Missing Sherbrooke woman found safe

A Sherbrooke woman who was the object of an intense police search in Quebec and New Brunswick was found by snowmobilers Wednesday, some distance from her intended destination.

Medical student Stephanie Parent, 22, was driving from her hometo Bathurst, N.B., on Sunday, where she is to take a position as a medical intern. She used her GPS system to navigate the route, but never got there.

It would have been about a 10-hour drive from Sherbrooke to Bathurst, but the last indication police had of how far Parent got was at a gas station in Rimouski, Que., where she used her bank card at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

'Scenarios were running through our heads. We were pretty sure we were never going to get to see her again.' Francois Parent

That was about seven hours into her trip.

Snowmobilers foundParent Wednesday morning in the Newcastle neighbourhood of Miramichi, N.B., about an hour's drive south of Bathurst.

She told her rescuers she got lost when her GPS gave her the wrong instructions.

Her family feared she might have had a traffic accident, but in the end it was just a matter of faulty global positioning.

"After three days of lows, we finally had one incredible high," said her brother,Francois Parent.

He said after reporting his sister missing on Sunday, he and his parents were fearing the worst.

"Scenarios were running through our heads. We were pretty sure we were never going to get to see her again," he said

Cpl. Dan Doraisof the RCMP saidthey had been looking for Parent in the wrong area. "She was supposed to be in Bathurst, so members were looking for her [there]. Last time she was seen was in Rimouski, so we were looking around the Campbellton area," he said.

Parent was taken to the hospital in Bathurst for observation, but did not report any injuries.