The parents of a missing nine-year-old Quebec girl have issued an emotional plea for information to help find her, and have called on a prominent Quebec journalist to help them in their search.

Cédrika Provencher has been missing since July 31. Her parents, Martin Provencher and Karine Fortier, said Friday they are desperate to get her back before the start of the school year later this week.

A poster for missing nine-year-old girl Cedrika Provencher has helped bring police more than 3,000 tips from the public. A poster for missing nine-year-old girl Cedrika Provencher has helped bring police more than 3,000 tips from the public.
(Canadian Press)

Journalist Claude Poirier joined the parents at a news conference in Trois-Rivières, and said he would keep his telephone line open around the clock for any information that might lead to the girl. He stressed that he is not working on behalf of the police.

Poirier is a household name in Quebec, and, in the past, criminals have turned themselves in to him rather than going to the police.

Police ended their search for Cédrika Aug. 12, but have been following up on more than 3,000 tips received from the public since then, working from a command post in Trois-Rivières.

Among tips they received last week were several credible sightings of Cédrika with a man in eastern Quebec's Gaspé region.

In one case, witnesses told police they saw a girl who looked like Cédrika with a man in a restaurant in Chandler, Que., on the Gaspé peninsula. However, they were slow in reporting what they saw, and by the time police set up roadblocks it was too late.

Early in the search, witnesses told police they had seen Cédrika before she disappeared, and she told them she was helping someone find a lost dog.

Since then, four other girls have come forward to tell police they had been approached by a man asking them to help find his lost dog.

There is an $80,000 reward for information that helps police find the missing girl. The reward money was donated by residents of several communities in the area and collected by Sun Youth, a Montreal organization that provides aid for the underprivileged.

With files from the Canadian Press