Link to French-language article about this topic:

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2013/01/10/il-faut-se-dire-quil-est-mort

Link to English-language article, along with part of the article itself, appears below; there are some new details about Renda's abduction:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/montreal/Mobster+wife+seeks+declaration+death/7804242/story.html

Mobster’s wife seeks declaration of death
By Paul Cherry
Gazette crime reporter
January 11, 2013

MONTREAL — Saying she is only seeking closure, Maria Rizzuto-Renda, the wife of reputed Mafia leader Paolo Renda, appeared before a Superior Court judge on Thursday to ask that her husband be declared dead because she has seen no sign of him for more than two years.

“This is hard for me to say. But I feel my husband is dead,” Rizzuto-Renda told Superior Court Justice Caroline Roy at the Montreal courthouse. Last year, she and her adult son and daughter filed a request seeking to have her husband officially declared dead. The Montreal police believe he was abducted on May 20, 2010. His Lexus sport utility vehicle was found abandoned on Gouin Blvd., roughly 300 metres from his home on Antoine Berthelet Ave. Roy will render her decision on the matter at another date.

Rizzuto-Renda, 65, revealed some of what is known about the last few hours her husband was seen alive. She said he went golfing in the morning and then went to the funeral home the family owns in St-Léonard. She said her husband called her from the funeral home to say he would be picking up four steaks to bring home for dinner. She said by about 3 p.m. she became worried because Renda was usually punctual. Her son-in-law decided to drive around tracing Renda’s usual route and found the Lexus with a window down and the steaks inside.

Her daughter, Domenica, who also testified Thursday, said she and her mother have been told through lawyers that construction workers saw a black Dodge Cobra with a siren on top pull over the silver Lexus and that two men, dressed as police, appeared to arrest Renda. Domenica Renda said the Montreal police were also trying to track down a black car that appeared to be following Renda when he left the location where he bought the steaks.

“It wasn’t just any man driving down the street,” Renda’s daughter said, adding she is certain the construction workers saw her father being abducted. “My father would never have left us in this situation. Never ever, ever.”

[snip]

Renda had just been released on parole the previous February when he disappeared. The death of his nephew caused the Parole Board of Canada to amend his release and impose severe conditions on him. Rizzuto-Renda said her husband had to call a parole officer often and that the Correctional Service of Canada could check in on him any time it felt it was necessary.

“If he golfed, they had to know who he golfed with,” she said, adding that one of Renda’s parole officers expressed concerns for her safety over having to travel to the Renda home....