Marcel Gauthier was 43 years old when he disappeared from Trois-Rivières, Quebec, on August 17, 1983. The Canadian government’s national missing-persons database records that the male Trois-Rivières resident was living in an apartment in the city when he vanished. On the day he was last known to be present, Marcel was seen in his own neighbourhood.
The publicly available case record does not describe where in the neighbourhood he was observed, who saw him, what he was doing, or where he may have intended to go afterward. What is known is that after that August day, his whereabouts became unknown. Nearly three weeks later, on September 6, 1983, a member of Marcel’s family formally reported him missing, beginning an investigation that has remained associated with authorities in Trois-Rivières.
At the time he disappeared, Marcel was described as approximately 175 centimetres, or 5 feet 9 inches tall, and weighing about 66 kilograms, or 146 pounds. He had brown hair, green eyes, and a moustache. One particularly personal identifying detail recorded in the national case file is the wedding ring he wore on his left hand, described as silver-colored and potentially made of silver, aluminum, or stainless steel. His year of birth is listed as 1939. Beyond these identifying characteristics, very little about the circumstances immediately surrounding his disappearance has been made public. There is no publicly documented account in the national file of Marcel leaving Trois-Rivières, taking a vehicle, boarding public transportation, traveling to another community, or telling someone that he planned to leave. Likewise, the available official record does not identify a confirmed destination or explain why there was an interval between his last sighting on August 17 and the missing-person report filed by his family on September 6. Those gaps have left much of Marcel’s final known day outside the public record.
The case continues to be listed by Canada’s Missing, the national missing persons and unidentified remains program, rather than being recorded as resolved. The investigating contact identified for the case is Sécurité Publique de Trois-Rivières through Halte au Crime, and the investigation carries reference number TRM-830314-14128. Authorities also continue to provide avenues for information to be submitted through Crime Stoppers or the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains. The passage of more than four decades has not diminished the importance of information that could explain what happened after Marcel was last seen in his neighbourhood. For his family, a disappearance of this length represents years of unanswered questions and the absence of the certainty that comes from knowing where a loved one went. In overview, Marcel Gauthier was a 43-year-old Trois-Rivières resident who disappeared after being seen in his neighbourhood on August 17, 1983; his family reported him missing on September 6, and no publicly released information establishes where he went afterward or what circumstances caused him to disappear. His case remains listed as missing, leaving one central question unresolved after all these years: what happened to Marcel after he was last seen in Trois-Rivières?Last Seen: Aug 17, 1983
