Friday, September 19, 2008

ARTICLE #55) Mom hopes Montel brings breakthrough


Friday, April 13, 2007
Mom hopes Montel brings breakthrough
Kamloops This Week by Cassidy Olivier

A week from today, Glendene Grant will be sitting beside talk-show host Montel Williams ad telling America about her daughter Jessica Foster, who vanished in Las Vegas more than a year ago.

The pinnacle of what has been a year-long search, Grant is hoping her presence on the show will shed new light on the case that has remained largely stagnant for months.

The topic of the show will be young women who disappear after being unwittingly lured into the sex trade.

Although Foster’s story has already aired on the Maury Povich Show, the Geraldo Rivera Show and Global TV, Grant said she hopes the taping will provide the breakthrough the family has been praying for.

Unlike Povich and Rivera, she said, Williams is taken more seriously by viewers.

“Montel Williams is seen by more people and is more reputable,” she said.

“I figure once we get her picture and story on there, it is going to be hard for someone not to have seen her face.”

Foster, 21 at the time, was last heard from March 28, 2006 by her sister, Crystal, who had called her to make final preparations on an impending trip down to Las Vegas.

At the time, Foster has been living in Sin City with her boyfriend Peter Todd, a man believed to be a pimp.

No one has heard from her since.

Friends and family believe she somehow became tangled up in a human trafficking ring and is now being held against her will and forced into prostitution.

They believe she is alive.

“I still feel Jessie is beating in my heart,” Grant said. “We know she is out there and we are going to find her.”

A camera crew is scheduled to arrive in Kamloops today to do some pre-taping at Grant’s home.

Grant, and hopefully her daughter Crystal, will leave for New York Tuesday for the Wednesday in-studio segment. The show is expected to air in the following weeks.

Grant said she is not nervous about appearing on the popular show and will draw strength and encouragement from Foster’s memory to help her get through the emotional strain.

If asked by Williams if she wants to deliver a message to her missing daughter, Grant said she will turn to the camera and tell her “Jessie-Bessie” what she has been telling her for the last year: “Be safe and be smart. Don’t endanger yourself. Get out when you can.”

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