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JESSICA (Jessie) EDITH LOUISE FOSTER, international endangered missing woman and victim of human trafficking BY Jessie's mom, Glendene Grant . . . part 5
. . . CONTINUED FROM PART 4
JESSIE'S DESCRIPTION:
Missing Since: 03/29/06
Missing from: Las Vegas, Nevada
Home country: Canada
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: 05/27/84
Age at disappearance: 21
Age now: 27 as of May 27, 2011
Height: 5’6″
Weight: 110-130 lbs.
Hair Color: Naturally blonde, but could be dyed a darker colour
Eye Color: Hazel
Race: White
Gender: Female
Distinguishing Characteristics: Pierced right eyebrow, several ear piercings, no known scars or tattoos, long hair. Perfectly straight, white teeth. Vegetarian. Jewelry: Ring in the shape of a triangle full of little diamonds, with matching earrings, and a three-diamond princess-cut ring, sometimes wears a dainty nose ring.
Nickname: “Jessie”
DETAILS OF JESSIE'S DISAPPEARANCE:
Jessie was taken to Las Vegas in May 2005, met a man, and ended up moving in with him within a month or so (later we understood it was not because he cared for her - he 'owned' her. Less than one year later, she mysteriously vanished. Her older sister talked to her March 28 and said, “talk to you tomorrow”, but they have never heard from her again. It turns out her rich boyfriend is not a trust fund baby, as he told her and her family; he is actually a violent pimp has been convicted of spousal abuse, who has an estranged wife, who is a convicted prostitute, who many times threatened Jessie and Jessie’s life. The so-called boyfriend beat Jessica, but her family did not know this until she went missing, they were unable to get her to leave him. They later found out that he was forcing her into the escort business, which was discovered after she disappeared and her family hired a PI.
One of the last things that Jessie told her older sister, Crystal, during the last phone call was that she was packed and ready to leave, to come back to Canada for their stepsister's wedding reception. Crystal warned her to make sure he did not find out, but Jessie said she thought he already knew. Her family never heard back from her again. The police do not have any evidence of foul play at this time, but her family believes otherwise.
DNA, fingerprints and dental records are available.
Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
North Las Vegas Police Department
Det. Dave Molnar
(702) 633-1779
LETTER SENT TO HIGH SCHOOLS ABOUT MY HUMAN TRAFFICKING EDUCATION PRESENTATION:
My daughter is Jessie Foster. She is the Canadian woman missing in Las Vegas. Jessie was born in Calgary on May 27, 1984, moved to Kamloops, BC with me when she was 3 years old and moved back to Calgary when she was 16 years old to live with her dad. She graduated from John G. Diefenbaker high school, where she attended grades 11 & 12, in 2002.
Jessie is Canada’s most well-known human trafficking victim. She was lured to the USA by Donald Vaz (younger brother of convicted pimp, Lima Vaz) a man she met while she was still in high school and when she was 20 years old, after she moved back to Kamloops, he called her to go on a 'trip' then another 'trip'. These are the same trips we have seen in the movies. She was first taken to Ft. Lauderdale & Key West, Florida; then she was taken to Manhattan, New York & Atlantic City, New Jersey; and then instead of bringing her home, she was then taken to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jessie was 'given' (or sold) to a couple in Las Vegas, Yvonne 'Angel' Hubrechtsen (recruiter) and Richard Barrington Walcott, who then 'handed her over' (or sold) to a violent pimp. This person did what Professor Benjamin Perrin, Canada’s leading human trafficking expert and the author of INVISIBLE CHAINS: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking – a book that includes Jessie's case, and many others call 'love bombing'. He did everything he could to ensure Jessie fell in love with him (it only takes 72 hours to brainwash a young person), including: wining & dining at the most expensive places in Sin City; buying her clothes, shoes, purses and other items to wear to such places; giving her expensive cars to drive; moving her into his $750,000 house and I am sure much, much more. Jessie was taken to Las Vegas on May 13, 2005 (exactly 2 weeks before her 21st birthday) and by June – the very next month – Jessie was living with Peter Bertrand Todd.
Jessie was kept in Las Vegas from May 2005 until November of that year, when she was allowed to come home for a visit. We thought she might stay, after all the phone calls that were nothing but fighting – screaming and swearing at each other. She stayed through most of December and then, suddenly, on Christmas Day, she told us she had to be at the airport by 2:00PM that day, to fly back to Las Vegas. That was the last time I ever laid my eyes on my daughter. Three months later, Jessie was a missing person.
Jessie was planning on coming back to Canada for her stepsister's wedding reception. The wedding was in Mexico, and they were having the reception in Calgary in April 2006. Jessie and her older sister Crystal spoke on the phone on March 28th many times and exchanged several text messages throughout the day, ending the last call with "I will talk to you tomorrow". But for Jessie and for us, tomorrow never came – you see, we have never seen or heard from Jessie since.
Since then a lot has happened, but to make a VERY long story, short, I will tell you what I have been doing with Crime Stoppers here in Kamloops. Mark Price, included in this email, and I have been going into high schools with a human trafficking educational presentation. It is to teach our teenagers to try to NOT become a human trafficking victim and to know what to do if they even were to see something that did not seem right.
I have also done the presentation for the Lower Nicola Indian Band, near Kamloops and we are going to a closed forum in Langley, BC next month, to meet with several people, including MP Joy Smith, to discuss her National Action Plan to fight human trafficking in Canada. And I am invited to travel around Canada (Vancouver many times; Edmonton several times; Toronto a couple of times .. . . with more events booked) to fundraisers for human trafficking organizations and to launch new human trafficking organizations and many other things, which I am copying from another document & pasting below.
NOW, the point of this email. I was hoping you would be open to us coming to your school to do our presentation AT NO COST TO YOU. At the age of the students in your school, it is important that they are educated about human trafficking. After all, some of them will be out in the 'real world' very quickly. We do classroom and assembly presentations, which ever is better for your students.
Please get back to me about this idea I am proposing as soon as you can. Thank you very much for your time. Sincerely, Glendene Grant.
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SUBJECT: Jessie's case aired on HLN (sister station to CNN) twice: NANCY GRACE on Jan 27 & ISSUES on Feb 1
Well, January is already past, and we are now into February, meaning that next month – on March 29, 2011 – it will be 5 years since Jessie disappeared. FIVE YEARS! Can anyone believe it? I know I certainly have a hard time even imagining it has been half a decade. HALF A DECADE! Wow – it is amazing that life can just fly by with something like the disappearance of a loved one looming over everything. No matter what happens, good or bad – we have to remember to tell Jessie about it. I say that, because I believe she is coming home one day. I also know that if she is not alive, she already knows.
There are many things that I am grateful for, even while living anyone's worst nightmare. I am grateful to have Jim in my life – he is my strength and he is always there for me. I am grateful my other daughters – if not for them, I don't know what I would do. I am grateful for my grandchildren. They are the light of my light, and they just mean so much to me. I am grateful to all the rest of my family – my elderly dad, my siblings, my aunts & uncles, my nephews & nieces and cousins – there are so many and they are always there for me. And for all my friends and Jessie supporters. You all keep me going. I will never give up, not with the support system I have. I love my family and friends so much.
Jessie's case has never left the news. Year-after-year there are more and more reporters and news shows who are interested in writing or airing it on through their media. Last year was a huge year, not just for Jessie's case, but also for human trafficking taking its rightful place in the top of the news, so people know this is happening in this day-and-age and it is happening here. To our daughters, our sisters, our friends. Jessie's case, already known as an international human trafficking case, she is Canada's most well-known case of human trafficking and becoming the same in the USA and around the world. HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS NOT A 3rd WORLD COUNTRY ISSUE ANY MORE – nor is it just an episode on a crime TV show.
This year is looking to be no different . . . well, actually it will be. It will be even busier, if January was any indication of what is to come.
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Just a quick note about something that happened at the Kamloops airport on my way to Toronto for the AAMS launch:
I was at the Kamloops airport on Thursday to catch my flight to Calgary, then on to Toronto. I asked a young women in the line-up if this was the flight to Calgary and she said yes. I stood behind her and she turned around and looked at my Jessie button and said, “I like your button”. I said, “Thank you – that is my daughter Jessie – she is missing and the victim of human trafficking.
She asked me how I knew and I told her that “we don't have PROOF, if that is what you mean.” Then I told her a condensed version of Jessie's story. How she as lured . . . etc. I also told her that several human trafficking experts in Canada and the USA believe Jessie's case was a CLASSIC case of modern-day sex slavery.
She asked if I had another button, but I didn't – however I had posters. I told her I would get her out a poster on the plane, but she said CAN I HAVE ONE NOW? I got her out a poster and wrote the website on it, since I had forgot to add it before printing, and gave it to her.
I asked her name and she said Alicia. And she said she was RUNNING AWAY. I asked her how old she was and she said 23. She said she can't decide if she wants to get on the plane or not. I told her I was going to Toronto and I would be seeing Jessie's stepsister Alisha. Then she looked as Jessie's poster and she started to cry.
The she looked me deep in my eyes and asked me if she should go to Calgary or back to 100 Mile (House, BC – pop. 2,000 – located along Highway 16 . . . otherwise known as THE HIGHWAY OF TEARS. I said DON'T LEAVE.
She asked me how to get her luggage off the plane and I told her to go to an agent. She hugged me, crying, and I told her to go home and tell all her friends about Jessie Foster and to educate themselves (or call me) on human trafficking. With awareness none of you will ever end up in the position Jessie is in!
While I was in the line-up I heard an announcement to have someone's luggage removed from the plane. I smiled. I feel deep in my heart I truly helped her. Maybe even saved her. Remember – Calgary is where Jessie met the trafficker that lured her away. Now I know why I had to be at the Kamloops airport on Thursday afternoon, January 27, 2011. To save beautiful Alicia.
NOTE: She had my email address from the poster and she messaged me right away.
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I am the second guest on the show, following Stephen Watkins, searching for his 2 sons, Alexander and Christopher, taken from Canada on cancelled passports, on March 6, 2009 to somewhere in Europe by their non-custodial mother in a tragic case of international parental kidnapping. Stephen has been looking for his sons ever since. Official website for the missing Watkins brothers: http://www.missing-children-child-abductions-kids-abducted.com.
I was invited and I have joined the Board of Advisors for the Frederick Douglas Family Foundation – http://www.fdff.org. There are several goals, including going into schools to educate our youth about the horrific crime of human trafficking: I want to welcome our new Board of Advisors members and thank them for supporting the efforts of the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation. We’re entering into an exciting period of growth and we hope that the expanded Board of Advisors is the initial step to building a solid infrastructure for the foundation. Let me tell you briefly about the members: – http://www.fdff.org/advisors.html - Click here to read up on Glendene: http://www.fdff.org/glendene-grant.html.
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I have been asked by Naomi Baker, the founder of Canada Fights Human Trafficking, to open the western Canada chapter of CFHT. I will be the director, and with my volunteers we will be responsible for rescuing victims and working to help them become survivors. Website for CFHT:http://www.canadafightshumantrafficking.com.
I also want to always educate others on human trafficking, which I will continue to do with the Crime Stoppers. I am very excited about all of this, as I think of it as the next chapter in my life and in my search for Jessie.
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