A forensic sketch of Jessie Foster as she may look now sketched by Diana Trepkov.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED

Kamloops resident Glendene Grant’s daughter was the victim of human trafficking and disappeared from Las Vegas in 2006, never to be heard from again.

Grant has been searching for clues of her daughter’s disappearance for over 17 years, and earlier this month the unsolved case was brought back into focus by several news outlets in the states.

“Almost two weeks ago I started getting calls from different media sources telling me about missing women cases possibly being connected to a serial killer,” Grant said.

Just over a month ago, New York resident Rex Heuermann was arrested in connection with the killings of three victims found buried and bound in burlap sacks along Gilgo Beach, New York a decade ago, and is suspected of murdering a fourth, according to an article by NBC New York published on July 14, 2023. It is suspected Heuermann may have been involved with killings in Las Vegas and possibly Jessie Foster's disappearance.  

On August 10, Grant was contacted by Tara Rosenblum of Long Island -News 12 as police agencies in three states are looking for more possible victims of Heuermann, and Jessie Foster’s case is being looked into again. 

“I will take all the media attention I can get,” Grant said. “I’m convinced that this one (scenario) is more likely than any of the other ones brought up in the past.”

Jessie Foster was 21 years old when she disappeared on March 29, 2006 while living in North Las Vegas with her boyfriend. She stopped answering phone calls, which was out of character for her, and Grant filed a missing person’s report with the North Las Vegas Police Department on April 9. She learned through a private investigator that Foster had been beaten up, forced to work at an escort agency and arrested on numerous occasions for prostitution.

Foster is one of five escorts between the ages of 18 and 25 who were working in the Las Vegas area between 2003 and 2006 that were found missing or murdered. One of those, Lindsay Marie Harris, was 21 when her remains were found a year before Foster disappeared. Grant sees similarities between the two.

“Both Jessie and Lindsay were taken and forced into an escort agency unlike the other three victims who were working on street corners,” she said. “They’d been lured by men who claimed to be something they weren’t. Jessie’s so-called boyfriend was a race car driver and Lindsay’s was a music mogul.”

According to Long Island- News 12, the remains of four of the victims were dumped off remote roads and several were found wrapped in cloth. Detectives have long suspected the women could have been killed by the same person. It was discovered Heuermann purchased two time shares in the Las Vegas area in 2004 and 2005.

The news agency obtained many of the victims’ autopsy reports through a freedom of information request and compared them to records they got for the Gilgo Beach victims and found several similarities.

READ MORE: Kamloops mom marks 16th anniversary of daughter lost to human trafficking

Grant said she doesn’t believe there is “a real trail” to her daughter’s killer because her body was never found, but she’s hoping the attention on the case might provoke somebody who knows something to talk.

READ MORE: Denise Allan can't make final trip to Kelowna to seek missing son

“My biggest hope and prayer is that it’s been 17.5 years and all this media attention might be the straw that breaks someone and triggers them to say something,” she said. “There’s no evidence at this point so unless somebody confesses, it’s the only way we’re going to get answers.”

Grant has been interviewed by Nancy Grace, Murder Sheet Podcast, the Insider and NBCnews.

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