Friday, September 19, 2008

ARTICLE #95) $40,000 boost in reward raises hopes of missing woman’s mom - DAD PITCHES IN: No word since March 2006 from 23-year-old in Vegas


Thursday, December 27, 2007
$40,000 boost in reward raises hopes of missing woman’s mom -
DAD PITCHES IN: No word since March 2006 from 23-year-old in Vegas

The (Vancouver) Province by Lena Sin

Spending Christmas without her daughter was made easier for mother Glendene Grant, who received an uplifting gift of $40,000.

The money is being used to increase the reward for information leading to Grant’s missing daughter, Jessie Foster.

The extra $40,000 – put up by Foster’s father, Dwight Foster of Calgary – boosts the total reward to $50,000. It’s being offered through Crime Stoppers.

“It’s a wonderful Christmas present,” said the Kamloops mother, whose daughter disappeared in Las Vegas on March 28, 2006.

Grant has flown to Vegas several times since then and is working with both the North Las Vegas police and private investigators.

The mother believes her 23-year-old daughter has fallen into the hands of human traffickers and has been forced into sex slavery.

Jessie Foster travelled to the U.S. twice in 2005 after meeting a man at a party in Alberta who promised to pay for the trips. On the second trip, Foster called her mother and said she was extending her holiday to Las Vegas but would return.

But once in Las Vegas, Foster declared she was staying. The heartbroken mother only discovered after Foster’s disappearance that her daughter had been working as a prostitute by June 2005.

Grant said she has never wavered in her belief that Foster is still alive.

Dwight Foster has had a much tougher time dealing with his daughter’s disappearance but found renewed hope over the past year after meeting with investigators in Las Vegas, including officers with the Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery, said Grant.

Foster could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Meanwhile, Grant is still trying to reach Yvonne Hubrechtsen, a friend of Jessie Foster in Las Vegas who was in Vancouver prior to being arrested and deported back to the U.S. on Dec. 19.

Hubrechtsen, 22, was taken into custody on a Canada Border Services warrant for not revealing her criminal record when she entered B.C. Grant believes Hubrechtsen may have information that could lead to her daughter’s whereabouts.

lsin@png.canwest.com

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