FREDERIC SERRE
The 1019 Report

More than two months after a LaSalle mother parked her SUV at the fireworks outlet off Highway 20 in Coteau du Lac and asked an employee to call police saying she had lost her three-year-old daughter, a Quebec Court judge has ordered the woman to remain in custody until her next court appearance on Sept. 8 so that a 30-day mandated psychiatric evaluation can be completed to determine if she is fit to stand trial on charges of unlawful abandonment of a child and criminal negligence causing harm.

The mother appeared before Judge Mylène Grégoire at the Valleyfield courthose by videoconferencing from the Philippe Pinel Psychiatric Institution on Aug. 8, where she has been held since being arrested in connection with the dramatic events that unfolded last June 15. After three days of an exhaustive search by law enforcement throughout the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area, the woman’s daughter was found by Ontario Provincial Police officers in Ontario, on the side of Highway 417 – a rescue that made international headlines.

The woman, 34, was denied bail and a judge ordered the evaluation to determine the accused’s state of mind at the time the alleged crime was committed, in particular whether she was able to distinguish right from wrong.

If found guilty, the mother could face a maximum of five to 10 years in prison.

A publication ban prevents the identification of the accused and her child.