Body found in Lac-St-Jean region could be missing French snowmobiler

ALMA, Que. — Police say a body found on a riverbank near Lac-St-Jean on Wednesday may be one of the French snowmobilers listed as missing after a fatal accident in January.

Another body was found last Friday in nearby Alma, in the province’s Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region north of Quebec City.

Provincial police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu says the bodies could well be the two snowmobilers who remained unaccounted for after the Jan. 21 incident involving a group of eight French tourists and their Montreal-based guide.

Jean-Rene Dumoulin, 24, and Arnaud Antoine, 25, were part of a group that left the safety of the marked trail through the woods and ventured towards the icy expanse of Lac-Saint-Jean, where the ice gave way somewhere between St-Henri-de-Taillon and Alma.

Police had previously recovered snowmobiles and the bodies of three of the French tourists and their guide, while three others escaped without injury.

Beaulieu says the bodies will be examined by a coroner in order to formally identify them.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2020

The Canadian Press