Friday, March 28, 2008
Mother keeps the faith: DNA could prove fate of Jessie Foster
The (Vancouver) Province by Suzanne Fournier
Jessie Foster disappeared without a trace in Las Vegas two years ago today, but her Kamloops mother still feels a "tug on my heartstrings" that tells her Jessie is alive.
That feeling is tempered by a frustration that police are not doing enough to find her.
Glendene Grant discovered that the burned body of a white woman had been discovered in Texas seven months after her daughter's disappearance and close to a home owned by Foster's "boyfriend" -- the last person to see her alive. Grant urged U.S. police to compare her own DNA and that of Foster's father with the body.
It's been almost two months since Grant sent off her DNA and she has heard nothing from police in the U.S.
"Even though I believe Jessie is still alive, because my heartstrings to her are still intact, I haven't heard a word from the Las Vegas or the Texas police about the DNA tests, and it reinforces my fears that Jessie's disappearance has not been thoroughly investigated," said Grant.
Grant clings to the idea that Foster is alive and was abducted by human traffickers who recruited her into prostitution.
Mark Hoyt, spokesman for the Las Vegas North police, said yesterday "we still have no results from Texas on DNA.
"I know the mother has been pushing and prodding, and as a father I would do the same, but Jessie's case is an ongoing active missing persons investigation," said Hoyt.
"We're not slacking off -- we're waiting on Texas to get back to us."
Foster, a straight-A student, went to Las Vegas for her 21st birthday and met a man named Peter Todd.
She called home every day and was planning on attending her stepsister's wedding in Calgary. Then the calls stopped.
Grant made increasingly frantic calls to Las Vegas, including to Todd, who claimed Foster had moved out.
Hoyt said more than one man, including Todd, has been questioned in connection with Foster's disappearance, but he couldn't reveal any details about the "ongoing investigation."
Grant said Foster will turn 24 on May 27 and that she "desperately hopes" to have positive news about her daughter's fate by then.
sfournier@png.canwest.com
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