Police searching for a missing nine-year-old Quebec girl tried a new tactic on Tuesday night, setting up roadblocks near where Cédrika Provencher was last spotted in the hopes that passing motorists might hold some clues to the child's whereabouts.

Police and volunteers handed out posters with the missing girl's photo on them.
(Canadian Press)

Quebec provincial police officers used checkpoints between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to question people who might have information that could help them locate Cédrika.

They hoped that somebody might remember seeing something that could help in their investigation.

"These people haven't yet been sought out and maybe they saw something," provincial police spokeswoman Isabelle Gendron said Tuesday.

Gendron said drivers may have been on their way to an activity or to a friend's and seen or heard something and didn't realize it was significant.

Police are still not ready to say the nine-year-old was abducted and are saying it's a missing person case.

Earlier in the day, a team of divers searched a river located near the area in Quebec where Cédrika was last seen.

The dive team began scouring the St. Maurice River on Monday. They said they have no reason to believe a body is there, but it is one of the places that has not been searched.

Police in Trois-Rivières appealed to the public for information Monday in the search for Cédrika.

They have been focusing their search on reports a man had asked three other young girls to help him find his lost dog, said Sgt. Isabel Gendron, with the Quebec provincial police.

Gendron said police do not have a good description of the man, saying they only know he is white and between the ages of 30 and 60.

While police have spoken to thousands of people and received roughly 500 tips, Gendron urged the public to contact them if they have any information.

On Sunday, the girl's father made a heartfelt plea for the safe return of his daughter.

Ground search called off

Martin Provencher told reporters he is hoping someone who knows where his daughter Cédrika is or has possibly abducted her will just let her go.

"Leave her on a street corner," he said.

Authorities have called off the ground search for the little girl, who disappeared July 31. Witnesses said she was last seen riding her bike between 6 and 8 p.m. last Tuesday, asking people in her neighbourhood if they had seen a lost dog.

Police are also checking the sexual offenders registry for the region.

Hundreds of police and volunteers combed the woods and riverbanks around Trois-Rivières last week, as a search helicopter flew over the area.

A billboard featuring Cédrika's photo has been raised in the close-knit community, while hundreds of posters are plastered in coffee shops and grocery stores.

Provincial police suspect she may have been abducted by someone who had asked for help in finding the animal. They have confirmed Cédrika did not have a dog of her own.

Around midday on Wednesday, searchers found the girl's bicycle behind a dumpster in the back of an apartment building, 1.5 kilometres from where she was last seen, police said.