The mystifying disappearance of a mother and her two children was no closer to being solved Friday, as a tip reporting that the three had been sighted in Gatineau Quebec turned out to be a dead end.

Erin Gray, 33, was last seen at her Chateauguay home on Sunday June 22 and has not been heard from since.

Police said they received a report she was spotted at a Wal-Mart in Gatineau on Thursday at 6 p.m. but that proved to be a case of mistaken identity.

She left the house with her two children, 11-year-old Rachel Kaya Beckles and 5-year-old Robert Clarke Jr. who are also missing.

Gray had spent part of Sunday at the home of her mother Jackie, and she says everything during the visit was normal.

"She took the... drove out of the driveway and that's the last time I seen her," said Jackie.

Her sister Ashley said Erin showed up unannounced on Sunday.

"She came in, grabbed her laundry, left," said Ashley. "Then my daughter, a few hours later, told me Auntie Erin came and got her laundry."

"Later I found out that when she got outside with her laundry she was running to her car, like in a rush."

When nobody heard from Erin on Monday, her mother went to Erin's home.

"That's when I seen like her Sunday supper was sitting in a pan still on the counter," said Jackie.

"Her drawers, the kids' drawers were open and there was clothes hanging out."

Her family said that Erin had been showing signs of paranoia in recent months, insisting that various people were following her and her children, but Jackie and Ashley said Erin had been better in recent weeks.

"Normally she talked to her friends every day and she disappeared without saying anything to anybody, so that’s mysterious and curious. That that's why the family called us to ask us to help find out where Erin could be," said Nathalie Longevin of the Chateauguay police, which has two officers working full time on the search.

Police say Gray was driving a gold-coloured 2001 Buick Century with the license plate X08 EDT. The car also has a noisy muffler.

Anyone who may have seen Gray or the children is asked to call Chateauguay police at 450-698-1331 ext. 7.