Marilyn Bergeron was born on December 21, 1983, in Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada. She had a passion for music, different cultures, and languages; she spoke French, English, and Spanish. Marilyn attended Cégep de Jonquière where she earned a degree in Media Arts and Technology. One of her dreams was to become a flight attendant and move to Western Canada.
In 2005 she relocated to Montreal. Marilyn worked at Steve’s Music Store and freelanced sound editing for local TV stations. All the while she had been training in finance at the Industrial Alliance.
In 2008, Marilyn started telling her family that she didn’t feel safe in Montreal and wanted to move back to Quebec City. She wouldn’t tell her mother, Andrée Béchard, or sister, Nathalie, why she suddenly felt anxious; though she said she’d explain once she left Montreal.
On February 10, Marilyn left her apartment in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and went to Quebec City. After five days, Marilyn and her parents traveled back to her apartment in Montreal to get the rest of her belongings, returning home the next day.
Marilyn’s mother and sister tried to talk to her several times about what was bothering her. She stated it had nothing to do with drugs, relationships, or debts, but wouldn’t reveal more. At one point, Marilyn broke down crying and repeatedly told them she never wanted to return to Montreal.
On the morning of February 17, the day after she had moved into her parents’ home, she told her family she was going for a walk and would be back within a few hours. All she took with her was a credit card.
A little after 11 AM, video surveillance footage shows Marilyn using an ATM in Loretteville. She tried to take out CAD$60 but it was declined. Noteworthy, Marilyn is seen with a black bag behind her back, which she did not leave home with.
At 4:03 PM, she bought a cup of coffee at a Café Dépôt in Saint-Romuald with her credit card. The clerk later remarked that she seemed depressed and anxious to leave the establishment. This was the last time Marilyn was officially seen and her credit card has not been used since.
Later that evening, Marilyn’s family reported her missing. They believe she either hitched a ride or was taken by an acquaintance to the coffee shop since it was about 15 miles from her home. Moreover, it has been suggested that while at the ATM, she was looking out the window at someone she knew parked outside. Authorities have urged for anyone that could have possibly given her a ride on that day to come forward.
Claude Poirier, a Canadian investigative reporter, dedicated an episode of his TV series Poirier Enquête to Marilyn. After it aired in 2010, a man called Poirier claiming to have seen Marilyn multiple times in the last year in Hawkesbury, Ontario — a town across the Ottawa River from Quebec. He believes she moved there with a younger man.
When authorities investigated the tip, several regular customers at a downtown Hawkesbury restaurant confirmed that Marilyn had been there.
Since 2010 Marilyn’s family has made several requests to the Quebec Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to transfer the case to the jurisdiction of either the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) or the Montreal Police.
The SQ has a province-wide jurisdiction and is known to be the best law enforcement agency in Canada. Meanwhile, the Montreal Police could investigate better in their jurisdiction since the family believes that Marilyn’s Montreal friends and acquaintances could be of a lot of help.
Moreover, the family was not happy about authorities handling the case as a disappearance, and possible suicide, without considering criminal involvement.
Despite their efforts, all of their requests have been denied.
On the ninth anniversary of Marilyn’s disappearance, in 2017, the family gave a conference with their lawyer Marc Bellemare, the former Quebec’s Ministry of Justice.
They announced a CAD$30.000 reward for information and that Bellemare was setting up a special tip line for information — for people with information who prefer to speak confidentially to Bellemare rather than the authorities. It originated over 80 calls, 43 of them being sightings of Marilyn.
Months later, at another conference, a friend of Marilyn’s spoke about her shift in personality before she went missing. Jonathan Gauthier had met Marilyn in college and the two reconnected in December of 2007 in Montreal.
When he arrived at her apartment he noticed right away that her demeanor was different. She seemed sorrowful and not the upbeat Marilyn he had previously known. Nevertheless, they went to a party.
After she spoke to a friend at the party, she became anxious and asked to go home. Back at the apartment, she started crying. Gauthier was concerned and asked her repeatedly if she had been raped or had witnessed some sort of crime. She denied both and said it was much worse than that — something he couldn’t even imagine.
Marilyn Bergeron has yet to be found. If she is alive, as many believe, she is 35 years old and had a distinctive pegasus tattoo between her right breast and shoulder.
