JANE DAVENPORT
The Gazette

Michel Surprenant plans to change houses as soon as his daughter Julie is home again.

Until then, he said yesterday on the first anniversary of her disappearance, he will stay in the
Ile-Saint-Jean house where they lived together.

"I said to myself, 'I'm going to live there until I find Julie. When I find her, after that, I'm going to
move.' "

After a year of waiting and hoping, Surprenant still believes Julie, who was 16 when she disappeared,
is alive.

"I'm convinced she is somewhere in North America," he said, noting that police have never found
anything to indicate that she is dead.

To date, Surprenant and Patrick Bergeron of the Missing Children's Network said yesterday, the
search for Julie hasn't yielded much.

Surprenant hired a private investigator eight months ago to supplement the efforts of Surete du
Quebec investigators. Although he said he doesn't keep abreast of minor developments in the case -
"I have to protect the emotions of myself and my family"- Surprenant said the SQ has agreed, more
or less with good grace, to look into any new clues the private investigator turns up.

However, as Bergeron pointed out, the search for Julie has stalled, a fact he attributes to the failure
of a witness to come forward - a person who might have been the last to see Julie alive.

"It is very disturbing that we are a year later and nothing, as far as we know, has come from this
individual," Bergeron said.

Julie vanished after getting off a bus just 50 metres from her home in Ile-Saint-Jean, near
Terrebonne, at 9 p.m. on Nov. 16, 1999. A witness has helped create a composite drawing of a man
in a red baseball cap who is thought to have been standing in a bus shelter when Julie left the bus
that night.

If the man won't identify himself, someone who knows him should do it for him, Bergeron said.

"I hope someone in his environment will have the heart to do what should be done," he said.

Surprenant looked quiet and matter-of-fact as he described the year-long wait for news of his
daughter.

"The last 12 months have been very hard. You imagine all sorts of scenarios," he said. "Your brain
revolves around it every day."

- Anyone with information about Julie Surprenant's disappearance is asked to call the SQ at (514)
598-4242.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/001117/4887488.html

1 . "picture"
Posted by Ishtar93 on Dec-11-00 at 09:19 PM (EST)

2 . "poster"
Posted by Ishtar93 on Dec-11-00 at 09:22 PM (EST)
JULIE SURPRENANT

Age: 16 years old
Hair color: Brown/ Curly
Eye color: Brown
Height: 1m57
Weight: 45 Kilos
Skin: White
Language: French
Missing: November 16, 1999
From: L'Île Saint-Jean, Terrebonne, (Québec)
Last seen wearing: Skirt with floral pattern, blue scarf, brown leather jacket. Black knapsack with
white Peace sign. Leggings and yellow boots with steeltoe
Outstanding Characteristic: Beauty mark in the middle of her forehead

If you have any information
about Julie, please call:

Sûreté du Québec
(514) 598-4242
or Police de Terrebonne
(450) 471-4121
or call us at
the Missing Children's Network
(514) 843-4333 or 1-888-692-4673
All calls are confidential
Ligne téléphonique de M. Surprenant: 1 877 JULIE 30

3 . "Moon Phase"
Posted by Mikie on Dec-16-00 at 08:40 PM (EST)
Moon was quarter full on 11/16/99. (Full on Nov 23rd, new on Nov 8th).