Book: MISSING! The Disappeared, Lost or Abducted in Canada

PICTURED: Book Cover

NOTE: This is from the book MISSING! The Disappeared, Lost or Abducted in Canada by Lisa Wojna in which Jessie's story is written.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: pg 7 - In particular, I’d like to thank the following: The Wetaskiwin Public Library for their ongoing support; Kat Strachan for patience with a newbie; Glendene Grant for opening your heart when your pain is still so very raw; Lucy Glaim for revisiting the tragedy of two missing relatives; Mark Bonokoski for answering a cold-call email with such grace and speed; public relations manager Theresa Brien; Tony Romeyn and the Doors of Hope; Lisa Krebs and the Highway of Tears; Councilor Rena Zatorski of the Lheidli T’enneh Nation; and Amnesty International Canada.

Chapter 6: FOLLOW YOUR DAUGHTER HOME (pages 87 to 94)

Chapter Six - Follow Your Daughter Home

(pg 87) Long before The Guess Who recorded the smash hit “Follow Your Daughter Home”, fathers with daughters, and big brothers with sisters, have traditionally looked out for the womenfolk of their family. Sadly, they’ve had to. Pegged as little more than chattel, a woman’s worth was usually measured by the men in her life. It’s little wonder, then, why women have been victimized throughout history and still are to this day. Predators consider them easy targets, the "weaker of the species", and of no more value than what pleasure can be derived from their use. In reality, perhaps our most devastating downfall is our nurturing and trusting nature. Women like to think the best of people; I know I do. Sometimes, though, that's gotten women into trouble. In some cases that follow, a trusting nature could be blamed for leading a woman into dangerous places. In other cases, what led to her disappearance remains a complete mystery.

(pg 88) - LAS VEGAS BOUND

Imagine...

Pretty, pink and endearing from her first wail - a daughter named Jessica Edith Louise Foster, born May 27, 1984. Mom is so pleased with her new warm bundle that the thrill is almost enough for her to forget the recent labour pains. Dad...well, he can't take his eyes off his little darling.

Before long the newborn had grown into a toddler, and then even bigger. She's playing in the sand and splashing against the big waves washing up along the beach, learning how to swim and hanging out with friends. Soon she's marching up to get her high school diploma, and then, in the blink of an eye, she's gone. A young adult now, she spreads her wings and learns to fly. Mom and Dad find it worrisome to let go. It's always hard to let go. And so much harder when the one you love doesn't return home.

Such was the scenario faced by Glendene Grand and Dwight Foster. Although the couple had separated before jessie reached her first birthday, both maintained a strong bond with their daughter. During her formative years, Jessie lived in Kamloops with her mother. Glendene enrolled her daughter in swim lessons, Brownies, Guiides, dance lessons and the church camp, and she saw Jessie through elementary, junior high and most of high school. When Jessie was very young, Glendene met Jim Hoflin, and the couple began a long relationship that despite (pg 89) their current struggles, remains strong to this day. Other children came along, and life at home was generally pretty good.

Early in Jessie's grade 11 year, she moved in with her father and stepmother in Calgary to finish high school. Dwight had always mourned the fact that he'd missed out on Jessie's youth, and the father and daughter used those years as a time for bonding. In 2005 Jessie moved back to Kamloops. But after taking several trips to a few U.S. hotspots - Fort Lauderdale, New York City, Atlantic City - Jessie knew she wanted to move south. That May she chose to settle in Las Vegas. Her two worried parents might not have liked the idea of their darling daughter living anywhere with a reputation like "sin city", but what could they do? As any parent knows, putting up roadblocks accomplishes little more than a breakdown in communication. So everyone gritted their teeth, kissed and hugged Jessie goodbye and prayed for the best.

In November Jessie returned to Calgary and then Kamloops for an extended visit to both her parents' homes during the Christmas season, returning to Las Vegas on the 3:00 PM flight out of Kamloops on Christmas Day. Although it was the last time they were all together, Jessie frequently called her family members, sometimes daily. The last known contact anyone had with Jessie was when she spoke to her sister Crystal on March 28, 2006. Then nothing. No answer on her cell phone. No banking activity. No charges to her credit cards. Silence.

(pg 90) Jessie was officially reported missing by Glendene on April 9, 2006, after first calling Peter Todd, the individual Glendene had thought was Jessie's live-in boyfriend. During that phone call, Peter told Glendene that Jessie had moved out at the beginning of April, and he didn't know her whereabouts. The North Las Vegas Police Department and the RCMP were both called. Dwight also hired a Las Vegas private investigator. And in time, at least some answers came trickling in to the family, but they weren't necessarily answers they were prepared for.

It appeared that Peter Todd - the well-to-do Prince Charming Jessie had told her family about, the man who'd swept her off her feet and was to a large degree the impetus for her move to Las Vegas - was allegedly more foe than friend. The talk about town was that Peter Todd was actually a pimp who'd recently separated from his wife, a known prostitute. It's an accusation Peter vigorously denied. Furthermore, on questioning Peter, investigators learned that Jessie may have also fallen in that line of work, either willingly or though coercion. The news shocked the family.

"She's a good kid...We're talking about a girl who got 'A's on her report card. She never smoked cigarettes. She never did drugs," Glendene told Global National's news reporters during one interview.

And if this wasn't enough of a shock, the news got worse. Peter's estranged wife had threatened Jessie several times, (pg 91) frightening her enough to keep her from answering the front dor if she was home alone for fear that the "ex" was on the other side. It was a concern Jessie voiced many times and Peter later confirmed.

As shocking as this news was to Glendene and Dwight, regardless of what their daughter did for a living, she was still their daughter. She was still that little girl who loved to play in the water and build castles in the sand, and no one had the right to harm her. They had to act quickly if they were going to find her.

Along with hiring their own private investigator, Jessie's family began creating and distributing missing persons posters, contacting media and garnering publicity for their plight. They knew that the more they kept Jessie's face in the public, the better chances they had of finding her. They developed a website (http://www.jessiefoster.ca) with family pictures, a chronicled account of Jessie's early years and later disapperance, copies of every news article written about her and information on Jessie's vital statistics. And in the year following her disappearance, Glendene and Dwight made several trips to the city that never sleeps. Since Jessie's been gone, every waking moment has been dedicated to finding her. That's that way it has to be. Until they know otherwise, Jessie's family continues to believe that she's still alive.

"I have since the beginning felt that she has been a victim of human trafficking," Glendene said in a Kamloops This Week (pg 92) article dated March 16, 2007. "Therefore, not only do I believe she is alive, but I believe that she is being held against her will somewhere."

The suggestion that Jessie may have become a victim of human trafficking isn't the result of a panicked parent, nor is it the imagination born of television and movie dramas. Human trafficking is a sad reality, even here in the Western world we believe to be so civilized and beyond its earlier dark history of slavery. Statistics released in June 2006 by the U.S. Department of State reports that "between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across transnational borders, or from one country to another each year. When intra-country or 'within country' estimates are included, this figure rises into the millions."

Women and children are often abducted from one country and tranported to another, enslaved by their captors and forced into sexual and other forms of exploitation. Sometimes these victims are simply moved from one corner of the country to another. Either way, if Jessie became a victim of human trafficking, she could be anywhere in the U.S. or in some far-off land overseas. The North Las Vegas Police must have agreed at least to some degree with Glendene's assessment that abduction by human traffickers could be a possibility, because Jessie's case has since been moved to the ATLAS (Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery) task force and the vice squad in the Metro Las Vegas Police Department (LVPD).

(pg 93) As the Metro LVPD grudgingly added yet another case to their ever-burgeoning workload, arguing repeatedly that in Jessie's case they have yet to determine any evidence of criminal wrongdoing, Glendene continues to do her part. She makes sure everyone has heard of Jessie and can identify her if they see her, by maintaining a public presence for her daughter and garnering as much media attention as possible, especially in the U.S., because that's where Jessie was last known to be seen. Just say the name "Laci Peterson" and an image of the sparkly-eyed brunette with the bobbed haircut and brilliant smile immediately comes to mind. That's what Glendene wants for Jessica. She wants people to experience that immediate recognition so that if they see her anywhere, they'll know her story and will call the authorities. To the end, Glendene has appeared on several American talk shows, the most recent being The Montel Williams Show in New York City, where she told Jessie's story.

Like any mother in her situation, every once in a while Glendene gets caught up in "what ifs," such as when she remembers driving Jessie to the Kamloops airport the afternoon of Christmas Day, 2005. Glendene and Dwight likely wish they could have talked Jessie out of leaving. They probably also wonder if there was anything they could have done to prevent their daughter from getting caught up with a dangerous crowd. And they miss her so very much.

"Jessie is the second out of four sisters. They are very, very close, and the gap in their sisterhood is so huge it is (pg 94) unimaginable," Glendene said. "This is how it is with all of us. Just a small little girl like Jessie and she leaves a hole too huge to imagine when she is not there to fill it.

"Jessie was a tomboy when she was in elementary school and when she got to high school she blossomed into the most beautiful young woman. She is petite and always has her hair and makeup done. However, she can belch louder than a drunken sailor and can spit further than any man I know. She has a wonderful senxe of humour and always has a smile on her beautiful face."

But Jessie's family can't let themselves become distracted by memories and reminiscing. There are fundraisers to host, investigators to check with, media to inform, a website to update. Doing these things are the only ways that the family can survive this ongoing purgatory and hold on to that thin strand of hope that in time, they will find some kind of resolution.

"Halfway to the Goldfields: A History of Lillooet" by Lorraine Harris

PICTURED: Jessica wearing her Great-Great Gramma Kane's wedding dress-1996-handmade in 1882

My family's story was documented in the book "Halfway to the Goldfields: A History of Lillooet" by Lorraine Harris
(NOTE: I am Jessie's mom Glendene Grant, William Herbert Kane is my grandfather, my mother Verona Susan Kane-Grant's beloved father.)

PAGES 56 to 60 - The Kanes of the "Box K"

(pg 56) Captain James Kane was an Irishman who sailed around the Horn en route to the new Colony of British Columbia, landing in New Westminster in 1860. He arrived in a ship of which he was half owner, having heard about the rich goldfields in the Colony and the great need for shipping and transportation. Captain Kane's enquiries into the possibilities of frighting up the river resulted in his selling his share of the large vessel and buying a smaller one, the Scuddy. This he used to move freight upriver from New Westminster to Yale, which was then the end of water transportation. His business was brisk, as the miners upriver needed supplies and had gold to be transported back.

Yale was a district seat of government and a bustling town filled with miners, drifters, gamblers, and opportunists; it had twelve saloons and one magistrate. It was here that Captain Kane met Christine, a beautiful Indian girl, whose family lived near Yale, and they were married in 1861. On 19 September 1863, a son, Billy, was born.

James Kane could not long ignore the excitement of the gold rush, and when Billy was two years old, his father went north to make his fortune. He never returned, and word sifted through to Christine that he had made a rich strike and was murdered for his new-found wealth. This news was never substantiated, and his grieving wife waited three years for him to return. In 1868, when Billy was five years old, Christine met and married a freighter named Richley. Needing pasture for his mules, Richley bought 14 Mile ranch on the Lytton-Lillooet trail, and in 1877 the family moved from Yale and started to ranch. Billy was then fourteen and loved the life immediately as he was passionately fond of animals.

Billy grew into a strong young man, six feet tall, and moved with a slow, easy grace which stamped him as a natural horseman. When he was sixteen he built with his own hands a log barn that still stands on the homestead - now known as Pine Grove ranch. At eighteen, Billy wanted a place of his own and bought out George Baillie at 20 Mile. He worked hard to make 20 Mile into a fine ranch suitable for the family he hoped to have with Susan Watkinson, daughter of neighbour Joseph Watkinson of Watkinson's Bar. A romantic young man, Billy expressed his feelings for Susan in letters and poetry. In 1882 the two were married in the Watkinson home by Archdeacon Small, and returned to 20 Mile ranch with its vista of the Fraser river winding its way down the Lillooet-Lytton trench.

It was a happy marriage and produced eight children, seven sones (James, William Herbert {my grandpa - my mom's dad}, Ernest, Walter Cecil, Joseph, Albert, Stanley) and one daughter (Susan). To educate these children Billy Kane, Fred Watkinson (Susan's brother), and Charles McGillivray built a school at Watkinson's Bar and hired a teacher. Education in this remote area was not always a continuous process: the boys helped when needed on the farm and the girls helped in the home during the harvesting season when there were many more mouths to feed. Three or four years of steady schooling constituted a good education.

Billy Kane was a hard worker. He took employment with the CPR when the Cisco Bridge near Lytton was being built. This was a veritable fortress of a structure with pillars of granite. Billy saved a man's life while on this job, and the CPR presented him with a gold watch for his valour. The wages that he earned bought the first cattle for his ranch, and he gradually built up a find herd from this stock. His brand was a capital K inside a square box, and the ranch became known as the "Box K".

(pg 57) PICTURE OF HANDWRITTEN MARRIAGE PROPOSAL FROM BILLY KANE TO SUSAN WATKINSON.

(pg 58) In the 1890s he was raising, slaughtering and curing his own pork, and his bacon was much sought after. Local miners, including a group of Chinese miners who had a winter townsite on the river below the Box K, bought all of Kane's bacon, which sold at a dollar for six pounds. Each summer he raised fifty to sixty pigs, and sold them to the miners during the winter. He also butchered surplus cattle, which sold readily in Lillooet and Lytton. One fall, he drove his surplus of about fifty head over mountains to Ashcroft, where he sold them to Pat Burns, well-known Lower Mainland butcher, at about forty dollars a head - a good price for that time.

Eventually Billy Kane owned and operated three farms - the 20 Miile, 18 Mile, and 14 Mile. By the 1930s, he and his son Bill, working together, shipped thirty tons of alfalfa seed to an Ontario buyer. This seen was known as Kane Alfalfa, and the cleaning mill used to clean the seed still stands on Kane's Acres. The Kanes owned the first haymower in the valley, brought from Lytton by boat up the Fraser before there was a road into the area.

Bill Kane tells a story about land values when land was there for the asking. His father, not having the time to work 18 Mile ranch, offered it to his brother-in-law, Fred Watkinson, for the taxes owing on it - which amounted to four dollars. Fred's answer was: "I wouldn't give my hat for it!" Recently this farm was offered for sale at $200,000.

Billy's great love for horses kept him on the lookout for good stock. He ran a large and valuable string, and he wa also expert at racing his horses. A special favourite was Platinum, a beautiful dark grey animal which held the half-mile record for Canada. Billy delighted in racing his horses across the country; no race was too small for him to enter. His horses ran in the competitions which were held on the main street of Lillooet and Lytton, and he almost always came up with a winner.

One time Billy was riding on a mountain above his ranch when something startled his horse and he was thrown off. To his consternation he found that he had broken his leg. He realized that he would never get home unless he could get back on his horse. Pulling himself over to a tree with a low crotched branch, he situated himself so that he could get his heel well down into the crotch. Then, agonizing though it was, he pulled his leg straight, setting the break. He splnted it with branches and was finally able to pull himself up to a standing position. Although his horse was an extremely high-spirited animal which only Billy (pg 59) Kane could ride, it sensed its master's predicament and stood close until Billy could mount. The trip home was excruciatingly painful, being entirely downhill through a rocky creekbed, but Billy gave the animal its head and it took him home.

Billy once had a worse ride than this one. He had shot a large buck and was about to "bleed" the animal. As he stepped astride the buck's neck, the deer suddenly jumped up and made three long leaps down the hill, the hunter's feet touching the ground each time. On the third leap the buck fell dead, and Kane fell off gladly.

Billy's excellent horsemanship was often put to the test. One time he was asked to saddle break a horse that had already killed a man because of its wild bucking. Billy took theh animal home and turned it into a corral where he could observe it. When the time came to saddle and ride the renegade, the horse did not buck at all - to everyone's amazement. Billy had observed the animal well, and had noted that a tight belly band drove this horse wild. His secret was a loose cinch.

He was an excellent farrierr and reset his horses' shoes every two weeks. Once when cattle broke through his garden fence, Billy ran out, shod one of his horses, chased the offending cattle back into the field, then removed the horse's shoes and turned him loose.

Another of his favourite stories told of prospecting in the Cascasde mountains on the west side of the Fraser and hearing his horse scream. Gold pan in hand. he ran to see what was happening and found a grizzly bear about to attack his saddle mare. He grabbed a stick and began to bear the pan. Startled by the din, the bear took off. Billy remembers that he and his horse camped together near the fire that night.

As his family grew up and married, he became known as "Grandpa Billy" Kane. Having taught his own sons to ride, hunt, and ranch, he now enjoyed seeing his grandsons carry on family traditions. At seventy-five, an age at which most men ride a rocking chair, he broke, with his gently hand, a feisty young filly, and he continued to ride until he was nearly eighty-five. After that, Billy would saddle and bridle the mare, as he had always done, and they could be seen waling around the fields they knew so well, the horse obediently following the man. Undoubtedly they were remembering the good old days when a "little ride" started at sunup and ended at sunset.

Susan Watkinson Kane, born 24 August 1866, was tiny with dark, curly hair, and was considered a beauty. She was especially clever with her needle. Although only sixteen years old when she married, she made her own wedding dress of rust-coloured brocaded silk. The hand-made (pg 60) buttonholes on this elegant dress are a work of art, a fact her granddaughter can attest to, for she has worn it on many special occasions. Because of her skill at sewing, Susan never discarded an article of clothing. Even clothes given to her for use in quilt-making were more often returned to the owner beautifully mended. Susan Kane washed, carded, and spun all the wool from their sheep, and when in later years she could no longer handle her spinning wheel, she continued to card and spin wool by hand onto a stick spindle. Although money was not a plentiful commodity, she kept her daughter beautifully dressed, and knit all the socks and sweaters for her husband and seven sons.

As with all pioneer families, the Kanes had their share of hard times, but there was always food for the table and a warm home to be proud of. Susan's greatest sorrow came with the burning of the log home that Billy had readied for her as a bride and where her children had been born and raised. All her treasures - family pictures and a fine collection of beautiful Indian baskets - were lost.

Susan Kane dies in 1943 and was buried in the private cemetery on the Kane ranch. Grandpa Billy died there ten years later.

Young Bill Kane no doubt wanted to emulate the renowned horsemanship of this father. He says that at about fourteen years of age, "I figured I was quite a cowboy and I chased and caught wild horses. I broke them to saddle and sold them for an average of $10 each; that was good money then." He also sold fox and coyote pelts for "side money" and being an excellent shot and an enthusiastic hunter, added to his extra money by selling "buck deer" meat at eight cents a pound, clearing about twelve dollars per animal. The urge to be successful led him later to dabble in stocks, to his father's chagrin. When he wanted to buy Boeing Aircraft shares at forty cents, his father advised him against it. "They'll never be able to fly by machine," he insisted.

Young Bill also got "mining feaver" as a young man and staked on two good locations. Twice he found buyers, but his partners could not bear to part with the claims for the offered price, and dreams of a fortune blew away like the morning mists on his benchland home. On his own, he staked a "placer lease" and got some nuggets which were worth three dollars each, but after mining for five years, he decided to continue farming.

In 1960 he sold both his ranch and his father's estate, retaining for himself and his wife Annie {my grandpa and grandma - my mom's parents} four of the 720 acres he once farmed. From Kane's Acres, as he calls his small spread, he can still look out over the land, now all under cultivation and dotted with fine cattle, on which he has lived all his life.

ARTICLE #129) Find Jessie

Month of September, 2008
Find Jessie
Oracle 20/20 (Sherry Henderson) by Glendene Grant

NOTE: First Person is a place for readers to share personal experiences. Email your story to editor@oracle20-20.com by the 1st of each month.
All submissions are subject to editing. Author's name can be withheld upon request.

PLEASE HELP ME. My Canadian daughter, Jessie Foster, born in Calgary, AB and raised mostly in Kamloops, BC went missing from her home at 1009 Cornerstone Place, North Las Vegas, NV USA (who goes missing from their home???) on March 29, 2006.

Jessie’s case is in the hands of the Serious Crimes Division with the RCMP and she is an endangered missing person with the North Las Vegas police. Jessie’s case info is also in the hands of ATLAS (unofficially - as without someone to come forward and testify in court...Jessie is not ‘officially’ a human trafficking victim). ATLAS is the Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery task force in Las Vegas. They get every single bit of info that goes to the police. There is also a human trafficking office in British Columbia who has been informed of Jessie’s case and the Edmonton Police Service is very well aware of who Jessica Foster is and also who Donald Vaz is (the person who took my daughter to the USA and the person we believe who is involved in what happened to Jessie after that).

Jessie’s story has been told on the Geraldo Rivera at Large show on April 24, 2006; on the Maury Povich show on October 11, 2007; on the Montel Williams show on May 24, 2007 and updated on July 8, 2008. These shows have also been shown repeatedly over time. Her story has been told in dozens of newspaper articles and on TV & radio news and it is all over the Internet - just try Googling her name - you will get pages and pages of 10 links each with nothing but stories about my missing daughter. Go to http://www.google.ca or http://www.google.com and using quotation marks; type in: “missing Jessie Foster”.

Jessie’s story was going to be told on the Dr. Phil show, but I do not know what has happened with that. I still hope to hear back from them. And the Steve Wilkos show was interested in doing a show about Jessie’s story, but decided to hold off on it...I also still hope to hear back from them.

Jessie’s story came out last year in a Canadian book by author Lisa Wojna called: MISSING! The Disappeared, Lost or Abducted in Canada. Her story will also be told in another book: info TBA. And there is a cookbook coming out that will have stories of the missing with the recipes and Jessie’s story will also be in that book.

We are waiting to hear when the National Enquirer will be printing the story they are doing about Jessie. I already did the interview with the reporter and we are waiting to hear when the paper will be printing it. They are not just doing a story...the reporter told me she talked to her editor about Jessie and they plan to do an appeal for Jessie. We are very grateful to this.

For more info on our case, we have a lot of info available. Our website is: http://www.jessiefoster.ca and we have a NowPublic site: members.nowpublic.com, a Facebook account for me facebook.com/, a MySpace account: myspace.com/jessiesmomglendene and I have a blog: http://jessiefoster.blogspot.com

I do NOT stop my search for Jessie even for a day. If I am not talking to people about her case, I am sending messages to people to try to get more help. Whether it is from the police, the public, the media or an investigator. We pretty well talk to anyone who wants to listen. We fundraise to keep the investigation going and to have a reward. We have a $50,000 reward now; thanks to Jessie’s father Dwight adding $40,000 to the $10,000 we raised. We will also continue to fundraise and we will continue to raise the reward if we need to.

WE NEED TO FIND JESSIE. She has me, her step-dad Jim, 3 sisters, 1 niece (just born on December 26, 2007) and I another of her sisters is due to have a baby December 28, 2008. JESSIE NEEDS TO BE FOUND...her sisters and their children need her, I NEED HER - WE NEED HER. Jessie also has her dad & step-mom Tracy and 2 step-sisters. They both are married and one has 3 children & one has 1 child. Jessie has only met 1 of her nephews & nieces. Jessie also has her grandpa (my dad), her grandma (her dad’s mom), her step-grandpa (Jim’s dad) and her step-grandma (Tracy’s mom), numerous aunts, uncles and cousins...way to many to even try to name, for fear of missing anyone.

Jessie is a very popular person...during elementary and high school Jessie was always involved in sports, dance, work, family & friends. She has hundreds of people who know and love her who are waiting for her return and THOUSANDS of others who have come to love and pray for Jessie every day. WE NEED TO FIND JESSIE.

Thank you for your time, Glendene Grant.

ARTICLE #128) Jessie's story

Friday, August 15, 2008
Jessie's story
SOS Radio with Glendene Grant

28 minute mp3 file (begins at 11 minutes): http://www.briansdreams.com/gale/audio/cayleepart7.MP3

ARTICLE #127) Mom still searching for daughter

Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Mom still searching for daughter
National Enquirer by Sharon Ward

“I LOVE YOU—I’ll speak with you later.”

Devoted mom Glendene Grant spoke those final, heartfelt words to her beautiful daughter Jessie shortly before the young woman mysteriously disappeared.

Two years later, a devastated Glendene is still looking for Jessie Foster—refusing to give up hope that her precious daughter is still alive.

“In my heart, I don’t feel that Jessie is dead,” says Glendene, 50. “I believe she is being kept somewhere against her will—and I won’t stop until I find her.”

Jessie, the second oldest of Glendene’s four daughters, moved to Las Vegas in May 2005 to stay with a friend, Yvonne Hubrechtsen.

But Jessie, then 21, met 39-year-old Peter Todd, a friend of Yvonne’s boyfriend, and they became engaged.

“She told me that Peter had a twin brother James, who was a teacher, and that Peter was very respectable and also rich,” said Glendene, who lives in British Columbia , Canada.

“We later found that these details were all lies.”

On March 29, 2006, her family tried contacting Jessie and kept getting her voice mail.

“I started frantically calling Peter and Yvonne, but neither answered,” said glendene. “It wasn’t until April 9 that Peter finally picked up the phone when I called.

“He told me Jessie had just taken off and left him heartbroken. All of her things were gone, but she had left her hair dryer and makeup.

“I was suspicious—what woman would leave without her hair dryer and makeup? And I didn’t understand why he hadn’t reported her missing or called me.”

Deeply worried, Glendene contacted Las Vegas police. They searched Peter’s house—but found nothing.

Jessie’s father Dwight Foster hired a private detective—who came back with some very disturbing news.

“Jessie had been leading a double life as a high-class escort,” said Glendene, “I was shocked-nothing could have prepared me for that.

“But the PI also learned that she had been in the hospital many times after being beated, so it’s likely that she was being forced into the prostitution. I was devastated.”

In October 2006, Glendene and her best friend went to Vegas to hand out flyers and look for Jessie.

They also uncovered some horrifying information—Peter had allegedly been Jessie’s pimp and had a police record for spousal abuse. What’s more, his ex-wife had been arrested for prostitution, according to police.

“To me, it all made sense,” says Glendene. “Her disappearance has all the trademarks of a human-trafficking kidnapping.”

Glendene and her distraught family are still searching for their beloved daughter. There is a $50,000 reward for finding her.

“I pray that she isn’t being beaten and locked up,” says the shattered mom.

By SHARON WARD
tips@nationalenquirer.com

ARTICLE #126) Sex Crime Survivors

PICTURED: Christine

Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Sex Crime Survivors
Montel Williams Show with Montel Williams & Glendene Grant

On today’s show, we’ll revisit some of our most memorable guests who endured shocking sexual exploitation. In a MONTEL exclusive, Eller promised her daughter Tamara that no harm would ever come to her. Her worst fears were realized when her boyfriend John molested Tamara. How has it been for them since sharing their story with Montel on our show?

Glendene’s daughter wanted to travel and see the world before going to college when she went missing. Glendene hired a private investigator and they discovered she was being forced into prostitution in Las Vegas. We’ll talk to Glendene and find out the update on this case.

Eva was abducted at age 13 by a stranger who forced her into prostitution. With the past still fresh in her memory, has Eva been able to move on?

Christine was kidnapped by a couple and locked in a room where men would pay to come in and have sex with her. She has never been able to have a relationship since. How is she coping?

Brigitte Harris made headlines when she murdered her father, but her sister, Carleen, came forward on our show to shed light on the way he treated them. She claims their father would beat them and force them to have sex with him. With the trial coming up, will Brigitte be able to use this as her defense?

ARTICLE #125) Remember Jessie Always

Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Remember Jessie Always
Kamloops This Week Letter to the Editor by Glendene Grant

Editor:

My daughter, Jessie Foster, turned 24 yesterday and we had an online birthday party for her.

Jessie disappeared from Las Vegas on March 28, 2006.

Yesterday’s online event was meant to be a celebration of her life and a prayer for her return.

I have had a cause on Facebook for sometime and there are now 590 members.

I am very proud of this response, but we want to have more.

The more people who keep Jessie’s story on their lips and in their e-mails, the more likely we are to not forget her.

I have also recently started a MySpace page.

Please check them both out and pass them around.

They can be found at http://www.causes.com/myspace/causes/80137 and http://www.apps.facebook.com/causes/15201.

It takes only a minute of your time, but the support generated from it will be huge.

Of course, there is also the main site: http://www.jessiefoster.ca.

I have chosen the Polaris Project to get any money that is donated to these causes. I met Tina Frundt from the Polaris Project last year in New York when we were both on the Montel Williams Show about human trafficking.

The Polaris Project helps survivors of human trafficking recover when they are returned with their families.

Glendene Grant of Kamloops, BC Canada

ARTICLE #124) Celebrate a birthday and pray

Thursday, May 22, 2008
Celebrate a birthday and pray
The Kamloops Daily News Letter to the Editor by Glendene Grant

Jessie Foster’s 24th birthday is coming up on May 27. Let’s celebrate her life. I am having a “birthday party” for Jessie. It will be online, in hearts, in person. Wherever you live, however you want to celebrate is how I want you to do it. You can join the celebration by signing up on Facebook, MySpace, or even by signing our guest book on our website: http://www.jessiefoster.ca—I have been getting an idea from a local family in Kamloops who’s son/brother is missing I the Thompson River, and have a candlelight vigil that night. This can be done from anywhere. Please light a candle for Jessie on May 27 at 8 p.m. We will celebrate her life and pray for her return.

The more people who keep Jessie’s story on their lips and in their e-mail, the more likely were are to not have people forgetting about her.

Thank you all so very much for your love and continued support, Jessie’s mom Glendene.

GLENDENE GRANT of Kamloops, BC Canada

ARTICLE #123) Risk of human-trafficking

Friday, April 16, 2008
Risk of human-trafficking
Edmonton Sun by Glenn Kauth

Known cases in Ukraine and Las Vegas some speculated Canada

The Ukraine may be a haven for human-trafficking rings, but Canada has its own cases, says a group holding an event on the issue next week.

“There’s a concern that it’s in Canada as well,” said Luba Bell, the president of the Ukrainian Women’s Organization of Canada’s Edmonton branch.

Next Saturday, the group will host Irena Soltys, the co-chair of the Stop the Trafficking Coalition.

She’s coming from Toronto to Edmonton to build support for action against what she calls human slavery.

“It really is something that we would think in this day and age would not be an issue that we would have to contend with,” Soltys said from Toronto. “It’s almost appalling that in this century, human slavery still exists.”

Soltys’s group is particularly active in cases of women and children tricked or forced into the sex trade in the Ukraine, where a poor economy has led more than 100,000 people into exploitative situations since Communism ended.

“Mostly, it’s an economic issue – poverty that forces people to look for jobs outside their homeland, which of course sets them up as targets for trafficking,” she said. In recent years, Canada has introduced laws to crack down on trafficking, but Soltys said officials could do more. In particular, some police forces need more training on how to recognize victims.

Often, when they raid massage parlours, for example, they stop at laying bylaw charges without checking whether some people may be working there against their will, said Soltys.

Here in Edmonton, police last year said they were investigating two suspected rings believed to be part of an international network enslaving hundreds of Albertans a year. Many of them end up in the sex trade in Las Vegas, something officials there believe happened to Jessie Foster, a Calgary woman who has been missing since March 2006. Soltys hopes those cases, as well as her presentation next week, will spur Edmontonians into action on the issue.

“Canada can be a leader in this area in terms of setting the standard internationally and providing aid (to victims),” she said.

Soltys will speak next Saturday at the Ukrainian National Federation at 10629 98 St. at 7:30 p.m. Admission is by donation.

glenn.kauth@sunmedia.ca

ARTICLE #122) Body in Texas not that of Foster

Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Body in Texas not that of Foster
Kamloops This Week by Cassidy Olivier

In her heart, Glendene Grant has always believed her missing daughter, Jessie Foster, is still alive and being held against her will.

Which is why the Kamloops mother of three wasn’t too surprised Monday when she got a call informing her a DNA test proved the body of an unidentified woman found in Texas wasn’t her daughter.

Grant and her ex-husband, Dwight Foster of Calgary, provided authorities with DNA swabs four months ago to run against samples taken from the body uncovered in Kilgore, Tex. in 2006 — the same year the 21-year-old Foster (now 23) went missing from Las Vegas.

The results came up negative.

“It was good news for me,” an excited Grant told KTW. “But I never thought it was her.”

Since disappearing from Las Vegas in March 2006, Foster’s story has remained in the public’s conscious due to Grant’s tireless efforts in attracting media attention to the case.

The story has been told nationally and internationally and has been the subject on episodes of the Montel Williams and Maury Povich shows.

In each instance, Grant has reiterated her belief Foster is being held against her will by a human-trafficking ring.

Following Foster’s disappearance, Grant learned her daughter, who had maintained regular contact with her family, had previously been arrested by Las Vegas police for prostitution.

She was last seen by her boyfriend, Peter Todd, a Jamaican national authorities have labelled a pimp.

Her credit card, bank account and cellphone have not been used since.

The latest development was the result of an e-mail Grant received from a supporter last year, advising her of a story that had been featured on FOX-TV’s America’s Most Wanted.

The story was of a Jane Doe, who had been discovered in Texas.

While the corpse was severely burned, authorities had been able to construct a rough composite that bore some resemblance to Foster. Most striking, however, were the age of the deceased woman and the estimated date of her death.

Grant and Foster sent off their DNA swabs soon after.

Meanwhile, Grant said she will continue to publicize her daughter’s case and has several upcoming fundraisers planned.

She believes the last two years have not gone by in vain.

“People say things happen for a reason,” Grant said. “She [Jessie] is going to come back and her experience is going to help others.”

For updates, go online to jessiefoster.ca.

Information regarding the Texas case can be found at http://doenetwork.org/hot/hotcase539.html.

ARTICLE #121) Missing woman’s DNA fails to match in Texas

Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Missing woman’s DNA fails to match in Texas
The Kamloops Daily News by Jason Hewlett

A DNA sample provided to U.S. police by Glendene Grant did not match the DNA of an unidentified woman found in Texas in 2006.

“As I have already known in my heart, the results are negative in the DNA tests against Jane Doe…It is not Jessie,” Grant said Monday.

Grant received the good news from Lieut. Mike Claxton of the Gregg County Sheriff’s office after waiting more than two months for the results.

She took the test in January so it could be compared to the remains of a young woman discovered in Kilgore, Texas, on Oct. 29, 2006. The body was badly burned and could only be identified by DNA or dental records.

Grant’s daughter, Jessica Foster, 21, was last heard from on March 29, 2006. She was living in Las Vegas at the time and working for an escort agency.

A facial reconstruction of the woman was featured on America’s Most Wanted. Grant was alerted by friends because the image was similar to that of her daughter.

Grant believes her daughter is still alive and being held captive by a human trafficking ring in the U.S.

A $50,000 reward is being offered for information about Foster’s disappearance on a website devoted to Grant’s daughter: http://www.jessiefoster.ca.

ARTICLE #120) Mother relieved over DNA results

Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Mother relieved over DNA results
Globe and Mail by Cathryn Atkinson

The mother of missing Kamloops woman Jessie Foster, who disappeared in Las Vegas two years ago, says she is relieved to learn that her DNA did not match the remains of a woman found in Texas.

But Glendene Grant was angered by the fact that she was not told of the results by the North Las Vegas police, but by a Kamloops radio reporter pursuing the story.

"This isn't the first time it happened. [The reporter] told me he was the first person to hear outside the Texas police, but they should have told us first. I called North Las Vegas police and they confirmed it," she said.

Ms. Foster's parents reported her missing to police in North Las Vegas, where she had been living, shortly after she stopped contacting them on March 28, 2006. The family hired a private detective, who gave them the devastating news that their daughter, who had lived with her boyfriend in the city for about a year, had been leading a double life as a prostitute with a Las Vegas escort service.

Since Ms. Foster's disappearance, her cellphone and bank accounts have not been touched, and a Nevada anti-slavery group has added her to a list of women feared to have been kidnapped by human traffickers.

Meanwhile, the burned body of a young blond woman was discovered in Kilgore, 190 kilometres east of Dallas, on Oct. 29, 2006. Ms. Grant contacted police after learning about the case last January from a crime-solving program. Both she and her ex-husband, Dwight Foster, provided DNA swabs shortly afterward. She learned of the negative results yesterday.

Ms. Grant remains convinced her daughter is alive.

"I just don't know why I had to wait [three] months for what my heart told me. I am obviously relieved, but I feel I can also say 'I told you so.' The reconstruction didn't look anything like her," she said.

"I have never felt that Jesse is not alive; I am so convinced that a mother would know if their child wasn't breathing on this earth any more. Your heart and your feelings are going to tell you something that is completely different than what might make sense in your brain."
Ms. Grant said she and her husband have three bounty hunters looking for Ms. Foster, and a $50,000 reward for finding her is still in effect.

ARTICLE #119) Mother relieved over DNA results

Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Mother relieved over DNA results
Globe and Mail by Cathryn Atkinson

The mother of missing Kamloops woman Jessie Foster, who disappeared in Las Vegas two years ago, says she is relieved to learn that her DNA did not match the remains of a woman found in Texas.

But Glendene Grant was angered by the fact that she was not told of the results by the North Las Vegas police, but by a Kamloops radio reporter pursuing the story.

"This isn't the first time it happened. [The reporter] told me he was the first person to hear outside the Texas police, but they should have told us first. I called North Las Vegas police and they confirmed it," she said.

Ms. Foster's parents reported her missing to police in North Las Vegas, where she had been living, shortly after she stopped contacting them on March 28, 2006. The family hired a private detective, who gave them the devastating news that their daughter, who had lived with her boyfriend in the city for about a year, had been leading a double life as a prostitute with a Las Vegas escort service.

Since Ms. Foster's disappearance, her cellphone and bank accounts have not been touched, and a Nevada anti-slavery group has added her to a list of women feared to have been kidnapped by human traffickers.

Meanwhile, the burned body of a young blond woman was discovered in Kilgore, 190 kilometres east of Dallas, on Oct. 29, 2006. Ms. Grant contacted police after learning about the case last January from a crime-solving program. Both she and her ex-husband, Dwight Foster, provided DNA swabs shortly afterward. She learned of the negative results yesterday.

Ms. Grant remains convinced her daughter is alive.

"I just don't know why I had to wait [three] months for what my heart told me. I am obviously relieved, but I feel I can also say 'I told you so.' The reconstruction didn't look anything like her," she said.

"I have never felt that Jesse is not alive; I am so convinced that a mother would know if their child wasn't breathing on this earth any more. Your heart and your feelings are going to tell you something that is completely different than what might make sense in your brain."

Ms. Grant said she and her husband have three bounty hunters looking for Ms. Foster, and a $50,000 reward for finding her is still in effect.

ARTICLE #118) Mom relieved daughter’s DNA didn’t match body found in Texas

Monday, April 14, 2008
Mom relieved daughter’s DNA didn’t match body found in Texas
Vancouver Sun by Neal Hall

KAMLOOPS - A mother said today that her DNA sample provided to U.S. police did not match the DNA of a unidentified woman found dead in Texas in 2006, the same year the woman's daughter disappeared from Las Vegas.

"It is not Jessie, thank God," Glendene Grant said. "Nothing in my heart has ever told me she is dead."

The mother had sent a DNA swab to be used for comparison to the remains of the young woman discovered in Kilgore, Texas on Oct. 29, 2006.

The body was severely burned and can only be identified by DNA or dental records. Grant said it was good news from the Gregg County Sheriff's office in Texas.

The mother said she still believes her daughter is alive and is being held captive by a human trafficking ring in the U.S. Grant's daughter, Jessie Foster, went missing from Las Vegas on March 28, 2006.

Then 21, the former Kamloops resident had been working for an escort agency -- a fact her mother learned after her daughter. Grant hired a private detective in Las Vegas, who believes Foster is dead.

Foster twice travelled to the U.S. in 2005 after meeting a man at a party in Alberta who offered to pay for the trips.

Foster later phoned from Las Vegas and said she was moving in with her rich boyfriend, Peter Todd, who is believed to be the last person to see Foster before she disappeared.

The young woman maintained daily contact with friends and family before she disappeared.

Since she went missing, she has not used her cell phone, credit cards, or accessed her bank accounts.

A $50,000 reward is being offered for information about Foster's disappearance on a website devoted to Grant's daughter: http://www.jessiefoster.ca

nhall@png.canwest.com

ARTICLE #117) Thanks for keeping Jessie in the news

Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Thanks for keeping Jessie in the news
Kamloops This Week by Letter to the Editor from Shirley Emerson of Louisville, KY

Editor:

Thank you, Kamloops This Week, for keeping us updated on the ongoing search for Jessie Foster by her mother, Glendene Grant of Kamloops.

It means so much to all of those who care about them that you would help her to keep Jessie’s case in the mind of the public, for that is where most likely we will learn of something that may help to bring about a break in the case.

Bless you for caring and for helping.

Shirley Emerson of Louisville, Ky.

ARTICLE #116) Keep holding on

Sunday, March 30, 2008
Keep holding on
Edmonton Sun by Renato Gandia

Two years after an Alberta woman – believed to be a victim of a human-trafficking ring – went missing in Las Vegas, her mom clings to the hope she will be found alive.

“We’ve never gone through a mourning process because, myself anyway, I don’t believe that Jessie is dead,” said Glendene Grant, who spoke with Sun Media from her residence in Kamloops, B.C.

Jessie Foster disappeared on March 28, 2005. Once a straight-A student, she travelled twice to the U.S. in the spring of 2005 with a man she met at a reggae party who promised to pay the way.

She wound up meeting another man a short time later and by June was already working as a prostitute in Sin City.

Grant said Sunday she was waiting for the results of a DNA test on the burned body of a white woman discovered in Texas close to a home owned by her daughter’s boyfriend – the last person to see her alive.

Following the case has been an emotional roller coaster for the worried mom, she said. “We’re kinda getting stronger now, instead of getting weaker every day.”+

She can talk more easily about her daughter’s disappearance now, she said, but not an hour passes she doesn’t think about her.

“I’ve been given the task to be Jessie’s mom and that meant I have to care of her,” she said. “Right now, my job as Jessie’s mom is to find her.”

Before Foster disappeared she called home every day and was planning on attending her stepsister’s wedding in Calgary.

She will turn 24 on May 27 and Grant hopes she gets some positive news by then.

renato.gandia@sunmedia.ca

ARTICLE #115) Mother seeks answers: Daughter missing almost two years

Sunday, March 30, 2008
Mother seeks answers: Daughter missing almost two years
Calgary Metro News by Neil MacKinnon

It took Glendene Grant more than a year to make banana bread again; it was her daughter’s favorite.

Grant’s daughter, Jessica Foster, disappeared two years ago Saturday in Las Vegas, just four months after moving from her home in Kamloops where it is feared the former straight-A student and graduated from John Diefenbaker high school in Calgary was lured to the seedy side of the Vegas strip, working as an escort and then falling prey to a human trafficking ring.

“I wish a bad hair day, an ingrown toe nail or a whining child were my big problems again,” she said.

“And closure, while it’s a wonderful idea, and it might be healthier mentally, psychologically, it’s not going to be that way for us.”

Just over a week ago, police arrested Jason Wayne Burnette in connection with a burned body that was found in Kilgore, Texas. A reconstruction of the woman’s face by a forensic artist bears striking resemblance to the blonde, blue-eyed Foster, who was 21 when she disappeared.

In January, Grant submitted a DNA sample and has yet to hear anything back while investigating police sent out a plea to the public last week for information on the woman’s identity, leading Grant to believe it’s not her daughter.

And while Grant’s mother’s intuition gives her the sense that her daughter is still alive, she won’t rest until she gets the answers that have evaded the family.

“I just hope she’s not locked away somewhere in a basement being force-fed drugs and made to do things against her will,” Grant said.

ARTICLE #114) Two years of aguish

Sunday, March 30, 2008
Two years of aguish
Kamloops This Week by Melissa Lampman

It’s been two years since Jessie Foster disappeared. That’s 104 weeks, 731 days and 17,544 hours.

For Glendene Grant of Kamloops, each second without her daughter has been torture — but she is also fierce in her determination to find Jessie and bring her home.

March 29 marks two years since Jessie’s daily phone calls, text messages and e-mails from Las Vegas to her family in Canada abruptly stopped — and there are still no clues as to where the then-21-year-old could be after being lured by her boyfriend into the Nevada sex trade in May 2005.

“As time goes on, we get stronger,” Grant said of the family.

“If I was ever going to stop before I found Jessie, then I should never have even started.

“That would be like starting a puzzle that you knew you would never get to finish. But I think when you do start it, you just keep going and you don’t care if you only get one piece a week, one piece a month — there’s just something that keeps you going, even though you knew when you started there was a good chance it was going to be hard.

“If I was going to give up, I should have just started my mourning process two years ago and be well into it today,” she said.

“I chose not to and, therefore, it’s not a matter of do I want to keep going, it’s a matter of I have to keep going.

“I can’t let Jessie’s name, story, face or picture not be thought about or talked about for 24 hours and some people may want to call it an obsession, I call it a job to a degree.”

Grant is still firm in her belief her daughter was kidnapped and is being held against her will as part of a human-trafficking ring.

To emotionally and physically cope, Grant said she has developed two personas — one to handle the investigation aspects, the other to deal with losing her daughter.

“If every time I tried to pull some information about Jessie I broke down, I would be nowhere,” she said of her tougher side.

“But then there’s the mommy side, where I can’t hold back the tears and I think about Jessie as a little kid carrying firewood and burping and graduating and laughing.

“And those I keep a little separate from each other because I need to be able to do both and I can’t do that if I’m crying all the time.”

ARTICLE #113) Mother keeps the faith: DNA could prove fate of Jessie Foster

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

ARTICLE #112) Interview with Jessie's mom Glendene

Friday, March 28, 2008
Interview with Jessie's mom Glendene
CFUN Radio with Nikki Renshaw and Val Cole

Nikki Renshaw and Val Cole team up in the mid morning to provide a colourful commentary on life.

England native Nikki Renshaw moved to Vancouver in the 90's and began her CFUN career as a producer for the Pia Shandel show, soon after she left on maternity leave only to return years later as the host of the CFUN morning show with Nicola Crosby. Ontario native Val Cole came to CFUN three years ago from the morning show on Kiss FM.

Nikki, a wife and mother, often has opposite opinions to Val, who's single and on her way to the altar; while they never run out of issues to talk about you'll very rarely ever have them seeing eye to eye.

ARTICLE #111) Still no clues in Foster case

Thursday, March 27, 2008
Still no clues in Foster case
Calgary Sun by Tarina White

Two years after their Calgary daughter vanished in Las Vegas, there are still no clues to provide Jessie Foster's parents with renewed hope or closure.

This Saturday marks two years since Foster's daily phone calls, text messages and e-mails to her family suddenly stopped.

The 21-year-old was lured by her boyfriend into the Vegas sex trade in May 2005.

Her mom Glendene Grant still holds hope her daughter is alive, but says she just needs an answer either way.

"I'm still stuck in the not knowing," she said. "The mourning process hasn't begun if she isn't dead."

Dad Dwight Foster said even a $50,000 reward hasn't been enough to encourage those who belong to Las Vegas' seedy underworld to provide information about his daughter.

ARTICLE #110) Mother won’t stop looking for her daughter

Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Mother won’t stop looking for her daughter
Bridge River Lillooet News by Sydney Easton

Last week we ran a story about the disappearance of Jessie Foster and her mother’s efforts to find her. This is a continuation of that story.

Glendene Grant’s daughter Jessie, who disappeared two years ago, originally travelled to Los Vegas to visit a friend.

She met a man she later became engaged to named Peter Todd, who is the last person known to have seen Foster before she disappeared.

Todd, who is a British citizen but lives in the Los Vegas area, claims to know nothing about Jessie’s disappearance. He is known to the police as an individual with no legal means of support but nevertheless owns real estate worth upwards of a million dollars, has several cars and dresses in expensive clothing and valuable jewelry. He and Jessie lived together for 10 months yet he failed to report her disappearance to police.

Grant believes that Jessie was caught in a sex-trafficking ring. She disappeared just four months after moving to Las Vegas.

She found out later that Jessie had been working as a prostitute for an escort service and that she had been arrested five times on related charges.

She says that law enforcement officers don’t put forth the effort for missing sex trade workers that they do for everyone else.

Todd told Grant that Jessie’s disappearance has ruined his life, but Grant isn’t impressed. The well-to-do Todd hasn’t put forth any effort toward helping her locate her daughter and has a local reputation for being a pimp, according to Grant. Jessie was living with him and his twin brother before she disappeared.

The brother, who is a teacher in middle school for young kids, moved out two weeks after Jessie disappeared but claims he has no information.

Foster was returning to Canada for a visit, and had informed her mother on March 28/06 that she was packed and ready to go.

She had paid for one month’s car insurance so she could take her car, stored in Kamloops, to drive with her sister to Calgary. However, she never made it home. She disappeared leaving behind her hair blower and makeup, two items her mother feels Jessie would never forget.

Grant says she learned that Todd showed up at his ex-wife’s house one night from the desert. He was dirty, carried a gun and had $30,000 cash on his person.

He sold his Mercedes shortly afterward in California, and the car was never checked for blood traces. Todd has a police record for spousal abuse ad his ex-wife has been arrested in the past on prostitution charges.

Jessie has also been hospitalized because of a beating before her disappearance.

Todd has recently contacted Grant to inquire if the DNA results were in yet. Another girl associated with him was also arrested five times on prostitution charges and disappeared.

Her burnt remains were found, but no one has been arrested on charges connected to her death.

The remains of the Jane Doe, found in Kilgore, Texas on Oct 29, 2006 couldn’t be identified because the body was severely burned. But forensic experts reconstructed her face and aired the likeness on the crime-solving TV show America’s Most Wanted.

Todd Matthews, director of US based Project EDAN, which provides facial reconstructions of unidentified victims for police, said there’s a strong likeness between Foster and the reconstructed image.

“I do feel she looks like Jessie,” he said. “There are similarities in the bone structure and how the cheekbones line up.” His opinion is supported by a Florida-based certified forensic artist who volunteers for EDAN.

However, Grant feels strongly her daughter is alive somewhere, and until she gets a definitive answer, her search will continue, exploring every possibility.

Her website is http://www.jessiefoster.ca and has a complete list of all the newspapers and television shows which have featured her story.

Anyone who may have information can contact her through the site which she monitors daily. She’ll never give up her search.

There’s not a moment that goes by that I don’t think of her,” she says.

ARTICLE #109) Mother won’t stop searching for her daughter

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Mother won’t stop searching for her daughter
Bridge River Lillooet News by Sydney Easton

This article is the first of two articles about a former Lillooet resident’s search for her daughter.

Glendene Grant’s life for the past two years has been a parent’s nightmare. Her daughter Jessie disappeared and was last seen in Los Vegas on March 28, 2006 while packing for a visit home.

Grant’s pain has been aggravated by bureaucratic red tape involved with obtaining a DNA sample which may finally lead to some answers.

The former Lillooet resident now lives in Kamloops with her husband, two daughters and a granddaughter.

Her ex-husband Dwight has been trying to help Grant and her husband find their missing daughter and now there might be a break in the case.

A body was discovered in Texas which authorities believe could be Foster’s remains. The family is waiting for a DNA test which, once it is performed, will settle the question. The challenge is waiting for the test to be done.

Although Grant sent her DNA for analysis, it hasn’t yet been sent from North Las Vegas to Texas because they have not yet received Jessie’s father Dwight’s DNA.

Apparently there is only one police officer in Calgary who can swab his cheek, and he is on vacation.

Also, the Las Vegas police officer who has Grant’s DNA hasn’t yet sent the sample to Texas.

“Here in Kamloops, the test came in and before noon that day, it was done and on the way back, however, (the detective) from the North Las Vegas police had us send them to him, so he can send them to Texas, but as we can see he could not even handle that simple task,” the frustrated mother told the News in an e-mail message.

“They say there’s a 90 percent chance that it’s Jessie, but that also means there’s a ten percent chance it isn’t. Right now I feel there’s a 50-50 chance it isn’t her.”

Grant, who has five years’ experience working for a private investigator says that they’ve recreated the face of the girl found, and that experts can tell a lot from the skull, such as eyebrow arches, which reveal the sex of the deceased.

She thought the remains looked similar to her daughter, but she feels in her heart that Jessie is still alive somewhere, perhaps trapped, locked up or caught in a sex-traffic ring.

“If it does turn out to be Jessie, we move into the next stage of this search – finding the person who did this and bringing them to justice.

If it isn’t her, our investigation has just begun, but if someone murdered her, I won’t stop until I find the person who did it.”

The body of the young woman found on a stretch of highway on Oct 29, 2006 is estimated to be between the ages of 17 and 22. Her body had been severely burned.

The DNA test was requested by the North Las Vegas Police Dept. after Grant alerted them to the unsolved Texan case which aired on America’s Most Wanted Jan 12. Grant has appeared on several TV shows, such as Geraldo at Large, the Maury Show and Montel Williams.

Her story has been reported across Canada in several major newspapers ad in the Los Vegas City Life over the time her daughter was first discovered missing.

She has hired a private investigator and keeps in touch with law enforcement agencies here and in the States.

Website: http://www.jessiefoster.ca

Continued next week

ARTICLE #108) Missing Kamloops woman not ruled out in Texas death

Saturday, February 16, 2008
Missing Kamloops woman not ruled out in Texas death
The Kamloops Daily News by Jason Hewlett

B.C. TODAY - KAMLOOPS:

A Texas investigator tasked with identifying an unidentified body found along a Texas highway says police have not ruled out the possibility that is could be a missing Kamloops woman.

Despite reports to the contrary, Lieut. Mike Claxton says the charred remains, which were found in the fall of 2006, still have not been identified.

“We have not had any communication from the DNA laboratory indicating that process has been completed,” said Claxton. “If someone has been identified that has not been communicated to us here, yet.”

Claxton said he received DNA samples Wednesday from Glendene Grant the mother of 21-year-old Jessica Foster of Kamloops.

ARTICLE #107) Possible Break in Case of Missing North Las Vegas Woman

Thursday, February 7, 2008
Possible Break in Case of Missing North Las Vegas Woman
Las Vegas Now: Channel 8 Eyewitness TV News by Alyson McCarthy, Reporter

A family's long search for answers may have finally ended. The burned remains of a body found in Texas may be a North Las Vegas woman who has been missing for almost two years.

It's a sad case, but the family of 21-year-old Jessie Foster may finally get some closure. The ordeal started when for some reason the straight-a student turned to prostitution. Lured by the lights and fast life of Las Vegas, she fell into the wrong crowd, became a high-priced escort and may have eventually fallen victim to a human trafficking ring.

The beautiful blue-eyed blonde disappeared in March of 2006, just months after moving from her family's home in Canada to North Las Vegas to be with her wealthy boyfriend, Peter Todd, the man police say was the last person to see her.

Retired New York policeman Frank Mahoney heads up the non-profit Nevada Center for Missing Loved Ones -- which assists local investigators in missing persons cases. He says the Nevada Attorney General's Office forwarded him the Foster case after it received information suggesting Foster fell victim to a human trafficking ring.

About the same time, the burned body of a woman surfaced in Kilgore, Texas. Using the skeletal remains, forensic artists reconstructed the face of the unidentified woman and aired it's likeness on America's Most Wanted just last month -- an episode Mahoney just happened to be watching at home.
"It blew my mind, just blew my mind. I jumped out of bed and e-mailed her mother right away," he said.

Jessie's mother, who keeps in regular contact with Mahoney, is hopeful the Jane Doe is not her missing daughter. But like Mahoney, agrees there are many similarities.

"The teeth match, the facial features match, the physical description matches -- 90-percent sure it is her," he said.

But North Las Vegas police caution that only a DNA comparison, which is still pending, will be able to determine whether the body in Texas is really Jessie Foster.

Until then, it remains an open missing person's case.

It's not what the mother wants, of course, but at least it gives closure to the family. Then the investigation really starts for police. Foster's boyfriend, Peter Todd, denies having any knowledge of her whereabouts.

Police say he was the last person to see her and was questioned twice by investigators but he is not a suspect.

Police say there is still no evidence that any crime has been committed. But if this unidentified body does turn out to be Jessie Foster, this missing persons case will most likely turn into a homicide investigation.

Email your comments to Reporter Alyson McCarthy

ARTICLE #106) THERE'S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT JESSICA ... SHE'S MISSING: SOMETIME AFTER THE DATE MARCH 28th OF 2006 A YOUNG CANADIAN GIRL WENT MISSING

Wednesday, January 30, 2008
THERE'S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT JESSICA ... SHE'S MISSING: SOMETIME AFTER THE DATE MARCH 28th OF 2006 A YOUNG CANADIAN GIRL WENT MISSING IN LAS VEGAS
Rumor Mill News by Patriotlad

Her full name is -- Jessica Edith Louise Foster and in May of this year she will turn twenty-four: Then again, perhaps not: no member of her family has heard from her, by telephone or other means, nor has she been seen since March of 2006. In a long interview with Rumor Mill News, Jessica's mother provided a
fairly thorough account of what this young woman was like, growing up in a modest home in western Canada ... with three sisters.

Her story was the story of a fine young teen-ager, a gal who got herself a job at fifteen, who worked hard, who was a blessing to have around the house, and who is missed by her sisters. Perhaps it is fair to say that Jessica was not exactly the intellectual type, but she was the type who could make close friends and keep them, who was bubbly and kind.

No one has heard from her in almost two full years: not her mother and step-father, not her father and step-mother, not her friends; she simply seems to have vanished from around North Las Vegas, Nevada.

Worse yet, the authorities there seem not to be overly concerned about her disappearance, as her anxious mother tells it. Then again, in the Las Vegas and North Las Vegas area, some two hundred people go missing almost every week of the year. These cities could easily keep an entire squad of detectives busy doing nothing more than investigating these missing person reports and chasing down leads. Maybe they should. But they can't, they don't.

Jessica and Colleen B in Las Vegas. Colleen is the only person who ever visited her in Las Vegas and the only person to meet Peter Todd and his twin brother James. The brothers and Jessica lived together at 1009 Cornerstone Place, in North Las Vegas.

Curiously ... James moved out of the house two weeks after Jessica Foster disappeared. He says he knows nothing about what Peter did for a living, but some folks believe that he knows. James is a school teacher in North Las Vegas, and one might think that lots of people around there are bothered by his close connection to what is possibly his brother's suspicious, if not overtly criminal, behaviour.

Rumor Mill News has taken a special interest in this case, which is unfortunately very similar to other cases of 'girls gone missing.' We wish most fervently that we had the cash and the brainpower to tackle all of the cases that are like this one, and we've heard a lot about many of them from our valued readers. We wish we had our own detective agency and a private air force to shuttle our investigators around, to help find and return the many, many young women who've gone missing in these past few years, since Chandra Levy, and since Natalee Holloway .... But we don't ....

Still, we have you, our valued readers, and with the help of some decent luck -- perhaps we will be able to assist in this case, which is entirely as puzzling as
hundreds of other disappearances we've heard about in the past few years.

This link connects to the http://www.jessiefoster.ca missing person site created by her loving parents and step-parents.

Still Missing After Almost Two Years ~ Jessica Foster
January 31, 2008

http://www.rayelan.com/cgi-bin/members/ ... ?read=3030
Members Area - RMN Readers' Room
My Missing Daughter, JESSIE FOSTER
Posted By: JessiesMomGlendene
Date: Thursday, 31 January 2008, 1:37 p.m.

The story written about my daughter's disappearance by Patriotlad -- Wednesday, 30 January 2008, 1:25 a.m.

Here is the LINK: http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/fo ... ead=117886 - THANK YOU for bringing Jessie's story to your website, I appreciate it very much. Please visit our website listed here, for more information on my daughter disappearance.

Jessie is a victim of human trafficking. She needs to be found and brought home, no matter what. We used to think we NEEDED to find her alive and bring her home safe, now we realise that she NEEDS desperately to come home even if she is not alive.

Jessie's case is being investigated as an Endangered Missing Person by North Las Vegas, NV where she was living and went missing; by ATLAS (Anti-Trafficking League Against Trafficking, the Human Trafficking task force in Las Vegas) who believes there are "many human trafficking indicators in Jessie's case" and are looking into the connection to a Human Trafficking Ring; by the Serious Crimes Division RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Kamloops, BC where I live); and in Edmonton, AB Canada, they are investigating the possible link to Jessie and a Human Trafficking Ring up there. They all think she has been a victim, but there is not enough proof so it is just sitting there, waiting for tips, etc.

Right now, we are waiting for the results of my DNA sample to be compared to a Jane Doe found in Texas in October. Her face was reconstructed and many people thought it could be Jessie. I am not sure - I say, to be realistic, there is a 50% chance it is and a 50% chance it is not Jessie. We HOPE & PRAY it is NOT Jessie.

There is so much more to this story...email me for more info, go to our website or Google: Missing Jessie Foster or even Google me: Glendene Grant (with my unusual name, it brings up lots of my daughter's stories).

Thank you for reading and please feel free to contact me, and if you go to our website: http://www.jessiefoster.ca, please sign the guest book. I will reply to you myself.

Sincerely, Jessie's Mom Glendene.

ARTICLE #105) Results of Grant’s DNA test expected this week

Monday, January 28, 2008
Results of Grant’s DNA test expected this week
The Kamloops Daily News by Jason Hewlett

It will be a matter of days before results of a DNA swab test let Glendene Grant know if a body found in Texas is her missing daughter.

“The sooner it gets done, the better,” Grant said Sunday.

She took the test Friday morning at the Kamloops RCMP City detachment. An investigator with the Serious Crime Unit took two swab samples from her right cheek and two from the left.

The swabs were sent to a university in the United States. Grant was told it could be two days or more before the results come back.

Grant’s daughter, Jessica Foster, 21, was last heard from March 29, 2006. She was living in Las Vegas at the time and may have been caught in a sex-trafficking ring.

The body of the woman was found badly burned on a stretch of highway Oct. 29, 2006. It’s believed she’s between the ages of 17 and 22.

A facial reconstruction of the woman was recently featured on America’s Most Wanted. Grant was alerted by friends because the image was similar to that of her daughter.

Grant said while the photo has similarities to Foster, she doesn’t believe they’re a match.

A kit was also sent to Foster’s father in Calgary.

ARTICLE #104) Could Jessie Foster be Jane Doe? KAMLOOPS: Forensic artist 90% sure it’s her; missing woman’s mom awaits DNA test

Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Could Jessie Foster be Jane Doe? KAMLOOPS: Forensic artist 90% sure it’s her; missing woman’s mom awaits DNA test
The (Vancouver) Province by Cheryl Chan

Jessie’s timeline
MAY 2005: Jessie Foster moves to Las Vegas
NOVEMBER 2005: Foster goes back to Kamloops to visit her family for the holidays.
DEC. 25, 2005: Her family drives her to the airport for her 3 p.m. flight back to Las Vegas.
MARCH 28, 2006: Foster was last seen alive in north Las Vegas with her boyfriend Peter Todd. Her credit cards and bank account have not been touched since.

The mother of a missing Kamloops woman is clinging to hope offered by a DNA test, despite a forensic artist’s opinion that her daughter’s facial features match the reconstructed image of an unidentified woman found dead in Texas.

“My heart doesn’t accept she’s dead,” said Glendene Grant, 50, from her Kamloops home yesterday. “Moms might not know everything, but if your child is not alive your heart would know.”

Her daughter, 23-year-old Jessie Foster, disappeared in March 2006, four months after moving to Las Vegas. Grant found out later that Jessie had been working as a prostitute for an escort service.

The DNA test was requested by the North Las Vegas Police Department after Grant alerted them to the unsolved Texan case, which aired on American’s Most Wanted on Jan. 12.

The remains of the Jane Doe, found in Kilgore, Tex. on Oct. 29, 2006, couldn’t be identified because the body was severely burned. But forensic experts reconstructed her face ad aired it on the crime-solving television show.

The mouth-swab DNA test kit from the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas should come in the mail any day now, said Grant.

“I need to have proof, and I guess the DNA will prove it one way or the other,” she said.
Her ex-husband and Foster’s dad, Dwight Foster, who lives in Calgary, will also provide a DNA sample.

Todd Matthews, director of U.S.-based Project EDAN, which provides facial reconstructions of unidentified victims for police, said there is a strong likeness between Foster and the reconstructed image.

“I do feel she looks like Jessie,” he said. “There are similarities in the bone structure and how the cheekbones line up.”

His opinion is supported by a Florida-based certified forensic artist who volunteers for EDAN.

The artist did a side-by-side comparison of the two photos and analyzed features including the hairline, the angle of her jaw, and the width of mouth and nostrils and concluded there is a 90-per-cent chance the charred remains of the Texas Jane Doe is Foster.

“It’s not definitive but there is a very good probability,” said Matthews.

Grant admits she may have “mental blocks” when it comes to comparing the photos, but said she sees more differences than similarities.

“This girl has really beautiful straight teeth just like Jessie,” she said.

But Foster, at five foot six, is at least two inches taller than the other girl, said Grant.

The Jane Doe also has a rounder face, with wider cheek bones and more Hispanic features, she added.

Grant believes her daughter is caught up in a human trafficking ring. She has created the website http://www.jessiefoster.ca and spends hours every day trying to track down leads. A $50,000 reward is being offered for information about Foster’s whereabouts.

“I believe she’s alive,” said the hopeful mom. “That’s why I’m relying on having the DNA prove it one way or the other.”

chchan@png.canwest.com

ARTICLE #103) DNA tests in Foster case: City woman vanished in 2006

Wednesday, January 23, 2008
DNA tests in Foster case: City woman vanished in 2006
Kamloops This Week by Cassidy Olivier

It’s already been a long week for Glendene Grant, one filled with late nights and long hopes.

In response to the latest developments in the case of her missing daughter, Jessie Foster, Grant, a mother of three, has been busy updating files and web pages as well as doing the customary round of media interviews.

It has bee the same ever since Foster, then 21, went missing from Las Vegas in March 2006.

The newest development came earlier this week when Grant learned American authorities had agreed to send a DNA kit to the Kamloops RCMP detachment as part of an ongoing investigation into an unidentified body found in late 2006 in Kilgore, Tex., east of Dallas.

The Kilgore case had been featured on Fox’s America’s Most Wanted a few weeks ago and Grant followed up, contacting local Mounties, then the North Las Vegas Police Department, believing it was worth looking into.

While the remains of the female body were badly burned, investigators have been able to construct a rough composite that bore some resemblance to Foster – most notable the age and estimated date of death.

But even though Grant doesn’t think the body is that of her missing daughter, the pending DNA results will provide further weight to her ongoing search.

Both Grant and her ex-husband, Dwight Foster, will provide samples.

“I really don’t think it is her,” said Foster. “I really looked at [the composite] with scrutiny. We saw some similarities, but we saw a lot of great differences.”

Foster, who always maintained regular contact with her family, suddenly stopped calling in March 2006 while living in Las Vegas with her boyfriend, Peter Todd, a man authorities have labeled a pimp.

While many have feared the worst, Grant has always maintained the belief her daughter had fallen victim to a human trafficking ring and is currently being held against her will.

Since her disappearance, Foster’s story has been told nationally, being the subject of prominent television programs, including The Montel Williams and The Maury Povich Show.

For updates, visit http://www.jessiefoster.ca. Information regarding the Texas case can be found at http://doenetwork.org/hot/hotcase539.html.

ARTICLE #102) ‘In my heart of hearts I don’t believe it’s Jessie’

Wednesday, January 23, 2008
‘In my heart of hearts I don’t believe it’s Jessie’ The Kamloops Daily News by Catherine Litt

It has been a busy couple of days for Kamloops mother Glendene Grant.

Her telephone has been ringing steadily with calls from radio, newspaper and TV reporters from across Canada, all seeking the latest information about her missing daughter, Jessie Foster.

“That was just CBC on the phone,” said Grant, pausing Tuesday to check an incoming call.

“It’s been non-stop.”

There has been renewed interest in her story ever since news came this week about a possible break in her daughter’s missing person case – that a body found in Texas shortly after Jessie disappeared could in fact be hers.

“In my heart of hearts I don’t believe it’s Jessie,” said Grant, whose 21-year-old daughter was last seen in Las Vegas in the spring of 2006.

But police say there are similarities between Jessie’s case and the body of an unidentified young woman found badly burned alongside a highway in Kilgore, Texas, about seven months after Jessie disappeared.

And they want to collect DNA samples from Grant and Jessie’s biological father to see if the DNA matches what was collected from the body.

“There are some similarities in the vital statistics of each one of these girls,” said Lt. Mike Claxton of the Gregg County Sheriff’s department. “…and some slight similarities in distinction characteristics that we’re looking at to see if we can match the identity of Miss Foster with the unidentified white female.”

The unidentified body, said Claxton, belongs to a Caucasian female of similar age, height and hair colour to Foster, which is enough of a connection for police to seek DNA confirmation.

For Grant, who has been through this before when police found two bodies in the Nevada desert a year ago, the anxiety is all too familiar, although she says she is coping better this time around.

“Panicking and crying and worrying is not helping us,” she said.

So Grant said she is trying to maintain a sense of calm until she gets confirmation about the body in Texas.

She said she won’t mourn her daughter until she knows for sure she is dead, which she doesn’t believe is the case.

Instead, Grant believes her daughter is trapped in a sex trafficking operation and is alive somewhere. Investigators told her they suspect Jessie was possibly involved in sex trafficking before she disappeared from Las Vegas.

In the meantime, she continues to field calls from the media, waiting and hoping that one day the attention paid to her story will lead her to her daughter’s discovery.

ARTICLE #101) Mother of missing Kamloops woman providing DNA for search

Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Mother of missing Kamloops woman providing DNA for search
Vancouver Sun by Neal Hall

KAMLOOPS - A mother plans to provide a DNA sample to U.S. police to make sure a young women found in Texas in 2006 is not her missing daughter, who disappeared from Las Vegas the same year.

"The height and weight are the same," Glendene Grant of Kamloops explained Monday about the remains of the young woman discovered on Oct. 29, 2006 in Kilgore, Texas.

The remains are unidentified because the body was severely burned and can only be identified by DNA or dental records, she said.

Grant's daughter, Jessie Foster, 23, went missing from Las Vegas on March 28, 2006. The former Boston Pizza waitress in Kamloops had been working for an escort agency, her mother learned after her daughter went missing.

"I don't believe it's Jessie," Grant said of the unsolved Texas case.

She believes her daughter is still alive and is being kept hidden by a human trafficking ring.

Jessie, 21 when she disappeared, twice travelled to the U.S. in 2005 after meeting a man at a party in Alberta who offered to pay for the trips.

Foster later phoned from Las Vegas and said she was moving in with her rich boyfriend, Peter Todd, who is believed to be the last person to see Jessie before she disappeared.

Grant said her former husband, Dwight Foster of Calgary, also plans to give a DNA sample to assist police investigating the Texas case.

Jessie maintained daily contact with friends and family before she disappeared. Since she went missing, she has not used her cell phone, credit cards, or accessed her bank accounts.

The case has been featured on a number of U.S. TV programs, including Geraldo Rivera, the Maury Povich show and Montel Williams.

A $50,000 reward is being offered for information about Foster's disappearance on a website devoted to Grant's daughter: http://www.jessiefoster.ca. A reconstructed composite image of the young woman found in Texas can be found on the website: http://doenetwork.org/hot/hotcase539.html.

nhall@png.canwest.com

ARTICLE #100) FOSTER CASE POTENTIAL BREAKTHROUGH-Parents of missing woman to give DNA samples

Tuesday, January 22, 2008
FOSTER CASE POTENTIAL BREAKTHROUGH-Parents of missing woman to give DNA samples: Remains of Jane Doe found in Texas to be compared with 23-year-old from Kamloops who disappeared in Las Vegas in 2006
Special to The Globe and Mail by Cathryn Atkinson

The parents of Jessie Foster, a Kamloops woman who disappeared in Las Vegas in 2006, have been asked to provide DNA samples to test against the remains of an unidentified woman found in Texas nearly 15 months ago.

Ms. Foster's mother, Glendene Grant, said two people who were aware of her daughter's disappearance contacted her after the Texas "Jane Doe" case was featured on the television show America's Most Wanted on Jan. 12.

The burned remains of the woman, a blonde like Ms. Foster, were found in the town of Kilgore, 160 kilometres east of Dallas, on Oct. 29, 2006. Careful forensic reconstruction of the victim allowed the case to appear on the crime-solving program.

Ms. Grant called Kamloops RCMP, who sent a constable to go over the forensic information provided by the program. He concluded there was a possibility of a match worth looking into. Ms. Grant contacted the North Las Vegas police department, which is leading the investigation into Ms. Foster's disappearance, and the department requested the test.

"I don't care how far-fetched the lead might be. I sent it to the police and let them determine what to do with it, and they told us we had to do a DNA test.

We'll get that done and go from there," she said.

Ms. Grant said she and her former husband, Dwight Foster, Ms. Foster's father who lives in Calgary, are awaiting buccal swab DNA test kits to arrive from the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas in Fort Worth.

The tests will be administered by Kamloops and Calgary RCMP and returned to the university. A result is expected to take several weeks. "This person has beautiful teeth, like Jessie, and the height and the weight are very close, but I really thought it stopped there," Ms. Grant said. "They have this girl's DNA on record so all they have to do is get to our DNA and compare them."

Ms. Foster's parents reported her missing to police in Las Vegas, where she had been living, shortly after she stopped contacting them in March, 2006. The family hired a private detective who, after a short search, gave them the devastating news that their daughter - who would be 23 now if still alive - had been leading a double life by prostituting herself through a Las Vegas escort service.

The family are offering a $50,000 reward for information on Ms. Foster's disappearance. The case is also the subject of a state-wide investigation in human trafficking in Nevada.

Ms. Grant said she will be relieved to have family DNA on record in the United States after first offering to provide a sample shortly after her daughter disappeared.

"I'm happy any time we get anything that gets [the police and U.S. media] thinking about Jessie's case again," she said.

"I've said that I believe that she is alive, but there is a small chance that she is not. This far into it there won't be a whole lot we can go on besides DNA. It will be the only thing that can prove it to me."

ARTICLE #99) DNA kits going to missing woman's family

Tuesday, January 22, 2008
DNA kits going to missing woman's family
Edmonton Sun by Canadian Press

KAMLOOPS, B.C. -- The parents of a missing Kamloops woman are being sent DNA swab kits to determine whether a burnt body found in Texas is that of their daughter.

Jessica Foster disappeared in Las Vegas two years ago after meeting a man at a party.

A facial reconstruction of a young woman was recently featured on America's Most Wanted.

Foster's mother, Glendene Grant, was alerted by friends that the image was similar to that of her daughter.

Grant said while the photo has similarities to Foster, she doesn't believe they're a match.


"The girl in the reconstruction, you know, she does have very beautiful teeth, and Jessie has always had very beautiful teeth," she said.

"So I contacted the police with this, and they contacted Texas, and now Texas is sending up DNA kits."

A kit is also being sent to Foster's father in Calgary.

Foster was last heard from March 29, 2006. The body of the woman featured on America's Most Wanted was found Oct. 29, 2006, badly burned alongside a highway in Kilgore, Texas. It's believed she's aged 17 to 22.

Authorities suspect Foster, who was 21 when she disappeared, may have been caught in a sex-trafficking ring.

Grant and ex-husband Dwight Foster hired a private investigator who found out the former straight-A student had travelled to the U.S. with a man she met at a reggae party.

Despite not having contact with her daughter for nearly two years, Grant still remains hopeful.

"I believe Jessie's alive with all my heart," she said. "But on the other hand, it's been almost two years and I'm realistic. I do understand."

ARTICLE #98) DNA kits en route to woman's family

Tuesday, January 22, 2008
DNA kits en route to woman's family
Calgary Sun by Canadian Press

KAMLOOPS, B.C. -- The parents of a missing Calgary woman are being sent DNA swab kits to determine whether a burnt body found in Texas is that of their daughter.

Jessica Foster disappeared in Las Vegas two years ago after meeting a man at a party.

A facial reconstruction of a young woman was recently featured on America's Most Wanted.

Foster's mother, Glendene Grant, of Kamloops, B.C., was alerted by friends the image was similar to that of her daughter.

Grant said while the photo has similarities to Foster, she doesn't believe they're a match.


"The girl in the reconstruction, you know, she does have very beautiful teeth, and Jessie has always had very beautiful teeth," she said.

"So I contacted the police with this, and they contacted Texas, and now Texas is sending up DNA kits."

A kit is also being sent to Foster's father in Calgary.

Foster was last heard from March 29, 2006. The body of the woman featured on America's Most Wanted was found Oct. 29, 2006.

It was found badly burned alongside a highway in Kilgore, Tex.

It's believed she's between the ages of 17 and 22.

Authorities suspect Foster, who was 21 when she disappeared, may have been caught in a sex-trafficking ring.

Grant and ex-husband Dwight Foster hired a private investigator who found out the former straight-A student had travelled to the U.S. with a man she met at a reggae party. Despite not having contact with her daughter for nearly two years, Grant still remains hopeful.

"I believe Jessie's alive with all my heart," she said. "But on the other hand, it's been almost two years and I'm realistic. I do understand."

In April, Grant travelled to New York to appear on the Montel Williams show in an attempt to generate interest in her daughter's case.

ARTICLE #97) Cash aims to spur response in missing-woman case: Family offers $50,000 reward with the hope of tracking down daughter who disappeared

Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Cash aims to spur response in missing-woman case: Family offers $50,000 reward with the hope of tracking down daughter who disappeared in Las Vegas nearly two years ago
Special to The Globe and Mail by Cathryn Atkinson

The family of a Kamloops woman who disappeared in Las Vegas almost two years ago is hoping a $50,000 reward for information on her whereabouts will trigger a response from those who knew her at the time she went missing.

Glendene Grant, the mother of 23-year-old Jessie Foster, said she hoped the money would create the sort of leads that will help recover her daughter. The reward had previously been $10,000.

Ms. Foster's parents reported her missing to police in North Las Vegas, where she had been living, shortly after she stopped contacting them in March, 2006.

The family hired a private detective who, after a short search, gave them the devastating news that their daughter had been leading a double life by prostituting herself through a Las Vegas escort service.

Ms. Grant's former husband, Dwight Foster, who is Ms. Foster's father, raised the money from adding a mortgage to his home in Calgary.

"He just stepped up to the plate. He doesn't know what else to do. He doesn't know how to be an investigator," Ms. Grant said. "We were talking on the phone just before Christmas when he offered to do it. I'm so grateful. It was a wonderful Christmas present to his daughter."

Ms. Grant said that raising the amount from $10,000 to $50,000 would mean that Ms. Foster's story would get a higher profile in the Nevada Crime Stoppers program.

"The media pickup over the last week or so has been good," Ms. Grant said. "I think $50,000 is enough to catch the Las Vegas media attention. I hope it's enough, because I don't want to wait any longer for news of her, but if it's not enough I will go higher."

Ms. Grant said she last saw her daughter over the Christmas holiday in 2005, when Ms. Foster had come home to visit the family. They had had no idea that anything was wrong in her life.

Ms. Foster, said her mother, spoke to either family or friends every day until March 28, 2006, when all contact suddenly ceased. Since then, she has not accessed her cellphone, or used her credit cards or bank accounts.

The second oldest of four sisters, Ms. Foster, a straight-A student in high school, worked at Boston Pizza in Kamloops and later lived with her father in Calgary before starting what was supposed to be a short tour of the United States. Her mother said she had planned to go to college on her return.

Instead, Ms. Foster called her mother and said she had met a rich man and fallen in love. North Las Vegas police said that the man, 39-year-old Peter Todd, had been previously arrested for spousal abuse and had an ex-wife who had been arrested for prostitution.

Police twice interviewed Mr. Todd in 2006, and he told them Ms. Foster had moved out of the home they had shared several days after her last call home. No evidence has surfaced to show that she had either left town or met a violent end, and Mr. Todd is not considered a suspect in the case.

Ms. Foster's disappearance was added to the ATLAS (Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery) human trafficking investigation, which began last year in Nevada. The investigation incorporates police work on missing persons in major cities across the state.

"They told me that Jessie's case had many indicators of human trafficking and that now they were going to add her information to their work, which is part of a covert operation. So I will not expect to hear anything more from them about it until something major happens," Ms. Grant said.

Added to Ms. Grant's difficulties in trying to keep up with an investigation into a missing child across international borders is that she is now no longer allowed to enter the United States to meet detectives or missing-persons groups because of a 25-year-old conviction for marijuana possession.

She had previously visited the United States without difficulty, but tightening homeland security rules brought her conviction to light.

Ms. Grant was first refused entry into the United States in May and again in November. She can apply to have her conviction removed, but said it costs hundreds of dollars and she wanted every penny spent on the search for her daughter.

She also discovered recently that Ms. Foster's closest friend in Las Vegas, Yvonne Hubrechtsen, was arrested in Vancouver on Dec. 16 and deported after entering Canada illegally. Ms. Grant said Ms. Hubrechtsen had refused to speak to her by phone, and she thought that police could have gained useful information about Ms. Foster's disappearance from her.

"I would have loved to speak to Yvonne," Ms. Grant said. "She was a person of interest because she was the only other person that Jessie knew down there that I knew of. You'd think people who were her friends would be at the top of the list of people wanting to help instead of avoiding us."

Ms. Grant wants to tell her daughter all the family news she has missed in 21 months, including the fact that Ms. Foster's beloved uncle died last year.

And on Boxing Day came some good news Ms. Grant desperately wants to share with her: Ms. Foster's younger sister, Jennee, gave birth to a little girl, who has been called Maddison Louise, and has been given the same middle name as Ms. Foster.

ARTICLE #96) Where Are They Now? Jessie’s mom still hopes daughter will be found

Friday, December 28, 2007
Where Are They Now? Jessie’s mom still hopes daughter will be found
Kamloops This Week by Cassidy Olivier

Christmas was always Jessie Foster’s favorite holiday.

That’s why her mother, Glendene Grant, knew it was going to be hard to get out of bed on Tuesday and face another holiday season without her daughter.

Foster, a Kamloops woman, went missing in March 2006 at the age of 21 while living in Las Vegas with her boyfriend, who was rumoured to be a pimp.

Despite various possible sightings and other potential leads, no one has heard from Foster since.

But while knowing Christmas would pose its challenges, Grant isn’t about to let the uncertainties about her daughter’s whereabouts get her down during the season.

Whether it’s Christmas or just another day, Grant continues to get out of bed in the morning with the same optimism that has seen her through the last 20 months.

And as with every day since Foster was last heard from, Grant will continue doing what she can to find her daughter – be it by organizing another fundraiser or posting another update on the Jessie Foster website at jessiefoster.ca.

“I find the longer this goes on, the stronger I get,” Grant said.

“Until they have proved she is not alive…then that only leave her being help against her will.”

Grant, like many following Foster’s case, believes her daughter has fallen victim to a human-trafficking ring and is being held against her will.

After months of being in the hands of the North Las Vegas Police Department, Foster’s case was picked up by a special U.S. task force familiar with human-trafficking rings.

But despite this and the overwhelming media attention the case has received – Foster’s story has been the subject of a Montel Williams Show and has been featured in several domestic and international newspapers – little headway has been made.

The family has raised tens of thousands for a reward for information leading to Foster’s whereabouts, with ongoing community fundraisers looking to boost that amount even more.

“I don’t really focus on anything that is negative,” Grant said.

“I can’t ask for things to be pulled out of the air. Even if the tips are far and few between, they are still coming.”

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

ARTICLE #94) 2007 the year in review - That was then, this is now - Remember that one? Here’s how it turned out (usually badly)

Thursday, December 27, 2007
2007 the year in review - That was then, this is now - Remember that one? Here’s how it turned out (usually badly)
Las Vegas CityLife by Matt O’Brien

A new year is just around the corner, which means it’s a good time to look back in sober reflection before the inevitable bout of alcohol toxicity poisoning that’s just around the corner on New Year’s Eve. Before we do that, however, let’s check in with a few stories you read about this year in CityLife, and see how they turned out.

“Where’s Jessie?” Feb. 1

The story: In November 2005, North Las Vegas resident Jessie Foster flew home to Kamloops, British Columbia, to visit her family. On Christmas Day, the family drove her to the airport, where she caught an afternoon flight back to Vegas.

It was the last time the family ever saw Jessie.

On March 28, 2006, her older sister, Crystal talked to her on the phone. No one in the family has talked to her since. Her cell phone hasn’t been used. Her credit cards haven’t been used. She hasn’t made any transactions at the bank.

On April 9, Jessie’s mom, Glendene Grant, got in touch with Jessie’s live-in boyfriend. He told her Jessie had left him in early April and he hadn’t seen or heard from her since. According to a North Las Vegas Police Department report, an officer went to the boyfriend’s house that day and asked him about Jessie. About a week later, he was questioned at the police department.

In mid-April, Grant and her husband, Dwight Foster, hired a private investigator, who found out Jessie had been arrested multiple times for prostitution, under the name of Jessie Taylor. He also told her parents he thought their daughter was dead.

Frustrated with law enforcement, Grant and Foster visited Las Vegas in January 2007. They met with Mike Hope, director of Crime Stoppers of Nevada, and North Las Vegas Police Department detective Dave Molnar, who was assigned Jessie’s case. They also handed out missing-person posters on the strip.

Eventually, they left Las Vegas with more questions than answers.

The update: Grant and Foster still don’t know exactly what happened to their daughter.

After the CityLife story was published, there were reported sightings of Jessie. A bounty hunter offered his services to the family. And so did another private investigator. And Grant shared Jessie’s story on the Montel Williams Show.

“I’m glad that Jessie’s case is still in the news,” said Grant. “However, I wish it was more on the level of Natalee Holloway’s case. I understand that the cases are different and that the United States government is going to make a big deal over a young girl going to another country and going missing, but keep quiet a young girl going to its country and going missing. Nonetheless, it seems unfair.”

Grant is also frustrated with the North Las Vegas Police Department – which didn’t return phone calls from CityLife. She says officers have ignored information on the case that the family has provided.

“We just want to find Jessie,” said Grant. “We used to say, ‘Let’s find Jessie and bring her home safe.’ But almost two years into this, it doesn’t really matter if she’s safe or not. We just need to find her and bring her home. We just need some answers.”

MATT O’BRIEN

ARTICLE #93) Jessie Foster reward upped to $50,000

Thursday, December 27, 2007
Jessie Foster reward upped to $50,000
The Kamloops Daily News by Jason Hewlett

The reward for information leading to Jessie Foster’s whereabouts has been raised from $10,000 to $50,000 in hopes of generating more interest in the missing woman’s case.

Glendene Grant said Thursday the extra $40,000 is being put up by Jessie’s father, Dwight Foster, and will be offered through Crime Stoppers.

“We hope to entice more information about what happened to Jessie and $50,000 is the next best step,” Grant said, adding her former common-law husband’s plan is to shore up the funds through equity on his Calgary home.

“If need be, it’ll go up even higher.”

The family upped the reward after learning that a woman who may have information on Jessie’s disappearance seems to have slipped through the fingers of Canadian authorities.

Grant has been trying to speak to American Yvonne Hubrechtsen – an alleged sex-trade worker – since Jessie went missing.

Jessie gave her mom Hubrechtsen’s number as a contact number after moving to Vegas, but Grant never needed to use it until she lost contact with her daughter.

When Grant eventually tried the number, the woman who answered refused to co-operate.

“I have never been able to talk to her,” Grant said.

Then she learned through the media that Hubrechtsen had been living in Vancouver until authorities arrested and deported her back to the states on Dec. 19.

Vancouver police arrested Hubrechtsen on a Canada Border Services warrant for having illegally entered the country by not revealing her criminal record.

Grant is convinced Hubrechtsen, 22, is part of a group of acquaintances that brought her daughter to Vegas with promises of a lavish lifestyle, then forced her into a prostitution ring.

Jessie was 21 when she went missing in March 2006. Once a straight-A student, she traveled to the U.S. in the spring of 2005 with a man she met at a party who promised to pay the way.

She wound up meeting another man, Peter Todd, a pimp, a short time later and ended up in the sex trade.

Todd has told investigators he has no idea where Jessie is.

For more information, go online at http://www.jessiefoster.ca.

ARTICLE #92) Reward up to $50G

Monday, December 24, 2007
Reward up to $50G
Edmonton Sun by Cary Castagna

It’s not nearly as heartwarming as having her missing daughter home for the holidays, but Glendene Grant calls it a “wonderful Christmas present.”

The reward for information leading to Jessie Foster’s whereabouts has been raised from $10,000 to $50,000, Grant told Sun Media yesterday.

The extra $40,000 is being put up by Foster’s father, Dwight Foster, and will be offered through Crime Stoppers.

“This is such a wonderful Christmas present to Jessie from her daddy,” Grant said from her Kamloops, B.C., home, explaining her former common-law husband’s plane to shore up the funds through equity on his Calgary home and other assets.

“It’s quite a jump. If need be, it’ll go higher.”

Foster, as Alberta woman missing since March 2006, is believed to be the victim of a human-trafficking ring that landed her in Vegas’s seedy underbelly.

Once a straight-A student, Foster travelled twice to the U.S. in the spring of 2005 with a man she met at a reggae party who promised to pay the way.

She wound up meeting another man a short time later and by June was already working as a prostitute in Sin City.

Foster, who has several relatives in Edmonton, returned north of the border later that fall to visit her parents.

But on the morning of Dec. 25, 2005, Foster – then 21 years old – said she needed a ride to the airport because she had to go back to Vegas immediately, Grant recalled.

That Christmas was the last time she saw her daughter.

“This time of the year is especially tough,” she added.

Grant, who believes her 23-year-old daughter is still alive, has no doubt that she’ll eventually find her.

The heartbroken mom is hopeful that the $50,000 reward will help loosen someone’s lips.

“I sure hope so. Money talks,” she said. “The more we offer, the more likely someone’s going to come forward.”

“It’s really hard. I don’t know what to think anymore. I don’t know where else to turn.”

Dwight Foster couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday on the beefed-up reward.

Meanwhile, as Sun Media reported yesterday, Grant is trying to contact Yvonne Hubrechtsen, a friend of Foster’s who was in Vancouver prior to being arrested and deported back to the U.S. on Wednesday.

Hubrechtsen, 22, was taken into custody on a Canada Border Services warrant for not revealing her criminal record when she entered Canada, according to media reports.

Grant believes Hubrechtsen was part of the group of acquaintances that lured Foster to Vegas with promises of a lavish lifestyle and may have information on her disappearance.

cary.castagna@sunmedia.ca

ARTICLE #91) Jessie Foster's father adds $40, 000 to the initial offer: Missing woman's father puts house up as equity

Sunday, December 23, 2007
Jessie Foster's father adds $40, 000 to the initial offer: Missing woman's father puts house up as equity
Edmonton Sun by Cary Castagna

It’s not nearly as heartwarming as having her missing daughter home for the holidays, but Glendene Grant calls it a “wonderful Christmas present.”

The reward for information leading to Jessie Foster’s whereabouts has been raised from $10,000 to $50,000, Grant told Sun Media Sunday.

The extra $40,000 is being put up by Foster’s father, Dwight Foster, and will be offered through Crime Stoppers.

“This is such a wonderful Christmas present to Jessie from her daddy,” Grant said from her Kamloops, B.C., home, explaining her former common-law husband’s plan to shore up the funds through equity on his Calgary home and other assets.

“It’s quite a jump. If need be, it’ll go up even higher.”

Foster, an Alberta woman missing since March 2006, is believed to be the victim of a human-trafficking ring that landed her in Las Vegas’s seedy underbelly.

Once a straight-A student, Foster travelled twice to the U.S. in the spring of 2005 with a man she met at a reggae party who promised to pay the way.

She wound up meeting another man a short time later and by June was already working as a prostitute in Sin City.

Foster, who has several relatives in Edmonton, returned north of the border later that fall to visit her parents.

But on the morning of Dec. 25, 2005, Foster – then 21 years old – said she needed a ride to the airport because she had to go back to Vegas immediately, Grant recalled.

That Christmas was the last time she saw her daughter.

“This time of year is especially tough,” she added.

Grant, who believes her 23-year-old daughter is still alive, has no doubt that she’ll eventually find her.

The heartbroken mom is hopeful that the $50,000 reward should help loosen someone’s lips.

“I sure hope so. Money talks,” she said. “The more we offer, the more likely someone’s going to come forward.

“It’s really hard. I don’t know what to think anymore. I don’t know where else to turn.”

Dwight Foster couldn’t be reached for comment Sunday on the beefed-up reward.

Meanwhile, as Sun Media reported Sunday, Grant is trying to contact Yvonne Hubrechtsen, a friend of Foster’s who was in Vancouver prior to being arrested and deported back to the U.S. on Wednesday.

Hubrechtsen, 22, was taken into custody on a Canada Border Services warrant for not revealing her criminal record when she entered Canada, according to media reports.

Grant believes Hubrechtsen was part of the group of acquaintances that lured Foster to Vegas with promises of a lavish lifestyle and may have information on her disappearance.

cary.castagna@sunmedia.ca

ARTICLE #90) Jessie remains mystery

Sunday, December 23, 2007
Jessie remains mystery
Edmonton Sun by Daniel MacIsaac

Members of Jessie Foster's family say they're frustrated a woman who may have information on her disappearance seems to have slipped through the fingers of Canadian authorities.

Foster's mother Glendene Grant has been trying to speak to American Yvonne Hubrechtsen since her 23-year-old daughter went missing after being lured from Alberta to Las Vegas in May 2005, a suspected victim of a prostitution ring.

"This has haunted me," Grant said from her Kamloops, B.C., home. "Because when she first went down to Las Vegas in May 2005 I asked her, 'If anything happens to you or if you go missing, who can I call?' "

Grant says Foster, who lived in Calgary, gave her the number for Yvonne "Angel" Hubrechtsen - but that Grant never needed to use it until all communication with her daughter broke off in March the following year.

When Grant eventually tried the number, the woman who answered refused to co-operate - and she's never been able to talk to her.

So, Grant says it was both shocking and distressing to learn from media reports this week that Hubrechtsen had been in Vancouver until authorities arrested and deported her back to the States on Wednesday.

Vancouver police took Hubrechtsen into custody on a Canada Border Services warrant for having illegally entered the country by not revealing her criminal record.

Grant is convinced that Hubrechtsen, just 22-years-old herself, was part of the group of acquaintances that lured Jessie to Vegas with promises of a lavish lifestyle, and turned her into a sex slave.

Grant has received support from groups like the U.S.-based Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery - and says she can only hope Foster is being held somewhere against her will and is, at least, still alive.

But she also complains of a lack of co-operation from Las Vegas police in solving Foster's disappearance - or in cracking down on the sex trade industry.

"It's just the girls who get arrested, who may or may not be doing it by choice," she said.

"They're not busting the pimps or the escort services - just the little girls."

Edmontonian Crystal Foster, 24, says she's taking her younger sister's disappearance particularly hard because it was two years ago on Christmas Day that she saw Foster for the last time - at the airport heading back to Vegas and the fate that awaited her there.

"I looked back over my shoulder and she was looking at me with an expression that didn't make sense to me at the time," Crystal recalled.

"I thought maybe she was thinking 'I'm gonna miss you guys,' but later I realized it was something deeper like a silent scream: 'Don't let me go!'"

ARTICLE #89) Mom of missing daughter wants to speak with deported woman

Friday, December 21, 2007
Mom of missing daughter wants to speak with deported woman
The (Vancouver) Province by Lena Sin

A distressed Kamloops mom wants to hear from 22-year-old Yvonne Hubrechtsen -- one of the few people her daughter knew in Las Vegas before disappearing 21 months ago.

Jessie Foster, a former Boston Pizza waitress in Kamloops, arrived in Las Vegas in May 2005.

At the time, Hubrechtsen was one of the few friends her daughter talked about, according to mother Glendene Grant.

Jessie even gave her mother Hubrechtsen's phone number in case of emergencies.

But when Jessie vanished without a trace in Las Vegas in March 2006, Grant said she tried several times to reach Hubrechtsen to no avail.

So it was surprising for Grant to hear that Hubrechtsen was in Vancouver this week, until authorities picked her up and deported her back to the U.S. on Wednesday.

Grant believes her 23-year-old daughter has fallen into the hands of human-traffickers and forced into sex slavery. She says any information that Hubrechtsen may have about Jessie's life in Las Vegas could be helpful. "I'd like to get some information about what she knows about Jessie," says Grant.

Hubrechtsen tried to enter B.C. on Dec. 12, but was refused entry. The next day, she entered at a different border crossing, according to Christopher Papp of the Canada Border Services Agency.

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Tim Fanning says Hubrechtsen was pulled over in a black Hummer at Cambie and Robson on Sunday night. Police discovered she was wanted on a CBSA warrant and took her into custody.

Hubrechtsen claimed she was in Vancouver to see family. But CBSA officials wanted her deported for failing to disclose her criminal background when gaining entry to B.C.

The Immigration and Refugee Board has now ordered Hubrechtsen inadmissable for the next two years for misrepresenting herself.

Hubrechtsen's criminal record includes three convictions of soliciting or engaging in prostitution in Las Vegas in 2004. She was also charged with two counts of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, but the charges were dropped.

Grant says she doesn't know how Jessie befriended Hubrechtsen.

However, the mother says Hubrechtsen introduced Jessie to Peter Todd, who became Jessie's boyfriend in Las Vegas and is believed to be the last person to have seen her.

Jessie's case is being investigated by the North Las Vegas Police. It is also of interest to the Las Vegas-based Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery.

Terri Miller of ATLAS told The Province in June she suspects Foster was sold as a sex slave because the case has "many human-trafficking indicators."

lsin@png.canwest.com

ARTICLE #88) Without a trace: Christmastime will be particularly cold for the hundreds of people whose loved ones have disappeared from Las Vegas

Thursday, December 13, 2007
Without a trace: Christmastime will be particularly cold for the hundreds of people whose loved ones have disappeared from Las Vegas
Las Vegas CityLife by Matt O'Brien

This Christmas will be a particularly cold one for Maureen Reintjes. It will be her first Christmas unpacking the ornaments and decorating without her husband of 26 years, Jon Van Dyke.

Van Dyke kissed Reintjes goodbye the morning of May 19, 2005, and went to work at Citigroup financial services company on West Sahara Avenue. That afternoon, she got a call from Citigroup saying he never returned from lunch.

Reintjes hasn’t seen or heard from her husband since that morning.

“He kissed me goodbye at the door,” said Reintjes, who now lives in Kansas City, MO. “He commented on some flowers I had planted. He commented on my brother-in-law and sister, who were coming to town in a couple weeks; he was so excited they were coming. Then he went off to work.”

A week after he disappeared, Van Dyke called one of his daughters and told her to call off the search. His voice was monotone, and Reintjes thinks he was being held against his will and forced to make the call.

In June 2005, a series of withdrawals were made from Van Dyke’s bank account.

“Every horror in the world goes through your mind,” said Reintjes. “Until I know the truth, until he’s found, I won’t know exactly what happened.”

Canadian Glendene Grant knows the chill of spending Christmas without a loved one. Her daughter Jessie Foster moved to Las Vegas in May 2005 and disappeared from North Las Vegas in March ’06.

In November 2005, Foster flew home to Kamloops, British Columbia, to visit her family. On Christmas Day, the family drove her to the airport, where she caught the 3 p.m. flight back to Las Vegas.

It was the last time the family has seen Foster.

On March 28, Jessie’s older sister Crystal talked to her on the phone. No one in the family has talked to her since. Her cell phone hasn’t been used. Her credit cards haven’t been used. She hasn’t made any transactions at the bank.

“Christmastime is always the hardest time of the year,” said Grant. “Sometimes I just hate that the world keeps going. For me, everything stopped in March 2006.”

Detective Sgt. Tom Wagner of Metro’s Missing Persons Detail says 1,200 people disappear from Las Vegas a month. On Monday mornings, it’s not unusual for the department to have more than 100 missing-person cases from the weekend.

Wagner says Las Vegas has more missing-person cases than most major U.S. cities, in part because it’s a tourist destination.

“Here’s some food for thought,” said Wagner, who has worked in missing persons for seven years. “Last weekend, there was a boxing match in town. There was the NFR. And there were a bunch of other things going on. That’s what we’re dealing with here. On any given weekend, you have 300,000 additional people in town.”

But Wagner admits there’s something else going on in Las Vegas unrelated to tourism.

“We deal with adults who are running away from relationships, from financial problems ad from occupational problems,” he said. “Maybe they spent the paycheck gambling and decided that they better not go home.”

Added private investigator Eddie LaRue, “I think it has to do with the excitement of the town, the money and the freedom that goes along with it. You have 24-hour bars and casinos. It’s a strange place to live. People get caught up in this stuff like a kid in a candy store.”

Wagner says the Missing Persons Detail reviews and researches every case it gets.

It does, however, have to prioritize. For example, it may look into a mysterious disappearance of a 5-year-old before it looks into the disappearance of a teenager who has a history of running away.

Wagner says the department does the best it can- 80 to 85 percent of the people reported missing are found – with one sergeant and eight detectives. He said the department is adding another sergeant and at least two detectives this month.

Nonetheless, Wagner realizes this won’t satisfy Maureen Reintjes, Glendene Grant and the hundreds of other people who will spend Christmas without their loved ones.

“I don’t blame them for saying we’re not doing enough,” he said. “If my loved one was missing, I would want 100 percent undivided attention to their case. The unfortunate thing is we handle 1,200 cases a month. For those 1,200 cases, we have eight detectives. We really have to triage in what we can do.”

Reintjes doesn’t blame Las Vegas for her husband’s disappearance. She does, however, wish Metro would be more aggressive with his case. She said he hasn’t run away to start a new life, as the police department has suggested. There were no problems in the marriage, she said – and even if there were, nothing would keep her husband away from his daughters and grandson.

Reintjes moved from Las Vegas in August 2005. She rents an apartment in Kansas City where she has family, and this will be her first settled Christmas since her husband disappeared.

“It’s with me every second,” said Reintjes, who maintains a website (http://www.reintjes.us) about her husband’s disappearance. “It’s in every breath. It’s everything. The memories just constantly flood.”

Matt O’Brien is a CityLife staff writer. He can be reached at 871-6780 ext. 350 or mobrien@lvcitylife.com

ARTICLE #87) Supporting search for Jessie

Sunday, December 9, 2007
Supporting search for Jessie
Kamloops This Week by Cassidy Olivier

David Miller knows how good it feels when the community shows its support for a worthy cause.

That is why the owner of MD Auto Detailing decided to help out Glendene Grant, one of his longtime friends, by organizing a fundraiser in support of the Jessie Foster trust.

Foster, the 23-year-old daughter of Grant, went missing in March 2006 while living in Las Vegas.

While friends and family haven’t heard from her since, many, including Grant, believe she fell victim to a human trafficking ring.

Most believe she is still alive.

While Miller has supported Grant’s search for her daughter in the past, by sponsoring car washes and donating gift certificates to draws, he decided to go “all out this time” by organizing a buffet dinner and dance at the Thirsty Dog Sports Club on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

In addition to a full-spread dinner, the night will include entertainment by Art Pruce, an auction, a raffle and a 50/50 draw.

All auction items were donated by locals businesses, something Miller, who has known Foster since she was a kid, said proves just how caring Kamloops can be.

“It is really cool to see how the community has stepped up,” he said.

“It is all about being a good person and helping out.”

Grant, meanwhile, remains optimistic her daughter will eventually be found.

Since her search began last year, Foster’s story has gone international, appearing on the Montel Williams Show and in several domestic and international newspapers.

The family has also managed to raise $10,000 in reward money for information leading to Foster’s recovery.

Foster’s case is currently being investigated by a special U.S. task force familiar with human-trafficking rings.

“I find the longer this goes on, the stronger I get,” said Grant. “I have a lot of hope.”

For more information about Grant’s search for her daughter, visit jessiefoster.ca. To buy tickets for Wednesday’s fundraiser, contact Miller at 554-7068 or 320-2235. Tickets will also be available at the door.

ARTICLE #86) Fundraiser to help find Jessie

Friday, December 7, 2007
Fundraiser to help find Jessie
The Kamloops Daily News by Staff

She was last heard from on March 28, 2006, when she called her sister from Las Vegas.

The search for Jessie Foster continues, and a fundraiser in being held next week to help in the effort.

Foster’s mother and stepfather, Glendene Grant and Jim Hoflin, are looking for donations to auction off at a dinner at the Thirsty Dogg on Wednesday, Dec. 12.

Jessie disappeared in Las Vegas, where she was living with her boyfriend, Peter Todd, a pimp separated from his prostitute wife.

He has told investigators he doesn’t know where Jessie is.

In the past year and a half since Jessie vanished, Grant’s search efforts have been the subject of a chapter in a book about missing Canadians, as well as Geraldo At Large and The Maury Show in the U.S.

Jessie, 23, is described as blond, hazel eyes, about five feet, six inches and 110 to 120 pounds.

The Thirsty Dogg fundraiser starts at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are $20 in advance or at the door.

For more information on the fundraiser or to buy tickets, call 554-7068 or 374-6137.

ARTICLE #85) This week, Dana welcomes: Beth Holloway Twitty (Natalee's mom) and LaDonna Merridith (Jessie Foster advocate)

Monday, October 15, 2007
This week, Dana welcomes: Beth Holloway Twitty (Natalee's mom) and LaDonna Merridith (Jessie Foster advocate)
Scared Monkeys Radio Show by Dana Pretzer

This week, Dana welcomes: 1) Beth Holloway Twitty and 2) LaDonna Meredith.

1) A reminder to all … Beth Twitty will be on Scared Monkeys radio this evening on the Dana Pretzer show discussing her new book, Loving Natalee: A Mother’s Testament of Hope and Faith. Tired of hearing the same four questions asked by the MSM? Listen tonight and hear Beth Twitty discuss her book, her daughter Natalee’s disappearance and her faith that has got her through the terrible ordeal.

You also have the opportunity to ask questions. Leave questions in the comments that you would like to ask and we will try to get them answered.

2) Also joining us will be LaDonna Meredith with part 2 of a discussion of human trafficking and the Jessie Foster case.

ARTICLE #84) Compassionate Comedians for Jessie Foster

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Compassionate Comedians for Jessie Foster
Edmonton Sun by Graham Hicks

Something about caring comedians.

The Andrew Grose-organized Laughing for Cancer evening at Yuk Yuks back in February raised $279,000 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation.

Tonight through Saturday at the Comedy Factory in the Gateway Entertainment Centre, local comedians Dave Stawnichy, Tim Koslo and Bob Angeli, plus headliner Gabriel Rutledge are all raising money for the parents of Jessie Foster.

Jessie's the Edmonton-born, Kamloops-raised young woman who disappeared without a trace in Vegas over two years ago, raising fears that she was abducted for who knows what purpose.

And of course her parents need financial support to keep up the effort to find her.

Last but not least, the Oct. 19 fourth annual Laugh for Life Gala put on by comedians Ken Davis and Bob Stromberg at the Winspear Centre is just starting up its publicity campaign.

Laugh for Life raises funds for the inner city Mustard Seed social agency and Candeo - a group with the noble purpose of providing affordable housing for single parent families.

ARTICLE #83) Letter to Editor: Poor choices lead people down trouble paths

Friday, September 7, 2007
Letter to Editor: Poor choices lead people down trouble paths
Kamloops This Week by Jay Barlow, Kamloops, BC Canada

In response to recent letters from bleeding hearts on the issue of prostitution, not all thieves and prostitutes have the excuse of being from a broken or abusive home.

My oldest daughter was not abused or from a broken home.

She was married and had two lovely children. A friend of her husband talked them into trying cocaine at a party. She liked it and got hooked.

The man traded sexual favours for the drug. It soon cost her her family, her dignity and, a short time later, her life.

I buried her in 1995 at 22 years of age.

I take offense to those who say parents are responsible for the problems of their children.

Get in touch with the real world. When a person steals, rapes, murders or gets involved in prostitution or drugs, it is their decision.

Children run away from home for some of the stupidest reasons – their mom won’t let them stay out past midnight or their parents won’t let their boyfriend sleep over in their room.

I am not the only parent who would take offense to such blame-the-parents attitude.

There is a loving family here in Kamloops trying to raise a reward to find their daughter, who went missing in Las Vegas.

Is she from an abusive or broken home? Or did she make some bad decisions?

I have pictures and a death certificate to back up my letter.

That’s why I walk with the North Shore Safety Patrol – to protect or help someone else’s daughter.

What do other letter writers do to make things better?

Jay Barlow, Kamloops, BC Canada

ARTICLE #82) Spam allegations hamper a B.C. mother's search for her missing daughter

Thursday, September 6, 2007
Spam allegations hamper a B.C. mother's search for her missing daughter
News1130.com by Staff

KAMLOOPS, B.C. (CP) - A Kamloops, B.C. mother whose daughter vanished in Las Vegas more than a year ago has had another setback in her search.

The networking website Facebook removed Glendene Grant from its online service. Grant says Facebook disabled her account in the mistaken belief that she was spamming other Facebook users.

Grant says she always adds her website at the end of messages she sends via Facebook and the service has now allowed her to return, but Grant has lost many of her contacts and her posts have been wiped out.

Twenty-one-year-old Jessie Foster, was last seen in Las Vegas in March of 2006.

A reward for information has now grown to $10,000 and a special U.S. task force investigating white slavery has added Foster's name to its list of cases.

ARTICLE #81) Facebook mix-up hurts search for missing daughter

Thursday, September 6, 2007
Facebook mix-up hurts search for missing daughter
CTV.ca by Canadian Press

KAMLOOPS, B.C. -- A Kamloops, B.C. mother whose daughter vanished in Las Vegas more than a year ago has had another setback in her search.

The networking website Facebook removed Glendene Grant from its online service. Grant says Facebook disabled her account in the mistaken belief that she was spamming other Facebook users.

Grant says she always adds her website at the end of messages she sends via Facebook and the service has now allowed her to return, but Grant has lost many of her contacts and her posts have been wiped out.

Twenty-one-year-old Jessie Foster, was last seen in Las Vegas in March of 2006.

A reward for information has now grown to $10,000 and a special U.S. task force investigating white slavery has added Foster's name to its list of cases.

ARTICLE #80) Search for missing Kamloops woman featured in book: Mother relieved U.S. officials have not given up on daughter

Monday, August 27, 2007
Search for missing Kamloops woman featured in book: Mother relieved U.S. officials have not given up on daughter
The Kamloops Daily News by Jason Hewlett

The search for Jessie Foster is featured in a new book highlighting stories of Canadians who disappeared without a truce.

Author Lisa Wojna’s Missing! The Disappeared, Lost or Abducted in Canada dedicates much of the 264-page book’s sixth chapter to the story of Jessie Foster, who went missing in Las Vegas in 2006.

Jessie’s mom, Glendene Grant, was approached by Wojna in March – almost a year to the day after the family last heard from Jessie, 22.

“There’s lots of different cases in the book. Most have no resolution,” Grant said Sunday.

“The book has been in the works for months and was released just last week.”

Wojna conducted several phone and e-mail interviews with Grant. The women will meet in person next month in Edmonton at the fundraiser to help continue the search for Jessie.

Other stories include the Robert Pickton case and the Highway of Tears investigation.

Grant said true-crime books like Wojna’s are very popular. She hopes Missing! will introduce Jessie’s story to a new audience and create new leads in the investigation.

“I hope it will get her story out there more,” she said.

Grant is convinced her daughter is being held against her will.

Jessie started dating Peter Todd shortly after moving to Las Vegas.

Todd, a pimp separated from his wife, a prostitute, had a lot of money, fast cars and all-night parties – things that may have lured Jessie into the lifestyle. Todd had told investigators he has no idea where she is.

Efforts to find Jessie are expensive. Anyone who would like to contribute to the Jessie Foster Fund can make a donation at any CIBC branch, transit No. 00050 and account No. 98-27412.

For more information, go online at http://www.jessiefoster.ca.

Missing! The Disappeared, Lost or Abducted in Canada is available in Kamloops book stores.

ARTICLE #79) Reward climbs for missing woman

Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Reward climbs for missing woman
Penticton Today by Staff

Calgary: Reward climbs for missing woman Relatives of an Alberta woman missing since 2006 are hoping to raise the reward for information leading to her whereabouts - $1 at a time. "I'd like to try to make sure that we've done everything," said Glendene Grant, the mother of Jessie Foster, who disappeared at age 21 in Las Vegas.

8/21/2007 7:36:55 AM

ARTICLE #78) Reward climbs for missing woman

Sunday, August 19, 2007
Reward climbs for missing woman
Edmonton Sun by Staff

Relatives of an Alberta woman missing since 2006 are hoping to raise the reward for information leading to her whereabouts - $1 at a time.

"I'd like to try to make sure that we've done everything," said Glendene Grant, the mother of Jessie Foster, who disappeared at age 21 in Las Vegas.

The family is already offering a $10,000 reward, but Grant said she wants to increase it in the hopes of enticing someone to come forward. They're asking members of the public to donate as little as $1.

"I will not give up. We want her back one way or another," said Grant. "We've never said it has to be alive."

Foster left her home in Calgary about two years ago to move to Las Vegas, where she worked as a prostitute. In recent months, U.S. authorities have said they believe she may be a victim of a human-trafficking ring.

Since beginning the dollar-donation drive this week, Grant said the family has already been able to add several hundred dollars to the trust fund set up for the reward.

For more information, see http://www.jessiefoster.ca.

ARTICLE #77) Benefit dinner aims to raise cash for girl’s search

Thursday, August 9, 2007
Benefit dinner aims to raise cash for girl’s search
The Kamloops Daily News by Staff

A fundraiser dinner supporting the search for Jessie Foster takes place on Aug. 11 at Malone’s On 8th.

Cocktails will be served at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m.

Options include barbecue steak or chicken served with caesar and pasta salad. Tickets are $10 and available by e-mailing Jessie’s mom, Glendene Grant, at glendene@telus.net or phoning 374-6137.

Foster has been missing in Las Vegas since March 2006.

ARTICLE #76) Gals told 'don't go' to work in Vegas: Alberta woman's disappearance now looks like case of human trafficking

Sunday, August 5, 2007
Gals told 'don't go' to work in Vegas: Alberta woman's disappearance now looks like case of human trafficking
Edmonton Sun by Glenn Kauth

Carol-Lynn Strachan shudders whenever she hears of Edmonton prostitutes going to work in Las Vegas.

"I tell them don't go, and find out who you're working for," said Strachan, a local sex-trade advocate.

Strachan's concern is the rise in human-trafficking cases in the Las Vegas sex trade.

Just recently, authorities there revealed they believe Jessie Foster, an Alberta woman missing since March 2006, is the victim of a possible trafficking ring.

"This sounds like a really bad detective movie that never ends," said her father, Dwight Foster, from Calgary yesterday.

Dwight called his daughter's case a "textbook" example of trafficking in which a pimp lures young women to places like Las Vegas with the promise of bright lights and big money.

Once they get to Sin City, they essentially become slaves to pay off the pimp for bringing them there.

"The problem is the debt keeps rising. The debt never goes away," said Terri Miller, program director with the Las Vegas-based organization, the Anti Trafficking League Against Slavery.

In Foster's case, the 21-year-old went to Las Vegas in order to join her boyfriend, Peter Todd, who told her he had lots of money and who at first showered her with a life of luxury, Dwight said.

Since she went missing in March 2006, however, the family has since learned she had earlier been arrested for prostitution.

What makes a sex worker a victim of trafficking is the element of coercion and fraud, said Miller. Victims can't leave the trade because of the debt, and in many cases they're kept hidden and cut off from family and friends.

"Most of the time, there's some sort of threat against their safety, the safety of their family," said Miller.

The only way out of the trap, she added, is to pay off the debt or get help from an organization like hers.

Tragically, though, some victims end up dead either through suicide or murder, Miller noted.

Like Strachan, JoAnn McCartney, a former Edmonton vice cop who counsels prostitutes, warns local sex workers about the lure of Las Vegas. She's been involved in incidents where parents have had to sneak plane or bus tickets to their daughters trying to escape controlling pimps.

"They're subject to a whole lot of violence once they get there," she said.

"The only thing you can tell them is (that) whatever sounds too good to be true probably is," she added.

Foster's mother Glendene Grant, meanwhile, said the fact her daughter is now considered a suspected victim of a trafficking ring means police in Las Vegas are now taking her case more seriously.

"It's not just a person who went to Las Vegas who wandered off. It's a whole lot bigger than that," she said yesterday from Kamloops, B.C.

While both she and Dwight are prepared for the fact Foster may be dead, they hope her case will at least make people aware of the dangers of trafficking.

"It's a little late for my daughter, but if we can get to and educate one girl, then we've made inroads," said Dwight.

ARTICLE #75) Las Vegas; Lures you, Hook, Line, Sinker, Dead

Saturday, August 4, 2007
Las Vegas: Lures you, Hook, Line, Sinker, Dead
NowPublic Contributor by Barry Artiste

The Las Vagas Motto "What Happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" . Nothing could be truer for Canadian Prostitues lured to the City of Lights and Money looking for the Glitz ,Glamour, easy money versus small northern towns and the crack addled streets they had been accustomed to.

Some may feel this will be a new chapter in their life to start over and get the "Hell out of Small Town Dodge" once and for all with one big easy score.

Pimps espouse the glamourous drippings of money and big time gamblers looking for a little piece of flesh to go along with their action, and prostitution being legal in Nevada, it is mecca of gold just waiting to be mined by the "Ladies of the evening". It is widely known Prostitutes mining for Sex, get little, or get dead. The Pimps always gets the gold, everyone knows this, even the Prostitutes, yet like the "Deer in the headlights" they flock there.

My Final Thought

It is unbeliveable that women, even those crack addled hookers fall for the Lure of Vegas, when Pimps fishing for willing recruits sweet talk them hook, line and sinker.

Go to Vegas and the Eastern European influence is astounding, poor ladies, from even poorer countries look to Vegas as their last gasp out of poverty to the mistaken belief Vegas is the proverbial promised land.

Carol-Lynn Strachan shudders whenever she hears of Edmonton prostitutes going to work in Las Vegas.

"I tell them don't go, and find out who you're working for," said Strachan, a local sex-trade advocate.

Strachan's concern is the rise in human-trafficking cases in the Las Vegas sex trade.

Just recently, authorities there revealed they believe Jessie Foster, an Alberta woman missing since March 2006, is the victim of a possible trafficking ring.

"This sounds like a really bad detective movie that never ends," said her father, Dwight Foster, from Calgary yesterday.

Dwight called his daughter's case a "textbook" example of trafficking in which a pimp lures young women to places like Las Vegas with the promise of bright lights and big money.

Once they get to Sin City, they essentially become slaves to pay off the pimp for bringing them there.

"The problem is the debt keeps rising. The debt never goes away," said Terri Miller, program director with the Las Vegas-based organization, the Anti Trafficking League Against Slavery.

In Foster's case, the 21-year-old went to Las Vegas in order to join her boyfriend, Peter Todd, who told her he had lots of money and who at first showered her with a life of luxury, Dwight said.

Since she went missing in March 2006, however, the family has since learned she had earlier been arrested for prostitution.

What makes a sex worker a victim of trafficking is the element of coercion and fraud, said Miller. Victims can't leave the trade because of the debt, and in many cases they're kept hidden and cut off from family and friends.

"Most of the time, there's some sort of threat against their safety, the safety of their family," said Miller.

The only way out of the trap, she added, is to pay off the debt or get help from an organization like hers.

Tragically, though, some victims end up dead either through suicide or murder, Miller noted.

Like Strachan, JoAnn McCartney, a former Edmonton vice cop who counsels prostitutes, warns local sex workers about the lure of Las Vegas. She's been involved in incidents where parents have had to sneak plane or bus tickets to their daughters trying to escape controlling pimps.

"They're subject to a whole lot of violence once they get there," she said.

"The only thing you can tell them is (that) whatever sounds too good to be true probably is," she added.

Foster's mother Glendene Grant, meanwhile, said the fact her daughter is now considered a suspected victim of a trafficking ring means police in Las Vegas are now taking her case more seriously.

"It's not just a person who went to Las Vegas who wandered off. It's a whole lot bigger than that," she said yesterday from Kamloops, B.C.

While both she and Dwight are prepared for the fact Foster may be dead, they hope her case will at least make people aware of the dangers of trafficking.

"It's a little late for my daughter, but if we can get to and educate one girl, then we've made inroads," said Dwight.[/q]

ARTICLE #74) The Verdict with Paula Todd: More on Jessie Foster’s story TBA

Thursday, June 21, 2007
The Verdict with Paula Todd: More on Jessie Foster’s story TBA
CTV Network with Paula Todd

Sunday to Thursday at 9pm ET on CTV Newsnet

The Verdict with Paula Todd gives viewers an in-depth look at the hard-hitting legal and justice news making headlines from around the world. From the Conrad Black trial and the latest developments in the Pickton case, to the fallout from sensationalized legal battles ripped from the headlines, Paula Todd will draw on her own experience and expertise to give Canadians a unique perspective on the high-profile crime and legal issues of the day. Todd will interview prominent newsmakers, lawyers, legal experts, criminals and victims. The program will also feature ongoing profiles of missing children and regular segments on Canadian fugitives.

"I am thrilled to return to live television with this smart, fast-paced, and edgy show. This will be the definitive television destination for legal and crime junkies in Canada - with all of the news, analysis, as well as the human perspective," said Todd. "There is nothing more dramatic than a criminal trial, and we'll be in Chicago for the Conrad Black case bringing Canadians the inside story."

"The success of television's CSI, Law and Order and Criminal Minds proves that Canadians have a tremendous thirst for all of the drama and excitement that surrounds criminal justice and legal news. We are extremely excited about being the first Canadian broadcaster to develop a nightly news program totally dedicated to criminal and legal affairs," said Robert Hurst, President of CTV News. "Paula Todd is the perfect host and will be a wonderful addition to the CTV Newsnet schedule."

The Verdict with Paula Todd will leverage the vast resources of CTV News - Canada's most-watched news division. It is the latest original news production from CTV News joining such popular news programs as W-FIVE, Question Period and Mike Duffy Live.

The Verdict with Paula Todd can also be seen, on demand and free, on the CTV Broadband Network, every night at 10:30 PM Eastern.

ARTICLE #73) 1986 drug charge delays search for daughter: Mother of girl missing in Vegas denied entry into U.S. over 21-year-old narcotics conviction

Monday, June 11, 2007
1986 drug charge delays search for daughter: Mother of girl missing in Vegas denied entry into U.S. over 21-year-old narcotics conviction
Victoria Times Colonist by Staff

KAMLOOPS, B.C. -- Glendene Grant should have been in Las Vegas last week meeting with investigators about her missing daughter, who she fears fell prey to human traffickers. Instead, she's at home in Kamloops after being denied entry to the U.S. over a 21-year-old drug conviction.

Registered 7-day subscribers to the Times Colonist newspaper or electronic edition will enjoy full access to all TimesColonist.com content.

ARTICLE #72) Canadian Mom Searching for Missing Daughter Denied Entry to US Over 21-Year-Old Drug Conviction

Monday, June 11, 2007
Feature: Canadian Mom Searching for Missing Daughter Denied Entry to US Over 21-Year-Old Drug Conviction
StopTheDrugWar.org Article / Issue #489 by Staff

Glendene Grant, a 49-year-old resident of Kamloops, British Columbia, never had any interest in visiting the United States. That changed a little more than a year ago, when her daughter, then 21-year-old Jessie Foster went missing in Las Vegas in March 2006. Since then, she has made three trips to the US to talk with investigators and publicize her daughter's case on TV talk shows.

Jessie Foster traveled to Las Vegas in 2005, and became a prostitute working for an escort service -- a fact her mother did not know until she began investigating her disappearance. For more than a year, there has been no sign of her. Her case had been declared "cold" by the North Las Vegas Police Department, but on the suggestion of a US journalist, Grant contacted a new unit in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department dedicated to human trafficking cases, the ATLAS (Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery). ATLAS agreed to take on the Foster case, saying it had the earmarks of a sex slavery case.

Grant was set to travel to Las Vegas again last week to meet with investigators and local media about the case, but this time she was turned back by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Vancouver airport. The reason? She had a 1986 conviction for marijuana and cocaine possession.

As Drug War Chronicle reported just two weeks ago, both the US and Canada bar people who admit past drug use or have drug convictions from entering the country. Glendene Grant found that out the hard way, and she can't believe her ancient conviction even matters.

"I was supposed to fly last Monday night, but when I got to the airport, they told me to come back the next day," Grant told Drug War Chronicle. "I went early and spent three hours talking to one of the agents, and he finally said I would be denied and that I would have to get a waiver -- the same form they had given me the night before. I asked to speak to CBP supervisor Patricia Lundy, but I could tell she was not going to listen to anything I had to say. She asked if my daughter had chosen to go to Las Vegas, and when I said yes, she said 'Then I guess she made her own choices, didn't she?' When I asked 'Are you telling me my daughter chose to be kidnapped?' she threw me out of the office and called the RCMP to escort me away. It was the most unprofessional behavior I've seen in my life."

"They tried to say I couldn't cross because of that old drug conviction," Grant said. "I have never hid it, I had a valid passport, then, for some reason, it became an issue."

It was always an issue, according to the CBP. "She is automatically inadmissible for life because of the drug conviction," said CBP spokeswoman Cherise Miles. "We let her in before because it was an extreme circumstance. If she was coming on vacation, she would have been denied admission," she told the Chronicle.

Grant's only recourse is to seek a waiver allowing her to enter the US, said Miles. "A waiver is not automatic, but perhaps her circumstances would help turn it in her favor." The waiver fee is a non-refundable $265. The process takes "perhaps four to six weeks, maybe longer," said Miles.

"I don't have $265," Grant protested. "We have to fundraise for everything we do. I can't work very much, we can't afford to keep going, but we do. But I don't have $265." [Ed: There is a donation form at the Jessie Foster web site linked to above.]

CBP's Miles said that Grant had been allowed in on a humanitarian "parole," but that she had been warned she would have to apply for a waiver. Grant said that the first she heard about a waiver was when CBP officers at the Vancouver airport refused her entry and handed her a waiver form.

Now, Grant is pondering her options. "I don't know what to do," she said. "I've contacted my Canadian representatives, but it doesn't look like there is any way around this. Maybe the provincial governor can give me a pardon."

In the meantime, Jessie Foster remains missing and a harsh and unyielding US immigration law is keeping her mother from trying to find her. "I just sit here and think about it," she said. "What happens if they do find Jessie or her body and I can't go get her?"

Drug War Issues Border
Politics & Advocacy Executive Branch

ARTICLE #71) U.S. security guards stop mother from looking for daughter in Las Vegas

Sunday, June 10, 2007
Past conviction halts search: U.S. security guards stop mother from looking for daughter in Las Vegas
Calgary Sun by Sarah Kennedy

Having her daughter vanish into the underworld of Las Vegas was horrifying for one mother, but being told she can no longer go and look for her is almost too much to bear.

After searching 14 months for her daughter Jessie Foster, Glendene Grant was turned away at the Vancouver airport May 20 by U.S. border security officers for a minor criminal conviction, stemming from 20 years ago.

"I told them I'm not going to Vegas for a holiday -- I'm going because my daughter is missing," she said.

Grant, who has been the No. 1 investigator in the disappearance of her 22-year-old daughter -- who moved to Vegas almost two years ago but got involved in the sex trade -- has twice gone to the city to meet with investigators and U.S. media.

Jessie had daily contact with her family until 14 months ago when all communication stopped.

It's because of her previous clearances that Grant, who has a minor drug conviction from 1986, is suspicious of suddenly being denied access to the U.S.

Grant believes her daughter was a victim of human trafficking.

ARTICLE #70) Family seeking missing woman: $10,000 REWARD

Friday, June 8, 2007
Family seeking missing woman: $10,000 REWARD
Las Vegas Review Journal In Review by Staff

The family of a 23-year-old Canadian woman who came to Las Vegas in May 2005 and became a prostitute is offering a $10,000 reward for information about her whereabouts.

Jessie Foster, 23, was last seen on March 28, 2006. Her last known address was 1009 Cornerstone Place, North Las Vegas.

Foster was described as 5-feet, 6-inches tall and weighing about 110 pounds with long blonde hair.

A Web site the family set up at http://www.findjessiefoster.com says Foster was living with her former boyfriend at the North Las Vegas home.

She was convicted of prostitution in 2005 and faced four more prostitution-related charges in September 2006, the Web site stated.

Anyone with information can call the North Las Vegas Police department at 633-9111 or Crime Stoppers at 385-5555

Leave Your Comment:

Glendene Grant wrote on June 09, 2007 10:14 PM: My daughter is Jessie Foster, the young woman missing since Mar29/06 from Las Vegas. Thank you for putting the info in your brief today...we need to keep Jessie's story in the news. Please go to: http://www.jessiefoster.ca for more info on her disappearance. From Jessie's family & friends, thank you.

ARTICLE #69) Family of missing woman increases reward

Friday, June 8, 2007
Family of Missing Woman Increases Reward
Las Vegas Now - EyeWitness News 8 by Reporter

The family of missing Jessie Foster of North Las Vegas has increased the reward they are offering for information about her whereabouts to $10,000. They are making the offer through Crime Stoppers of Nevada for information about her disappearance.

Officials say Foster, 23, hasn't been heard from since a phoning her sister March 28.

They say she didn't indicate anything was wrong -- but that she usually keeps in contact with her family in Canada.

North Las Vegas police say a missing person report was filed, but investigators found no evidence of foul play.

The family has learned since her disappearance that Jessie was associating with people involved with illegal activities and that she herself had been arrested in Las Vegas.

They say the woman's boyfriend reported she left him and took her belongings.

If you have any information, please call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or North Las Vegas Police department at 633-9111.

The family has created a Web site with recent information and photographs at http://www.findjessiefoster.com.

ARTICLE #68) Mother of missing girl denied access to Vegas

Thursday, June 7, 2007
Mother of missing girl denied access to Vegas
Las Vegas CityLife by Matt O'Brien

What's worse than not knowing the whereabouts of your missing daughter? According to Canadian Glendene Grant, whose daughter disappeared from Las Vegas in March 2006, being denied entry into the United States to search for her.

On May 29, Grant was denied entry into the States at the Vancouver International Airport. She had traveled to the country to search for her daughter, Jessie Foster, three times previously without incident.

"I can accept that I have been denied entry into the U.S.A., but not that it was not enough to deny me in any of the three previous trips," said Grant in an e-mail from Kamloops, British Columbia. "Why is it an issue now? The only reason for me going to Las Vegas or the U.S.A. at all is because that is where my daughter went missing. It's not our fault that we have to look for her there."

In the spring of 2005, Foster traveled the States with a friend. She ended up in Las Vegas in May of that year and decided to stay.

In November 2005, Foster flew home to Kamloops to visit. On Christmas Day, her family drove her to the airport, where she caught a flight back to Las Vegas.

It was the last time the family has seen her.

On March 28, 2006, Jessie's older sister Crystal talked to her on the phone. No one in the family has talked to her since.

After questioning Foster's live-in boyfriend and his ex-wife, the North Las Vegas Police Department closed the case pending further information. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Kamloops Police Department and the Canadian consulate never got involved, said Grant.

Grant was returning to Las Vegas to meet with the police, the media and politicians. She said she was denied entry because of a 1987 drug conviction.

"I am not a terrorist, so please do not treat me like one," said Grant. "I just want my daughter back. When I get her back, I will never come to your country again. I promise."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection could not be reached for comment.

For more information on Jessie Foster, visit http://www.jessiefoster.ca.

Matt O'Brien » mobrien@lvcitylife.com

ARTICLE #67) Canadian Mom Searching for Missing Daughter Denied Entry

Tuesday, June 5, 2007
More Border Blues--Canadian Mom Searching for Missing Daughter Denied Entry
Stop the Drug War.org by Philip Smith

LINK TO STORY: http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blo ... dian_mom_s

Just two weeks ago, in an article titled Border Blues (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/487 ... user_entry), we wrote about how both the Canadian and the US governments can and do deny entry to people who admit to past drug use or have a drug conviction. Last week, a particularly egregious example of the abuse of this provision occurred.

In a sad tale first picked up by the Vancouver daily the Province, "Mother's Hunt for Missing Daughter Blocked at Border", Kamloops, BC, mother Glendene Grant related how she was turned away from the US as she headed for Las Vegas to search for her young adult daughter, Jessie Foster, who went missing a little more than a year ago.

Although Grant had made several previous trips to Las Vegas in an effort to find her daughter and even though she was scheduled to meet local law enforcement and appear at a Crimestoppers event about Jessie's disappearance, she was turned away a week ago today. Why? The 49-year-old mother was arrested in 1986 on marijuana and cocaine possession charges.

We are looking into this. Right now, I have emailed Ms. Grant to set up an interview, and I have calls in to US Customs and Border Protection and an anti-human trafficking unit in the Las Vegas Police Department. There is apparently some suspicion that Jessie Foster was the victim of sex slavers.

But who cares about that, right? Customs and Border Protection appears more interested in protecting us from a harmless woman who got busted on penny ante drug possession charges more than two decades ago than helping her spur an investigation with possible international implications.

My understanding that the decision to deny entry to people with old drug convictions is not mandatory (I'll be checking with CBP on this) but discretionary. In the case of Glendene Grant, the denial of entry looks to be an abuse of discretion, not to mention just downright mean, inhumane, and cold-hearted. Is there more to the story? Stay tuned.

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COMMENTS:
Entrey Denied
Comment posted by Anonymous on Tue, 06/05/2007 - 5:06pm
What for an arrest in 1986 for marjuana and cocaine. This is just ubserd and she has been to Vega's before. So what the other times she came to the US never happened. wow i hate the US border patrol they cant keep illegal immigrants out but wont let a person looking for there daughter in this is just insane.
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Denied Entry
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sun, 06/10/2007 - 3:05am (12:05am my time)
I am Glendene Grant. I am the mother of missing Jessie Foster and the person denied border crossing. I have been to Las Vegas 2 times and to New York City 1 time (for the Montel Williams show), this would have been my 4th trip to the USA (and this is in my entire life-and the trips have been within the past 8 months).
If there is ANYONE out there who is able to help me get this pardon done, or find a way around it, I would appreciate hearing from you ASAP. I need to get back to Las Vegas and get the appointments and interviews done that had to be postponed.
Please contact me anytime: jessiesmom@jessiefoster.ca and please visit our site: http://www.jessiefoster.ca and pass that site around to your friends, family, co-workers...everyone.
Thank you so much for your support in our search for Jessie and my quest to get back to the USA.
Sincerely, Glendene Grant.

ARTICLE #66) Mother's hunt for missing daughter blocked at border

Sunday, June 3, 2007
Mother's hunt for missing daughter blocked at border - Mother's trip stopped over old conviction
The (Vancouver) Province by Lena Sin

Glendene Grant should have been in Las Vegas last week, meeting with investigators about her missing daughter, whom she fears fell prey to human traffickers.

Instead, she's at home in Kamloops after being denied entry to the U.S. over a 21-year-old drug conviction.

"I haven't unpacked my bags. I have to get back down there," Grant said through tears on Friday.

Since Grant's daughter, Jessie Foster, went missing in Las Vegas more than a year ago, the Kamloops mother has made three trips to the city to search for her daughter.

Grant never had any problems until Tuesday, when U.S. customs officers at Vancouver airport barred her entry over a 1986 conviction for possession of marijuana and cocaine.

Grant said she wasn't a user, and the drugs belonged to a visiting friend. She said she was convicted after police came looking for her friend and found drugs in his belongings inside her home.

Tuesday, the 49-year-old mother pleaded with officials to allow her into the U.S., explaining that she had meetings scheduled with police, including an event arranged by CrimeStoppers to speak to local media about her missing daughter.

Grant says she spoke with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Chief Patricia Lundy, to no avail.

She says Lundy told her that her daughter went to Las Vegas by choice, and that when Grant asked to file a complaint about being barred, she was told to leave the building.

When she insisted on filing a complaint, Lundy called the RCMP, she says. Before she left the airport, she says, another U.S. customs officer told her she was being denied entry because she was going to the U.S. to work.

Lundy did not return a call from The Province.

Cherise Miles, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman in Chicago, said she was looking into the case but still had no answers by deadline. Miles confirmed that a criminal conviction -- no matter how old -- is grounds to bar entry.

But she said that Grant's case sounded more complex, considering she'd been travelling to the U.S. without problems in recent months.

Grant says she has been told her only hope is to apply for a waiver -- a time-consuming process that would cost a minimum of hundreds of dollars and require a letter from the RCMP about her criminal background and submission of her fingerprints.

Foster has been missing since March 28, 2006.

The 23-year-old former Boston Pizza waitress arrived in Las Vegas in May 2005 after travelling with a friend. She phoned home to say she liked the city and was staying.

It wasn't long before Foster also told her family she'd fallen in love with a rich man, 39-year-old Peter Todd, and was moving in with him.

Grant said she only discovered her daughter had been working as a prostitute for an escort agency after she went missing.

Todd has been interviewed twice by North Las Vegas police. He denies any knowledge of Foster's disappearance, Grant said.

After North Las Vegas police declared the case cold, a U.S. reporter called Grant and suggested she get in contact with the newly-formed Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery, which came into full operation in February.

ATLAS investigators are now looking into the case to see if they can take it over.

Terri Miller, ATLAS program director, said she suspects Foster was sold as a sex slave because the case has "many human-trafficking indicators."

lsin@png.canwest.com

ARTICLE #65) Mike on Crime

Sunday, June 3, 2007
Mike on Crime
Crime & Punishment (Radio Show) by Mike McIntyre

Here’s a look at this week’s show:

CONFIRMED GUEST:

GLENDENE GRANT – Her 22-year-old daughter, Jessie Foster, has now been missing over a year. The former Calgary resident got swept up in the seedy side of sin city, Las Vegas, and vanished without a trace. Grant refuses to give up hope. She recently taped an episode of the Montel Williams show, is working closely with a private eye and will head down to Vegas later this month to pound the pavement in another desperate attempt to find her little girl. See the search for Jessie site HERE (http://www.jessiefoster.ca).

Glendene Grant was denied entry to the USA on Monday, May 29th, 2007.

ARTICLE #64) Missing teen’s mom stopped at border: Still hopes to continue search

Saturday, June 2, 2007
Missing teen’s mom stopped at border: Still hopes to continue search
The Kamloops Daily News by Robert Koopmans

The Kamloops mother of a teen who vanished in Las Vegas 14 months ago says she won’t let U.S. authorities keep her from the work of finding her daughter.

Glendene Grant said she was not allowed to enter the U.S. this week as she tried to board a plane for Las Vegas. Grant was bound for the Nevada city to meet with investigators and others there about the disappearance of her daughter Jessie Foster.

While she has been allowed into the U.S. many times before, this time around border guards pulled her aside and told her to turn around.

Grant said she has a criminal conviction for possession of a small amount of marijuana from 21 years ago, and wonders if that was the reason she was denied entry.

The border authorities told her she would remain flagged ad further attempts to cross into the U.S. would also be refused.

What upset her the most, however, was the reaction of the woman in charge, who coldly told her it was probably her daughter’s fault if she had run into trouble in Las Vegas.

“She said to me, “Did your daughter choose to go to Las Vegas? Well, she made the choice then, didn’t she?” Grant said.

Upset, Grant said she asked to speak to the woman’s boss, a request that prompted the woman to call security and have Grant escorted out.

Grant said she is hopeful a resolution can be reached and means for her to cross the border identified. An RCMP officer in Vancouver listened to her story, and promised to get to the bottom of why she was denied entry this time when she hasn’t been denied in the past.

Until then, she will continue to contact investigators by e-mail and phone, and work from a distance to keep her daughter’s face fresh in the minds of a city that sees many people go missing every year.

“Right now, my job is finding Jessie,” she said.

ARTICLE #63) Fundraiser aids search

Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Fundraiser aids search
Edmonton Sun by Sun Media

EDMONTON -- A fundraiser to bump up a reward for tips that help solve the mystery of a missing Calgary woman brought in $2,140 Friday, the organizer said.
Jessica Foster, 21, vanished in March 2006 after going to Las Vegas, where she wound up working as a prostitute and was, at one point, beaten so badly she was hospitalized.

Carol-Lynn Strachan, who's been working in Edmonton's sex trade for 25 years and organized Friday's fundraiser at Chrome lounge, hopes the money will convince people who know where Foster is to come forward.

ARTICLE #62) Foster on Montel

Sunday, May 20, 2007
Foster on Montel
Kamloops This Week by Staff

A Montel Williams Show segment on a missing Kamloops woman will air this week.

Jessie Foster's mother Glendene Grant was interviewed last month by the talk-show host.

The then-21-year-old Foster disappeared while living in Las Vegas in March 2006.

The segment will air on Thursday, three days before Foster's 23rd birthday.

Check local listings for channels and times.

For more information, visit http://www.jessiefoster.ca.

ARTICLE #61) Finding a way to get her home

Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Finding a way to get her home
Kamloops This Week by Mikelle Sasakamoose

Glendene Grant is in the winter of her life.

Unlike the Greek myth describing the abduction of Persephone, goddess of harvest, and her mother Demeter’s desperate sorrow and springful rejoicing upon her return — Grant’s daughter remains trapped in a dark underworld.

Jessie Foster has been missing since spring last year, leaving her mother’s life dark, cold and barren without her beloved little girl.

The then-21-year-old, whose birthday is on May 27, was living in Las Vegas and in regular contact with her family, when phone calls home suddenly stopped, and so began the nightmare that is now their life.

For more than a year, Grant has been searching for her daughter, dismissing suggestions her second-oldest child might be dead, believing instead Jessie has been abducted and forced into the frightening arena of human trafficking.

But the fare is not light and fundraising efforts to pay for a private investigator and to build a reward fund have been ongoing, and will continue until Jessie is found.

“Jessie doesn’t deserve any less. She deserves more because she deserves to be found,” said Grant.

“We have to find Jessie.”

The most recent efforts include two Canada-wide fundraisers footed by a handful of local artisans and craftspeople.

Longtime family friend and rock hound Dennis Blais donated a Mexican crystal opal he named the Jessie Stone, to be used in a custom-made necklace designed by local goldsmith Rob Clark of R&L Jewellers.

Valued at approximately $1,200, the necklace is a work of art that Grant said it is absolutely stunning.

Blais, who is also a roofer in Kamloops, has donated a new roof to one lucky winner, including materials and labour.

The prize is transferrable and can be exchanged for cash.

And some of the most generous business owners in the city, said Grant, are donating a complete car detailing job.

Melissa and Dave Miller of MD Detailing have offered the prize valued at $400.

“It’s really a community effort,” said Grant, “and it’s so overwhelming to me.”

Award-winning stained-glass artist Rosanna McDonnell (http://www.canvasofglass.com/) has known Grant since they were children themselves.

She wanted to help her friend in a way that would make a big difference, and offered a custom-designed stained-glass piece valued at $1,500.

Called Finding Her Way Home, the piece is profoundly personal, said Grant.

“When we look at it, we just well up in tears,” she said.

McDonnell said Jessie’s disappearance reminds her of the Persephone story, and that is what she designed the piece around, including the darkness of the woman’s absence and the light of her return.

“These girls fall in between the dark cracks and people just forget, or believe they’re dead — I never once felt this was a memorial piece,” said McDonnell.

“In my heart I feel that Jessie is very much alive. She’s just in a very dark place. She’s lost and she needs to be found.”

Raffle tickets are $25 each or five for $100. The draw will be held Sept. 2.

For ticket purchasing information, visit http://www.jessiefoster.ca or e-mail jessiesmom@jessiefoster.ca.

Cash donations can be made to the Jessica Foster In Trust account at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, transit number 00050, account 28-27412.

Grant is still waiting for a Montel William Show segment on her daughter’s disappearance to air.

She and a friend will travel to Las Vegas next week to meet with authorities, local media and organizations like ATLAS, a human-trafficking task force.

ARTICLE #60) Sad Mother's Day for Mom-Daughter missing for a year

Monday, May 14, 2007
Sad Mother's Day for Mom-Daughter missing for a year: Carol-Lynn Strachan hopes funds will help find Calgarian
Edmonton Sun by Victoria-Ann Handysides-Special to Sun Media

EDMONTON -- A dark cloud obscured Mother's Day for Glendene Grant, who has been on a year-long search for her daughter who she says was forced into the sex trade then disappeared.
"You can imagine why today is not the best day for me," said Grant.
More than a year ago her then-21-year-old daughter Jessie Foster from Calgary went to Las Vegas, where she became a prostitute, and has not been heard from since.
Carol-Lynn Strachan has been in Edmonton's sex trade for more than 25 years, and has become driven by Foster's disappearance.
Strachan has organized a fundraising event for Friday in Edmonton. Money raised will be used to post a reward for information leading to Foster's whereabouts.
More info on Jessie Foster
http://www.jessiefoster.ca
http://www.jessiefoster.ca/Links.html

Sex Trade Workers of Canada
http://www.sextradeworkersofcanada.com/
hazel8500 Not another blog
http://hazel8500.wordpress.com/?s=jessie+foster
Missing Pieces – I Have A Missing Daughter
http://missingpiecesshow.homestead.com/ ... chive.html

A dark cloud obscured Mother's Day for Glendene Grant, who has been on a yearlong search for her daughter who she says, was forced into the sex trade the disappeared.
"You can imagine why today is not the best day for me," said Grant
Two years ago, her then 21-year-old daughter Jessie Foster set foot in Las Vegas where she became a prostitute, and has never been heard from again.
The baffling mystery has touched the hearts of some people in the very industry that her family feels she was forced into.

Carol-Lynn Strachan has been in Edmonton's sex trade for over 25 years and has become driven by Foster's disappearance.
"This is no different than when anybody goes missing out of a certain grouping it could be a fireman and a police officer. Those groups all get together to try to find that person and get them home safely."

Strachan has organized a fundraising event set Friday at Chrome Loungr.550 Clareview Rd.
All the money raised will be used to post a reward for information leading to Foster's whereabouts.

There will be an auction of donated gift baskets of safe sex products, tanning packages, and massages, as well as a silent auction for time with escorts.
Tickets for the event, which get underway at 7pm, can be purchased by calling 221-4495.

No official reports to say that Foster was kidnapped have been released be authorities, but her family insist that the "typical good kid" would never disappear willingly.
"They took the wrong person"

They've taken someone that's loved and missed by so many people that they just need to let her go,” Grant said.
They've taken a family member: She's a tiny little girl that's left a huge hole, and it just needs to be filled again.
"If something has happened, and my baby's not alive, we still need to know."

ARTICLE #59) Mike on Crime

Sunday, May 13, 2007
Mike on Crime
Crime & Punishment (Radio Show) by Mike McIntyre

CONFIRMED GUEST:
GLENDENE GRANT – Sunday is hardly a day of celebration for Grant. Her 22-year-old daughter, Jessie Foster, has now been missing over a year. The former Calgary resident got swept up in the seedy side of sin city, Las Vegas, and vanished without a trace. Grant refuses to give up hope. She recently taped an episode of the Montel Williams show, is working closely with a private eye and will head down to Vegas later this month to pound the pavement in another desperate attempt to find her little girl. See the search for Jessie site HERE (http://www.jessiefoster.ca).

ARTICLE #58) Former Lillooet resident continues her search for missing daughter

Monday, May 9, 2007
Former Lillooet resident continues her search for missing daughter
Bridge River Lillooet News by Wendy Fraser

It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. And it’s a nightmare former Lillooet resident Glendene Grant has lived with for more than a year.

Her daughter Jessie Foster disappeared in Las Vegas on Mar. 28 of 2006 and has not been heard from since that date. Jessie’s cell phone, credit cards, bank account and bank card have not been touched.

Grant, who was born in Lillooet and spent her primary school years here, is a cousin of the Kane and Williams families.

Since her daughter vanished without a trace, an anguished Grant, now 49, has searched relentlessly for her child. She’s hired a private investigator; keeps in regular contact with law enforcement agencies such as the U.S. government’s ATLAS (Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery) taskforce; and has flown twice to Las Vegas to hand out missing persons posters on the Strip. An Internet technician, she also created a website, http://www.jessiefoster.ca and online newsletter that she monitors daily. And she’s devoted long, intense hours to making sure Jessie’s story is featured on TV shows ranging from Geraldo at Large and the Maury Show to news broadcasts that include Global National with Kevin Newman. Last month, Grant flew to New York to tape an episode of The Montel Williams Show, scheduled to be aired sometime this month.

Over the past year, she has become sadly familiar with a strange, seedy netherworld well-known to police officers, private investigators and bounty hunters.

Glendene Grant is convinced her daughter is still alive and believes she’s being held against her will, trapped in a human trafficking ring. Networks of human traffickers prey on immigrants, indentured servants, massage parlour workers and prostitutes, holding them captive and forcing them to commit sex acts.

If Jessie Foster is alive, she will turn 23 on May 27. The second oldest of four sisters, Jessie, a straight-A student in high school, worked two part-time jobs in Kamloops and later lived with her father in Calgary before starting what was supposed to be a short tour of the United States.

Just days before she vanished, Jessie was planning to return to Kamloops. Grant told the News her daughter had paid for one month of car insurance so she could take her car from its storage spot in the family backyard in Kamloops and drive with her sister to Calgary.

“As soon as this happened, I knew that she just didn’t go away. There is no way she would have done that,” Grant says emphatically. Her reasons for hoping and believing Jessie is still alive include her profound conviction that Jessie “wouldn’t do this to her family” to her matter-of-fact motherly intuition that her daughter would not have left behind her hair-dryer and make-up.

Jessie left Canada in 2005 after a male friend from Calgary persuaded her to take a trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They also visited New York City and Atlantic City before winding up in May 2005 in Las Vegas, the glamourous and glitzy gambling mecca.

Glendene Grant later learned that those four cities are known as hubs for human trafficking. She and her family now suspect the male friend was a recruiter for the sex trade.

In her almost-daily phone calls and emails home, Jessie said she was enjoying life in Vegas. She told her mother and sisters she had fallen in love with a rich man named Peter Todd. What she didn’t tell her family was that she was working for an escort service, had been arrested twice for soliciting and had been hospitalized after a beating.

Still, her mother was concerned.

“I told her, ‘You’re not staying in Las Vegas. You don’t know anybody there, we don’t know anybody there. If you ever went missing, I wouldn’t know where to start looking for you.’”

Glendene Grant pauses on the phone to gather her emotions. “I don’t know why I said that. It wasn’t as if I had a premonition or anything. But those words haunt me, they really haunt me.”

After Jessica vanished, her family learned the apparently wealthy Peter Todd had no legal source of income, his ex-wife had been arrested for prostitution and Todd himself had been arrested for spousal abuse.

When he was interviewed by police, Todd, 39, said Jessie had moved out several days after her last call home. North Las Vegas Police officers say they have no evidence to show that Jessie left town or encountered a violent end. Todd is not a suspect, they say, because they have no proof a crime has been committed.

“She was out of her element and out of her depth,” Grant says of her daughter’s experience in Las Vegas, a city whose marketing campaign encourages visitors to sin all they like. “The money is intoxicating and it can be an easy lifestyle.”

Glendene Grant believes Jessie was leaving for home when she either offended someone in the shady Las Vegas underworld or was “bumped”, meaning she was sold by her pimp to another pimp or “wasn’t top girl any more” and was degraded to a less important level in her pimp’s life.

Grant contends that police ad the media do not give the same attention to the cases of missing prostitutes as they do other missing persons. She adds that she is disappointed by the response of the Las Vegas police.

Officer Tim Bedwell of the North Las Vegas Police says there are no new leads in the disappearance of Jessica Foster. He describes it a “cold case”. Grant says he told her she is now the “prime investigator” into her daughter’s disappearance.

She and her family have organized yard sales, bottle drives, raffles, dinners and other fund-raising efforts to aid in the search for Jessie. They’ve needed the money for travel expenses, fees for private investigators and to increase the reward for information on Jessie.

“We started with a $5,000 reward. For people who are making $3,000 a day as prostitutes, that’s a laughable amount of money,” says Grant. “Increasing it to $7,500, to $10,000 and $20,000 and up, we hope someone will pay attention and come forward. And every time we increase it, Crime Stoppers in Las Vegas makes an announcement about that and her picture gets picked up and shown again.

“We can’t get her back without money,” she states flatly. “This is a situation that needs money. Jessie has lots of blood ties to Lillooet and we would appreciate any help that people can give.”

Jessie’s family has established a bank account at CIBC to collect donations to help their search. The transit number for Jessica Foster in Trust is 00050 and the account number is 98-27412.

Glendene Grant remains convinced her daughter is alive. She explains it this way, “My heartstrings to Jessie are still intact.”

After Jessie’s disappearance, Grant became friends with other parents of missing children. They share a tragic and common bond.

“I know people who feel their children are dead and people who believe they’re alive. The cops have told me a mother’s intuition can be the most important thing in these cases,” she continues. “I’ve always felt she’s alive. Once I eliminated I my mind the possibility that she was murdered or that she left of her own free will, that left me with the belief that she’s been taken against her will. I have a strong feeling that she needs to be found and rescued.”

Until that day comes, Glendene Grant will continue to devote her time to searching for her daughter.

“Not a moment goes by that I don’t think of her.”

NOTE FROM GLENDENE: Reporter Wendy Fraser used to be friends with my older brother when we were young kids…I was the annoying little sister who got in the way a lot! Thank you Wendy.

ARTICLE #57) Mom won't give up hope for daughter

Sunday, April 15, 2007
Mom won't give up hope for daughter
Edmonton Sun by Tarina White

A year after a young Calgary woman vanished in Sin City, her mother is hoping spotlighting the disappearance on a U.S. talk show will bring her daughter home.

Glendene Grant is flying to New York City on Tuesday to tape an episode of The Montel Williams Show about women who get lured into the sex trade and wind up missing.

Jessica Foster, 21, disappeared in March 2006 after travelling to Las Vegas, where she wound up working as a prostitute and was, at one point, beaten so badly she was hospitalized.

Grant yesterday said her daughter's case needs major TV exposure to be solved, pointing to the media frenzy surrounding the disappearances of Laci Peterson and Elizabeth Smart.

"I need Jessie to be that recognized, I don't believe she deserves any less," she said, adding the episode is expected to air in a few weeks. "I still think she's alive and I think she's out there and needs to be found."

Family and friends in Calgary are hosting a fundraiser tonight to collect donations for the family's ongoing investigation.

The silent auction fundraiser will be held at Jameson's Irish Pub, 3575 20 Ave. N.E., at 6 p.m. Call 282-2979 for information.

ARTICLE #56) Montel to air tragic story

Sunday, April 15, 2007
Montel to air tragic story
Calgary Sun by Tarina White

A year after a young Calgary woman vanished in Sin City, her mother is hoping spotlighting the disappearance on a U.S. talk show will bring her daughter home.

Glendene Grant is flying to New York City on Tuesday to tape an episode of The Montel Williams Show about women who get lured into the sex trade and wind up missing.

Jessica Foster, 21, disappeared in March 2006 after travelling to Las Vegas, where she wound up working as a prostitute and was, at one point, beaten so badly she was hospitalized.

Grant yesterday said her daughter's case needs major TV exposure to be solved, pointing to the media frenzy surrounding the disappearances of Laci Peterson and Elizabeth Smart.

"I need Jessie to be that recognized, I don't believe she deserves any less," she said, adding the episode is expected to air in a few weeks. "I still think she's alive and I think she's out there and needs to be found."

Family and friends in Calgary are hosting a fundraiser tonight to collect donations for the family's ongoing investigation.

The silent auction fundraiser will be held at Jameson's Irish Pub, 3575 20 Ave. N.E., at 6 p.m. Call 282-2979 for information.

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.”

ARTICLE #54) A year ago, a young woman with a secret vanished in Las Vegas

Wednesday, April 4, 2007
A year ago, a young woman with a secret vanished in Las Vegas: 'I get a strong feeling that ... she needs to be found and rescued'
Globe & Mail by Cathryn Atkinson

Whenever Glendene Grant needs to hear her daughter's voice, she goes to her laptop and calls up an audio file she made a year ago. In it is a recording taken from Jessie Foster's cellphone.

Only one word in the message is spoken by the young woman from Kamloops, who disappeared in Las Vegas on March 28, 2006, but it is all Ms. Grant has to connect her with her daughter's physical presence.

First, a messaging-service voice tells her, "You have reached the voicemail of. . . ." And she hears her girl say her name: "Jessica."

Then the messaging-service voice returns, telling her to "speak after the beep."

For weeks after Ms. Foster went missing, her mother and the rest of the family followed those instructions, leaving increasingly frantic messages that were never returned.

Eventually, Ms. Grant, a 49-year-old Internet technician, decided to download her daughter's voicemail before it, too, disappeared.

"Now I only have to go over to the computer," she said. "That's when I feel obsessive, when I hear her voice two, three, four times in a row."

If Ms. Foster is still alive, she will turn 23 next month. The second oldest of four sisters, Ms. Foster, a straight-A student in high school, worked at Boston Pizza in Kamloops and later lived with her father in Calgary before starting what was supposed to be a short tour of the United States. Her mother said she had planned to go to college on her return.

Instead, she moved to Las Vegas in May, 2005, telling her family she had met a rich man, 39-year-old Peter Todd, and fallen in love.

"She told us she liked it there and wanted to stay, and that he was living off a trust fund. We had no reason not to believe her," said Ms. Grant, although she added that she was concerned her daughter would be residing in the U.S. illegally.

For 10 months, Ms. Foster would e-mail, call or text message her mother or sisters almost daily, telling them stories of the glamour of the casinos and of seeing stars like Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake sitting at the next table in restaurants.

Then, nothing.

After her daughter vanished, Ms. Grant and her former husband Dwight Foster, Ms. Foster's father, reported her missing to the North Las Vegas Police Department and the RCMP. And they hired a private detective who, after a short search, gave them the devastating news that their daughter had been known as "Taylor," and had been prostituting herself through a Las Vegas escort service.

Ms. Foster, they learned, had been arrested twice and her boyfriend was not from a rich family, but had gained his apparent wealth from unknown means. He had an ex-wife who had been arrested for prostitution herself, and Mr. Todd had been arrested for spousal abuse, the private detective said. This was confirmed by North Las Vegas police.

After Ms. Foster's disappearance, Mr. Todd was twice interviewed by police, and said she had moved out several days after her last call home, North Las Vegas police said. No evidence has been discovered to show that she had either left town or met a violent end, they said. Mr. Todd is not considered a suspect in the case, and now refuses to speak to the media.

Officer Tim Bedwell of the North Las Vegas police described the case as "the most investigated non-crime our department has ever taken on." He explained that their jurisdiction does not cover "the Strip," where the main casinos are located and where Ms. Foster worked, but the suburban outskirts of the city where she resided with Mr. Todd.

"There's been nothing new in this case for a very long time. It is fundamentally a cold case. This is a missing adult and we have no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing," he said. "It's very frustrating for her family. From a police department perspective, it is frustrating that we can't offer them any help or closure."

As the investigation continued, Ms. Grant said it became apparent to her that missing prostitutes do not warrant the same attention as other missing people in the eyes of the police and the news media. She said she has been disappointed by the Las Vegas police response, and that of the FBI, which became involved in Ms. Foster's case last August.

"You are not what you do," she said angrily. "It was like she was to blame for what happened to her."

Officer Bill Castle, spokesman for Las Vegas police's metropolitan division, which covers the casinos, said no statistics are kept on how many prostitutes go missing each year.

"It's not a statistical database we make -- based on their occupation," he said. "There is a significant number of people who go missing involuntarily because something bad has happened to those who deal in criminal activity, whether it be prostitution or drugs. That lifestyle places people in jeopardy."

The life-changing experience of having a missing child has thrust Ms. Grant into a kinship with the families of other missing people throughout North America. She stays in touch with those she has befriended, and trades information where possible. With her Internet skills, she has created an impressive website and online newsletter that she monitors daily. Her understanding employers let her work when she feels able.

When asked why she has turned the search for her daughter into a nearly full-time occupation, she broke down. Through sobs, she said: "I just can't see doing anything else for one of my babies. I brought her into this world and I'll be damned if someone's going to take her out of this world without me knowing what the hell happened.

"I look at it this way. If it wasn't for me every day spending all my moments looking for Jessie, I can honestly believe that nothing would be done on a daily basis. I feel that in the whole world I am the only person doing something every single day for over a year."

Mr. Foster, she said, has accepted that his daughter is dead and has moved on. Ms. Grant does not feel that way.

"From the second that her death is proven, I will have the rest of my life to mourn her. I am really, really, really close with my daughters, and I just think I would feel something in the depth of my heart if she was dead. I think she is being kept against her will," she said. "I get a strong feeling that she needs to be found and rescued."

ARTICLE #53) Mike on Crime

Sunday, April 1, 2007
Mike on Crime
Crime & Punishment (Radio Show) by Mike McIntyre

GUESTS:

LEVI AND CARRIE DRAHER – Fresh off an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show and on the eve of interviews with CNN and Geraldo Rivera, 16-year-old Levi Draher and his mother, Carrie, will join Mike from their Texas home to discuss his brush with death as a result of a shocking game police say many youths are risking their lives by playing. Called “The Choking Game”, many teens say they get a drug-like euphoria from surviving. But as Levi knows too well, it’s downright dangerous. He will recall his harrowing experience last fall in which doctors say he technically died after being found by his mother hanging from a nylon rope in his bedroom.

GORDON CRUSE – Cruse knows about Canada’s youth justice system like few others. The British Columbia resident spent 26 years working with at-risk youth inside Victoria’s Youth Custody Centre. He retired a few years ago but still has strong feelings about what is working – and what is not – as stories of teens out of control continue to dominate headlines. Cruse has shared many of his views in his book “Juvie: Inside Canada’s Youth Jails”. And now he will join Mike for an hour-long discussion about a hot-button topic on the minds of so many Canadians. There will be plenty of time for open lines as well.

RAMONA PINEDA – This Edmonton resident still remembers listening to her mother’s screams as she was stabbed to death in 1982. Now Pineda is furious that the killer – her own father – is being allowed to visit family in Nova Scotia through permits granted by the National Parole Board. Pineda will discuss her mother’s killing and what she believes is the re-victimization of her family. Click HERE to read full story.

*** 1:00 PM > GLENDENE GRANT – It has now been a full year since B.C. resident Jessie Foster seemingly vanished without a trace in the seedy underworld of the Las Vegas strip. Despite an FBI investigation and countless calls for help, the case remains unsolved. Grant, Jessie’s mother, refuses to give up hope. She will join me to discuss the hellish year she has just survived and what can be done to find her daughter.

FLOYD WIEBE – Following the horrific 2003 murder of his son, T.J., this Winnipeg father has become the a strong voice for victims of violence. As passionate as he is articulate, Wiebe has brought together countless other families who’ve experience a similar loss, called on government for legislative change, honoured his son’s memory with a moving website (Click HERE to view) and established a “educational awareness fund” in T.J.‘s name. Wiebe is now planning a gala fundraising event on May 16 in Winnipeg or victims of crime and needs your help. Tune in to find out what you can do to support this very important movement.

ARTICLE #52) She vanished a year ago today

Wednesday, March 28, 2007
She vanished a year ago today
Kamloops This Week by Cassidy Olivier

Glendene Grant woke up this morning and thought about her daughter, Jessie Foster.

It was a year ago today that the 21-year-old (now 22) last spoke to her family before disappearing into the hot Las Vegas air.

Her sister Crystal, the last to speak with Jessie over the phone, had been planning a trip to Las Vegas for a visit.

She could hear Jessie’s boyfriend, Peter Todd, joking in the background about how he wasn’t looking forward to having a tourist in the house.

Crystal’s last words were: “I’ll talk to you soon. I love you.”

No one has heard from Jessie since.

“The time flew by, but flew by in a bad way,” Grant says while sitting on a couch in her living room this week.

The light f