On Saturday morning, May 11, 1991, six-year-old Yannick Fortin was last seen playing alone in the backyard of the family home, which overlooks the Saint-Maurice River. The family cat, who followed Yannick around wherever he went, went missing at the same time. Yannick's father, Adrien Fortin, surmised that the cat may have been drinking out of the river and Yannick may have fallen in trying to pick the cat up.