In this week's edition of "The Missing," we revisit the mysterious disappearance of Jessica Edith Louise Foster, a 21-year-old woman from Canada, who vanished from the streets of Las Vegas, Nevada in March 2006.
"Jessie was born in Calgary, AB, Canada on May 27, 1984. She was the second daughter for Dwight Foster and myself," Jessie's mom, Glendene Grant, said in a recent email. "On June 27, 1987, I moved back to Kamloops, BC, Canada, where I grew up and my parents still lived. My mom & dad bought me the house I am still living in over 20 years later. Jessie and her three sisters all went to the same elementary, junior high and high school that my siblings and I went to. My mom passed away 10 years ago on March 22, 1998, and my dad still lives in the house I grew up in."
According to Glendene, Jessie stayed with her in Kamloops until she reached the age of 16 and moved back to Calgary to live with her father.
"It was very sad for me, but you know, the Internet was something that makes you feel that others are no farther away than the other room," Glendene said. "Jessie was on MSN chats with her sisters and me practically daily. I remember hearing her belching from the other room and in a funny way, feeling nostalgic over it—you can only understand this if you ever heard Jessie's belching ringing throughout the house...it was loud and unbelievable for a beautiful, petite young woman to have that noise come from her. We laughed every time."
Jessie did well in school, and in June 2002 her mother and siblings drove to Calgary for her high school graduation ceremony. After receiving her diploma, Jessie got her own apartment and began working two jobs to support herself. She continued doing that until the spring of 2005, when she moved back to Kamloops to help her mom, who was having some behavioral problems with Jessie's 15-year-old sister.
"About three weeks after getting back to Kamloops, Jessie started getting calls from a man named Donald, someone she knew from when she was a teenager," Glendene said. "During one of her conversations with him, Donald asked Jessie if she wanted to go on a short trip with him to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to visit his mother—we have since found out that his mother lives in Edmonton, AB and not in Florida. She told us that he was paying for the trip and he just wanted someone as company for him on the vacation. We did not feel that this was wrong, but we did ask Jessie if this guy wanted anything in return. She assured us he did not. So she went away, coming home a few days later with pictures of the trip."
According to Glendene, Donald called Jessie again a few weeks later and asked her to go with him to New York City and then to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Glendene said she had a bad feeling about the trip and questioned her about it, but due to her age there was little they could do to stop her from going.
"She was to go to these places and fly back home, but for some reason, her trip got changed and she ended up going to Las Vegas, Nevada, arriving there on May 13, 2005. After arriving she called us and said she had decided to go there to visit a friend she knew there. That friend was dating a man who introduced Jessie to another man named Peter."
Peter and Jessie allegedly got engaged and lived together in a 3.4 million dollar home in North Las Vegas. Over the course of the next year, unbeknownst to her family, Jessie racked up several arrests for prostitution and at one point was beaten so severely that she had to be hospitalized. In the spring of 2006 Jessie stopped calling home, and her family began to fear something had happened to her. The family got in touch with Peter, who allegedly told them that Jessie had left him in April 2006. Concerned, Glendene reported her daughter missing to the North Las Vegas Police Department and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who later moved her case to the Serious Crimes Department. Nonetheless, there were few clues to follow, and the case quickly grew cold.
Jessie's parents are currently waiting for DNA samples they submitted to be compared to DNA collected from the body of a Jane Doe who was recently found in Kilgore, Gregg County, TX.
"We have been waiting since January for these results. Something that made the authorities look at Jessie as the possible Jane Doe was not only the fact that her facial features greatly resembled the Jane Doe, but there is a house in The Colony, TX that Peter is connected to, and Jane Doe was found not far from there."
Glendene is determined to find answers in her daughter's disappearance. She has been actively involved in the case from the beginning and currently maintains a Web site devoted to the case at http://www.jessiefoster.ca. According to the Web site, a $50,000 dollar reward is being offered for information. Jessie is described as 5'7" and 120 lbs., with blonde hair and hazel eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call Las Vegas Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.
"I have worked tirelessly in my search for my missing daughter and I will never stop until I find her," Glendene said. "If Jessie is alive, we need to find her soon and if Jessie is not alive, we need to find her soon so her soul can rest in peace. Either way, I will find my daughter."
If you are a family member of a missing loved one and have a case you would like covered here, contact me via e-mail. If you are a reader who would like to help, please spread the word about this blog so others can find us. The more people who see these stories the better chances someone might come forward with information.