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.