The 14-year-old youth who was reported missing from Eskasoni on August 13 has been located by police and is safe.
At approximately 11:30 pm last night, the RCMP Air Services reported a fire in an isolated location in the Canoe Lake area.
RCMP officers on the ground made their way to this area and at 1 a.m. where they located the missing girl and the man she was believed to be with.
Both were taken into police custody without incident and transported out of the wooded area.
The youth has been released, the man remains in custody and the investigation is ongoing.
The RCMP would like to thank the public for their assistance and retweets on social media.
RCMP have released new information identifying a man police believe is involved in the case of a missing teenager in Cape Breton.
Cpl. Lisa Croteau said RCMP are continuing to ask the public for help finding 14-year-old Mary (Molly) Martin, who was last seen on Thursday in Eskasoni.
Croteau said Martin is believed to be with a male who is known to her and they are believed to be in Cape Breton.
“We just want to check on her safety,” Croteau said. “Her family and the police are concerned for her safety at this time.”
Martin is described as Indigenous, 5-1 and 100 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Police say she has a rose tattoo on her left forearm and may be wearing glasses.
Martin is believed to be travelling with Darcy Dwayne Doyle, 47, of Mira Gut, according to RCMP. He is described as six feet tall and 190 pounds, with long, black hair, full beard and moustache and brown eyes.
The pair were seen on surveillance video at a gas station on Highway 22 in Catalone and RCMP say they may be travelling on red or green all-terrain vehicles.
According to court records, Doyle is due in provincial court next month on an assault charge and has a number of convictions up to 2006 on assault, theft and weapons charges.
He was also banned at one point from We’koqma’q First Nation, where Martin’s family is from.
The We’koqma’q band council is offering a $5,000 reward for information that would help find Martin, said Coun. Steven Googoo.
“Everybody wants Molly home,” he said.
Googoo said Doyle was at one time Martin’s stepfather and the family feels Martin was manipulated into leaving with him.
Volunteers from various Mi’kmaw communities have organized their own search with 40 people and at least 25 all-terrain vehicles. That search is independent of police, but any tips that come in are being forwarded to them, Googoo said.
No Amber Alert
Googoo said the community has asked RCMP to put up checkpoints at the Canso Causeway and asked for an Amber Alert to be issued to help find Martin.
However, Croteau said this case doesn’t meet the criteria for an Amber Alert.
“The person has to be abducted and because of her age and her willingness to co-operate, she was not abducted on that day,” Croteau said.
If RCMP get more information, that could change the investigation, she said.
The lack of an Amber Alert is “a hard pill to swallow,” Googoo said.
“P.E.I. issued an Amber Alert two days ago on a false Amber Alert … yet we have a 14-year-old girl here with a 47-year-old man and we still don’t meet the criteria,” he said.
Search effort includes helicopter, canine team
Croteau said RCMP are working with the provincial Department of Lands and Forestry to get a helicopter to help, along with the RCMP canine team.
“We have multiple RCMP detachments and Cape Breton Regional Police that are working together on this investigation,” she said.
Police are asking the public or Martin to contact them as soon as possible.
Anyone with information is asked to call Eskasoni RCMP at 902-379-2822.
