Maryse Chalette was a 26-year-old woman who disappeared from the Saint-Charles-Borromée and Joliette area of Quebec on November 22, 1971. According to the Government of Canada’s national missing-persons database, Maryse had been placed in foster care by the CHRDL Hospital, identified as the Centre hospitalier régional de Lanaudière, in Saint-Charles-Borromée. At approximately 12:30 p.m., she went outside for a walk in the Joliette area.
Nothing in the publicly available case information suggests that the outing was expected to be unusual or that anyone anticipated she would fail to return. Maryse was never seen again after leaving for that walk, and the circumstances surrounding what happened to her afterward have remained largely unknown. More than five decades later, the federal missing-person record continues to identify Saint-Charles-Borromée as the location from which she is missing.
At the time she vanished, Maryse was approximately 5 feet 4 inches tall, or 163 centimeters, and weighed about 115 pounds, or 52 kilograms. The official Canadian record lists her as a white female born in 1945, with brown hair and black eyes. She was wearing a long gray maxi-style coat and black plastic boots when she disappeared, details that may have been particularly important during the initial effort to identify anyone who had seen her walking that day. Authorities also list the surname spelling “Cholette” as an alias or alternate spelling associated with her, an important distinction when reviewing older records or information that may have been recorded differently over the years. No publicly available information specifies where Maryse intended to walk, whether she had a particular destination, how long she was expected to be gone, whether she was carrying money or personal belongings, or whether witnesses reported seeing her after she left. The lack of a publicly documented trail after approximately 12:30 p.m. has left investigators with an exceptionally narrow known timeline.
There is also an unusual discrepancy within the historical record concerning the date of Maryse’s disappearance. The structured information in Canada’s Missing lists her as missing since November 22, 1971, while the descriptive paragraph on the same government page states that she was last seen on January 22, 1971. A 2023 document submitted to Quebec’s National Assembly that compiled adult missing-person cases records Maryse Chalette as a female who disappeared on November 22, 1971, in Joliette, supporting November as the documented date used in other official research. The discrepancy appears to be an inconsistency in the surviving records rather than evidence of two separate disappearances. The same National Assembly compilation shows that Maryse’s case remained among Quebec’s longstanding missing-person files decades after she vanished, illustrating how little publicly released information has emerged despite the passage of time.
Maryse’s disappearance remains recorded by Canada’s National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains, with the investigation associated with the Joliette MRC detachment of the Sûreté du Québec. The government listing identifies police reference number 157-711122-019 and asks anyone with information to contact the Joliette MRC SQ at 1-800-659-4264; information may also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers. There are no publicly documented sightings, discoveries, suspects, arrests, or confirmed explanations for what happened after Maryse left for her walk. The surviving information therefore tells a hauntingly simple story: Maryse Chalette was 26 years old and living under a foster-care placement connected with the regional hospital in Saint-Charles-Borromée when she went for a walk around midday in the Joliette area on November 22, 1971. She was wearing a gray maxi coat and black plastic boots, disappeared without a publicly known trace, and has remained the subject of a missing-person investigation for more than half a century. With so few details preserved or publicly released, the central questions remain unchanged—where Maryse went after leaving that day, whether anyone encountered her during her walk, and what ultimately prevented her from returning.Last Seen: Nov 22, 1971
