1966 Gundy Provincial Park Ontario Canada
Vanished at the campsite
It was Saturday, September 17, 1966 at a Grundy Provincial Park camp site, where a family with four children and their grand-parents were camping.
The father, Bernard, 25, his father, Adolias and Claude, 4, enjoyed fishing at the dock. The mother, Claire, and Therese, the grand-mother, would usually go to water´s edge and watch Joanne, 5, and Lise, 3, play in the water. The youngest child, Diane 2, was afraid of the water and she wouldn´t go near the lake. The family would go camping at Grundy on a regular basis. They went almost every weekend.
On this Saturday in September, Bernard and Claire decided to bring the four kids to the beach while Bernard fished on the dock. Adolias and Therese decided to take a nap while the rest of the family was down at the beach. Bernard was on the dock fishing. Claire, Joanne, Claude and Lise were looking for frogs on the shore and Diane was playing in the sand. Diane wanted to return to the campsite to be with her memere and pepere. Bernard said he would bring her back as soon as he got the line untangled. He turned around a few minutes later and Diane was no longer playing in the sand. Thinking that she had returned to the trailer, which was parked 500 ft away, Claire ran back to the trailer. Claire returned in a panic because Diane was not at the campsite. Bernard, Adolias, Claire and Therese started looking for her. They looked for about one hour thinking that she had just wandered off. They then decided to call the Ontario Provincial Police (O.P.P.) when they couldn´t find her.
The parents were scared that they wouldn´t find their baby before dark. Bernard wanted the police to call the USA and Canadian borders to advise them of his missing daughter but the police said they would find her in the park. The park was officially closed but people could still camp. The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) would come by at night to collect the camping fees. The gates to the park were left open. The police started looking, but to no avail. Night fall arrived and Bernard told the police to close the gate of the park so that no cars could go in or out of the park during the night. The police would not agree. They didn´t want to close the gates. Both Bernard and Claire were devastated that their little girl was not found before night fall. How hopeless they felt. How could a two year old baby survive the night in the woods at night? All through the night the father and grand-father drove around the park looking for her. They yelled and shouted Diane´s name but they didn´t find her. They just wouldn´t give up looking for her.
The next day the O.P.P. brought in divers to search the lake. The father kept telling them to search the park, Diane was afraid of the water and would not go near it. Still Diane was not found. The police dragged the lake and no body was found. The news was out that a child was missing in Grundy Provincial Park. This was the first missing child case in Sudbury district. It attracted a lot of media attention. People from Sudbury, Noelville, Britt and Parry Sound came to help with the search party. The Prevost family was well known in the town of Noelville where they were born and raised. Bernard and Claire lived in Blezard Valley and Bernard worked at Inco as a miner.
The police kept the search party at Grundy Park for four weeks. They didn´t find Diane. Bernard and Claire would not give up. They wouldn´t give up hope of finding their daughter.
Two years later bones were found in an outdoor toilet at Grundy Provincial Park. The media covered the story claiming it was Diane Prevost that was found. Forensic testing revealed that it was bones from a dog and not a human.
To this day the family has not given up hope that one day their daughter will come home to them.