying to not do anything to see if we get something," she said.
While she doesn't know what happened, she wonders if her daughter might have been kidnapped, maybe brainwashed, and hopes she might still be alive.
"We never found a body, we have nothing," she said. "So we can't say she's dead either, so we keep hope that one day she'll phone, or appear."
At the time of her disappearance, Martin was five feet four inches tall, 115 pounds, with red hair with blond highlights and several piercings in her ears, one below her bottom lip, and one in her navel. She was wearing jeans with fur on the bottom, a beige camisole, a jean vest with fur sleeves, and a black coat, and was carrying a beige vinyl purse with a blue star.
Anyone with information about her disappearance is asked to call authorities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 23, 2025.
Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
