Chantal Tremblay

Chantal Tremblay was a 16-year-old female student from Rosemère, Quebec, who was studying at the CEGEP of Old Montreal. She lived with her parents on rue Oak in the suburban community north of Montreal. On a summer evening, she was planning to embark on a trip with her younger sister, a journey that she would tragically never begin.

On Friday, July 29, 1977, Chantal left her family home around 5:30 p.m. The petite teenager, described as being five feet tall and weighing 90 pounds, walked to the bus stop on Grande-Côte Boulevard and boarded a bus heading toward Montreal. The bus driver later recalled seeing her get off at the Henri-Bourassa Metro Station at approximately 6:15 p.m. Chantal’s plan was to meet her 7-year-old sister, Christine, at the Berri-de-Montigny Metro Station, a major transit hub in the heart of the city. From there, the two sisters intended to travel together to Quebec City. But Chantal never arrived at the meeting point, and her family reported her missing that evening.

For nearly two years, Chantal's whereabouts remained a painful mystery. The search came to a devastating end on April 21, 1979. Two boys walking in a wooded area near rang Saint-François in Saint-Louis-de-Terrebonne discovered skeletal remains on a hill. The location, owned by the Department of National Defence, was not far from Chantal's home in Rosemère. Her clothing was found scattered about 200 to 300 feet from the remains. Forensic analysis confirmed the remains belonged to Chantal Tremblay, and authorities immediately treated her death as a homicide. While the official cause of death was not publicly released due to the condition of her remains, newspaper reports at the time stated she had been murdered.

The investigation into Chantal's murder was complicated from the start by apparent jurisdictional confusion. The St. Eustache police were first notified of the discovery, but officers from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) were the first to arrive at the scene. The investigation was eventually led by the municipal police force in Rosemère, where Chantal had lived, despite her being last seen in Montreal and her body being found in Terrebonne, which was likely SQ territory at the time. This fragmentation of responsibility was a common challenge in police investigations during that era in Quebec.

Chantal’s case has been examined by researchers in connection with other unsolved murders of young women in and around Montreal during the 1970s. Some have theorized that her disappearance, along with that of Johanne Dorion, who went missing on the same day, and Katherine Hawkes, could be the work of a single perpetrator who targeted women using public transit. This hypothetical serial killer has been dubbed the "Commuter Killer," though no definitive link has ever been established by law enforcement.

Decades have passed, but Chantal Tremblay's murder remains an open and active cold case. As of May 2026, her file is among the unsolved homicides being investigated by the Sûreté du Québec. Her family, including her sisters, has lived with the uncertainty and pain of their loss for more than four decades. There is no information available about a specific reward for information in this case. Police continue to hope that someone, somewhere, has the missing piece of information that could finally bring a resolution to this long-unsolved crime. Anyone with information that could help solve the murder of Chantal Tremblay is urged to contact the Sûreté du Québec's Centrale de l'information criminelle at 1-800-659-4264.