A body, which could be that of the last French snowmobiler still missing after an accident that killed six people in January on a frozen lake in Quebec, has been found, we learned Thursday from police sources. This body was found late Wednesday morning, five days after the discovery of another body on a bank of the Grande Décharge river, Friday evening.
The Sûreté du Québec confirmed that the body found Friday evening was that of Arnaud Antoine, 25 years old. The medical examiner will have to determine "in the coming days" if the body found on Wednesday is that of the last French tourist still missing, Jean-René Dumoulin, 24 years old. "It could probably be our snowmobilers since the two bodies were wearing their snowmobile clothes , " said Hugues Beaulieu, spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec, earlier today.
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It was in this same area that the bodies of other members of the group of French snowmobilers were found at the beginning of the year. Passers-by found the first body "about 3 km from the accident" and then discovered the second "over 12 km" , while ad hoc research by the Sûreté du Québec remained in vain. "We suspected that with the warming of the water, it would be citizens who would fall on it by chance," said Hugues Beaulieu, adding that one of the bodies floated and another was stranded on a bank .
Last January, several members of a group of eight French snowmobilers from eastern France fell into the icy waters of Lac Saint-Jean, near the mouth of the Grande Décharge River. At nightfall, they had taken an unmarked path crossed by currents weakening the ice, which had given way under the weight of the machines.
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Three of the snowmobilers had survived minor injuries and a nervous shock, but the other five lost their lives in this tragic accident, as did their guide, a 42-year-old Montrealer. The remains of three of the group's members were found in January, but two group members were still missing when the search was halted due to difficult winter conditions.