Family Of Missing T.O. Day Care Worker Launches One Last Effort To Find Out What Happened To Her
Posted October 29, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There’s nothing worse for a family than not knowing what happened to their loved one.
It’s a truth the relatives of Christina Calayca know all too well.
The 20-year-old Toronto day care worker disappeared in Rainbow Falls Provincial Park, near Schreiber, Ontario, in August 2007. She told her friends she was going for a jog in the woods.
She never came back.
Since then, police and volunteers have conducted search after search of the densely wooded area, desperately looking for any sign of her. Even when authorities gave up the hunt as unproductive, her fiercely devoted family refused to rest without an answer.
But after more than a year, her trail and the trails she was running on, have all gone cold.
Her relatives acknowledge that whatever happened to Christina, it likely isn’t going to be good news. It’s a testimony to their terrible desperation that they actually hoped she’d been kidnapped and was being held somewhere against her will.
But after so long with no word, even her most ardent supporters had to let reality creep in, with even her mother conceding on the one-year anniversary of her disappearance that she’s ” truly in heaven.”
And yet, hope lingers. On Tuesday, the emotionally battered mother, Elizabeth Rutledge, told CityNews, “I know she’s alive, she’s still waiting for us.”
Either way, the search still isn’t over. Aware it’s likely to be more a recovery effort than a rescue, Calayca’s family is more determined than ever to find some evidence of her remains in what they once thought was a beautiful wilderness.
They’ve organized a gala fundraiser to try and keep the funds coming for one more expensive scouring of the area.
And it’s apparent the family’s heart has touched many others. The special event, which takes place at the Sheraton Parkway North Hotel on Thursday, will feature live bands, including a Canadian Idol finalist, live singers and guest speakers like boxing great George Chuvalo.
CityNews’s Francis D’Souza is hosting the event, which hopes to raise enough money to answer the questions that will otherwise forever gnaw at a family reluctantly thrust into a very unwanted spotlight: what happened to their loved one and where is she now?
For more on the event and how you can help, click here.
