Thursday, April 27, 2006
Dad hires PI to find daughter in Vegas: Calgary woman disappeared one month ago
Edmonton Sun/Sun Media by Sarah Kennedy
CALGARY -- His daughter's disappearance into the dark underworld of Las Vegas has a Calgary dad fearing the worst.
With little help from Las Vegas police, the parents of Jessica Foster have hired a Sin City private investigator to hunt down the 21-year-old, who disappeared a month ago.
And the family is getting some Hollywood help, with news personality Geraldo Rivera set to do a piece on the disappearance.
Dwight Foster said his daughter -- once a straight-A student -- travelled to Vegas in search of adventure a year ago but got lured into a murky world.
"She moved out to Las Vegas with a girlfriend we didn't really know, but she kept in touch with us daily, giving us updates on where she was and what she was seeing," said Dwight.
Dwight said he started to question his daughter's lifestyle when he learned she was living with a boyfriend named Peter in an expensive house, but she didn't seem to be working.
"She told us this Peter guy's family was rich and that he was supporting her," he said.
But Dwight kept his suspicions in check because Jessica sent daily text messages to her sisters and her mother, Glendene Grant, who live in Kamloops, B.C.
One month ago, all communication with Jessica abruptly stopped.
When that happened, Grant and Dwight, who are divorced, called the Las Vegas police department.
"We filed a missing person's report. They said they recognized she was missing, but that she's an adult and as far as they're concerned, there's no crime scene," said Dwight.
Dwight said the officers checked out Peter's house and when there was no evidence of foul play, they told the family there's not much else to investigate.
Which is why the family took matters into their own hands and hired Mike Kirkland, a private investigator in Vegas who uncovered a darker side to the story.
Kirkland learned Jessica had been working as a prostitute and the man she was living with had been her pimp -- a stark contrast from the young woman who had never been in trouble and graduated from John Diefenbaker high school four years ago with top grades.
The PI also found she had been badly beaten and hospitalized recently, as well as being charged with prostitution, said Dwight.
He said he fears his daughter is in danger or has met with foul play.
"My deep down thoughts is that she's not calling us because she can't ... I feel it now that something bad has happened to her."
A field producer for Rivera's syndicated news program, Geraldo At Large, interviewed the family earlier this week.
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