WARMINGTON: Body found in Port Hope feared to be missing Madi Chard
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The mystery of missing Madi Chard took a dark twist with the discovery of a woman’s body in Port Hope on Thursday afternoon.
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Hopes and prayers of finding Madi alive were dashed with the discovery of a deceased female fitting her description in a wooded area near the Ganaraska River.
“The OPP have been called into assist,” Port Hope Police Insp. Katie Andrews told the Toronto Sun. “It’s very sad.”
Police are not officially confirming the body found along a trail is 29-year-old Madison Chard, but law enforcement sources say evidence found at the scene matches with the description of Madi’s clothing and other identifiers.
“Police believe it is Madi but through routine investigative protocol can’t say that until all of the forensic work is completed,” said a law enforcement source.
Still, sources say, Madi’s family was notified of the discovery and also told until an autopsy positively identified the woman as her, for now it’s being reported as a deceased female found 30 days after she disappeared.
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Until a Port Hope Police search and rescue crew made the discovery, there was so much hope that she was alive and perhaps in need of rescue after being taken into the human trafficking sex trade against her will.
And leads were coming in.
One of the tips was she was spotted walking along the river, which Port Hope Police responded to with a search team and an aerial drone. It was this team that made the unfortunate discovery.
It’s early in the investigation, so police don’t know the cause of death or if there were any signs of trauma to the body that could lead to possible foul play, or if narcotics or factors related those activities played a role in this death.
What is known is the remains were in a decomposed state, which leads police to believe the person had been dead for weeks.
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It was a real blow to the town and to the Chard family who earlier in the day had been hoping for a positive outcome.
“We feel that we are getting closer,” Madi’s father Mark Chard, a popular local firefighter, wrote on Facebook at 9 a.m. “Still nothing concrete but feeling positive.”
As we wrote in our frontpage story Thursday, Madi had been at home on the day she disappeared and had also been at a friend’s house. But she then fell of the radar and was no longer answering texts or calls. Her cellphone eventually showed up at her parents’ house thanks to a friend, but with the SIM card removed.
While she had suffered through addictions problems in the past, it was believed she had been clean.
“I believe that she’s not on a binge and embarrassed to come home,” Mark Chard wrote this week. “Someone has her and won’t let her go” is his “opinion.”
Police have not ruled any theory in or out.
“It will be thoroughly investigated,” said Andrews.
Meanwhile, a family and a town are bracing for what they already suspect won’t be good news.