She Truly Is In Heaven, Mom Says Of Missing Daughter
Posted August 6, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Just a few short months ago, Elizabeth Rutledge refused to give up hope. She still believed her daughter, Christina Calayca, was alive. The 20-year-old had vanished a year ago while on a camping trip up north with friends.
When the OPP called off the search, she and Calayca’s family raised the money to fund their own.
But over the same long weekend, one year later, a visit to the place where her daughter was last seen convinced her the hunt was over.
“The peace that I have after that,” Rutledge breathes. “I said truly she is in heaven. She is really taken care of by God.”
At Darcy McGee Catholic School, where Christina worked in the daycare, a mass was held in her memory. It was a celebration to honour her short life.
“These children are all clapping and the children are all, you know, jumping up and down. I see Christina jumping up and down with the children, you know. I always see it, you know, in her eyes how happy she was, and that’s how I experience right now, when people are happy, she is happy,” she smiles.
The last person to see Christina alive was also at the memorial, surrounded by her family and friends.
“I shouldn’t have left her, right,” admits Eddy Migue.
“That’s the biggest regret, that I left her to jog alone in the early morning where we don’t know the area really well, right,” he continued.
“Today is another day, another year that I know Christina wasn’t forgotten and that she is always loved by everybody,” Rutledge added.
Here’s a look back at the efforts taken to find the missing woman.
August 6, 2007: Christina Calayca disappears. The 20-year-old was camping at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park east of Thunder Bay with a female cousin and two young men. She and one of the men went for a jog. He says they split up and she never came back. Calayca had told her family she would be in Montreal for the long weekend.
August 13: OPP officers and up to 100 volunteers continue looking for the 20-year-old. She has now been missing for eight agonizing days. Christina’s father, Mario, and seven other relatives are making the 14-hour journey north to aid in the search.
August 15: A prayer vigil is held in Scarborough, at Prince of Peace Catholic Church. The daycare where she had worked since graduating from George Brown College in 2006 also holds a memorial.
August 22: There’s still no sign of Christina. “They’ve used K-9 units. They’ve used planes. They’ve used submarines. They’ve used all sorts of different ways in order to find Christina. And nothing, absolutely nothing works. There’s no clue at all,” said her distraught uncle Ken West.
August 23: The OPP call off their search.
September 7: The family has not yet given up hope, and heads north to look for their daughter.
December 10: A fundraiser is held to raise money for a private search. The family sells a CD entitled “Missing You” to pay for a canvass of the region, scheduled for spring.
May 28, 2008: A silent auction is held to support the upcoming hunt for Christina.
June 13: A private team, paid by fundraising efforts of the family, begins the hunt for Christina again. The family amassed $47,000 in donations.
August 6: It’s been one year to the day since Christina vanished.
The family is still searching, but no longer believe they will find her alive. Here’s how to help their efforts.
Fundraiser Information:
When: Sunday, August 10
Where: Victoria and Albert Pub, south-west corner of Warden and Lawrence Ave.
Time: 11am to 11pm
Cost: $5
See the Christina Calayca website
Christina is pictured with her mom and an unidentified young boy.
