Christina Marie Calayca-Missing from Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada 8/6/07

[FoolsGold]

Ontario Provincial Police formally suspended the search for a 20 year old female child care worker missing from an impromptu camping trip with three church youth-group friends in the rugged Thunder Bay park.

The search was marked by conflicts with the family members who wished to participate but OPP excluded them as well as other members of the general public as the terrain was too rugged and the searchers might confuse the search dog teams.

Ground was hard and did not lend itself to footprint formation. Family never had any doubts about her "fireman wannabe" companion who continued to jog alone while she chose a different trail.

Search by specialized police and military units and air search by volunteers turned up nothing at all. Eventually a grid search for a "non responsive person" (SARspeak for corpse) extending eight kilometers from her last known position was instituted but as temperatures are now falling and 17 days had elapsed the search was "suspended".

OPP is taking some heat for starting the parallel criminal investigation rather late and not having promptly interviewed all campground guests and known participants in local sporting event that took place that day.

OPP also taking heat for excluding family members who showed up with gps equipment and wanted to search.

[FoolsGold]

Family is very religious and the mother and some other family members are still clinging to hope.

During the search the mother felt the abduction theory was not correct and that her daughter was merely wandering in dense forrests. Now that the search has been concluded, the mother clings to hope by believing in the abduction theory.

[FoolsGold]

No developments.

Criminal investigation continues but has so far turned up nothing of interest. Ofcourse it is not too likely to turn up anything of interest when there was such a delay in initiating it and most of the witnesses left the recreational area without being questioned by the OPP.

[MsVada]

Thank you for the update FG,  I'm saying a prayer they find her

[FoolsGold]

Thank you for the update FG,  I'm saying a prayer they find her

Find her? They ain't a lookin' no more!!

Oh, by the way: Her aunt says she had a foot injury that would have made jogging impossible but the OPP have maintained there is no evidence that she was not jogging.

[FoolsGold]

Vigils held, statements to press issued by family, etc.

OPP still maintains its a "missing from jogging trail" case in which the terrain is rugged, conditions harsh and missing person ill-equipped to deal with the rigors of the terrain and climate.

Family still maintains it was an "abduction" but is split as to whether it was "not inclined to jog" or "physically unable to jog". Family is also split as "still in park" or "being held elsewhere".

OPP was slow to interview attendees at nearby recreational events. OPP did exclude family members from initial stages of the search. OPP has not released forensic test results on the lone sock found in the search.

[Nut44x4]

Originally written by bruiser on 2007-10-24 8:24 PMhttp://www.filipino.ca/forum/thread-view.asp?threadid=29281&posts=1

This whole storey of Christina missing from the get go sounds fishy. And this isn't just my opinon, many experienced people from the North feel the same way. First she lies to her mother where she is going,( Montreal) than she convinces her friends to go camping which they weren't keen on doing. Than they don't go camping near by, like Algonquin or Barrie area, they go half way across the province, a 1000 kilometers away. Than she decides to leave her cousin when they were part way through the jog. I have found out since that she does have a computer and an MSN account and her picture has been recently changed. This sure sounds like she met someone on the internet, and she was probably going to meet them half way. Somebody please grab her computer and start tracing her MSN conversations previous to Aug. 6th 2007. Three strange things in a row happening are not coincedental.

[Nut44x4]

Mon, December 10, 2007
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Davis_Nicholas/2007/12/10/4716769-sun.php
'I won't rest until we find her'
Distraught uncle starts foundation to fund search for niece who went missing while camping

The past four months have been extremely difficult for Bayani Caguicla.

He can't sleep at night, he's having trouble focusing on day-to-day activities and he has lost 30 pounds.

Caguicla's problems began Aug. 6. That's the day he received a call at work that his 20-year-old niece had vanished while camping up north.

"To be honest with you, when I first got the call, I couldn't believe it," the 36-year-old construction worker said. "I was in complete denial. I told my boss I had to leave work immediately.

"Shortly after that I completely lost it. I kind of flipped out. I just couldn't understand how she could have just disappeared."

Neither could the OPP. Christina Calayca, a Toronto day-care worker, went missing while camping with her cousin and two men from a Christian youth group at Rainbow Provincial Park, 200 km east of Thunder Bay.

After her disappearance, the OPP conducted an extensive search. More than 40 officers, dozens of volunteers and a dive team scoured more than 570 hectares of the rugged north shore of Lake Superior. They also used police dogs and an aircraft equipped with an infrared camera.

Three weeks after the search began, police called it off. A little more than a month later, on Oct. 5, the OPP announced they were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Calayca.

"I understand that the police have done a lot to help my family find Christina and I appreciate everything they have done," Caguicla said. "But I'm not satisfied. For Christina to just up and disappear is totally out of character for her. I won't rest until we find her."

Caguicla had a very close relationship with his niece, who would have turned 21 on Dec. 19. They often talked on the phone, but the last time he saw her was less than two weeks before she disappeared at a surprise party Calayca had thrown for her mother.

"My wife and I helped her with the decorations," Caguicla said. "One of the last things we talked about was about an earlier camping trip she had gone on.

"She told me she had gotten lost with a group of people and how scared she was. She said she prayed to God to help them find their way. And God answered her prayers.

"That's why it's hard for me to swallow that she got lost again less than two weeks after we had that conversation.

"I can't believe she would go anywhere alone in the woods after hearing her tell me how afraid she was the last time when she got lost with a group."

Caguicla and his wife have put together their own group in an effort to continue the search for Calayca. It's called the Find Christina Calayca Foundation, a non-profit organization made up of the missing woman's family and friends.

They're organizing a family-led search in the spring. To pay for the mission, the organization is trying to raise money through events, donations and sales of a CD single written by Caguicla.

"I wrote the song after coming back from my second search trip in Thunder Bay," he said. "I was so frustrated with our inability to find Christina I decided to write a song for her.

"It's called Missing You and it's my way of coping with my own feelings."

The song is a plea to help find Calayca. It also highlights her good qualities and the impact her absence is having on family and friends.

"I know in her heart she would prefer that the family not suffer because of her and she would forgive us if we didn't find her," Caguicla said. "But, I don't know if I could forgive myself if we don't find her."

For more information about the Find Christina Calayca Foundation and to hear the song her uncle wrote for her, visit findchristinacalayca.com.

[Nut44x4]

http://www.findchristinacalayca.com/home.html

[Nut44x4]

She Truly Is In Heaven, Mom Says Of Missing Daughter
Wednesday August 6, 2008

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.
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_25492.aspx

[Nut44x4]

September 10, 2008
Christina Calayca

Christina Calayca’s mother Elizabeth Rutledge clutches to hope that her daughter will be found after missing for over a year.

Christina a young woman of twenty years of age went on a camping trip with her cousin and two friends August 5, 2007. She was last seen August 6 by her friend Eddy Migue as they had split up on a jog together..

An extensive search of the area was conducted and all resources were pulled out in hopes to find the young daycare worker..But the search came up fruitless, no Christine.

“I have a lot of faith up until now that she is alive,” says Elizabeth Rutledge “But there’s also a lot of visionaries, and the visionaries say that ..” the Toronto woman pauses, bracing herself. “… she’s dead and she’s murdered, so I don’t know where.”

Elizabeth believes her daughter was abducted even though the OPP does not suspect foul play.

So the question remains. Where is Christina? Was she abducted or did she leave on her own? Will Elizabeth Rutledge get the answers that she so desperatly seeks? Will a mothers heart ever be put at ease?

http://findingpeacewithin.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/christina-calayca-2/

[Nut44x4]

For those who are interested in 'Visions', here is one posted by mauvelilac @
Unsolved Murders | Missing People Canada
http://www.unsolvedcanada.ca/index.php/topic,1272.15.html

mauvelilac says:
This is a run down of what Christina has shown me. Her family refuses to believe anyone is lying, when in fact Christina tells me they(the witnesses)are all lying to a degree.
1) There was no jogging on a trail. They left the campsite for a totally different reason that morning.
2) They never made it to the trail. She was killed 30-35 feet from a campsite. Campsite 18 in point of fact. I don't know a lot of bears that carry shovels and hit someone smack in the face with it. And then hit them again in the back of the head to ensure they are dead. He told her he was taking a shovel to protect them if a bear attacked. Why would she disbelieve him? I at first thought she said 30-35 minutes into the trail but she says no. They were close to the campsite.
3) She was carried a certain distance, dragged the rest of the way
4) When we saw her she was really sad, we thought it was because of her Mom and she wanted to come home but it wasn't only that, her friends(the people who  she thought were her friends) and her cousin  betrayed  her.  They just left her there like a piece of garbage and went on with their lives. They need to come clean.
5) The reason she has not been found is because the police have been misdirected as to the area she was last seen in. Her mother was allowed to spend $40,000 on a search when the witnesses knew she couldn't be found. She's nowhere near where the tracking dogs and the searchers were. To me that's absolutely deplorable!

6) If Christina is found, she believes that her cousin will be blamed. Well what does he expect? He told authourities he was with her that morning. The girl who was with them is afraid to talk because she doesn't want to meet the same fate as Christina. Who can blame her?

I will tell you guys what I told the police and Christina's family. I would never and I mean never risk the reputation of this site or my own and tell you things that didn't come from her (Christina) directly. Plain and simple. And were I proven to be incorrect, I would be the FIRST to offer a public apology.

She wants me to expose them and that's what I'm doing. I know Chris has the option to delete my post, I wish he wouldn't because I want to flush these people out and bring Christina home. And if I have to hurt Christina's family by showing them the truth so be it. The truth shall set you free.
After all, who's the victim here? Christina is..she needs to be found.

[Nut44x4]

A final search for Christina Calayca
Filipino community raises money to help family of missing woman have a last look for her remains

Mar 30, 2009
Comments on this story  (9)

There are more than 350 people in this Woodbridge banquet hall on a Friday night, most of them Filipino-Canadian, wearing suits and evening gowns and eating dinner off paper plates on their laps. A pair of nuns smile and laugh, a small battalion of moms dish out noodles and sushi, and a crew of boys practise their dance moves in the lobby.

Everyone is here to raise money for yet another search for the body of Christina Calayca, a 20-year-old daycare worker who vanished during a morning jog at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park almost 20 months ago.

Most of them did not know Christina personally. And some of the people who did are not here tonight, pulled away by the obligations of everyday life.

But the GTA's Filipino community is a close, religious, family-oriented one, ready and willing to rally around a cause like Christina, despite the passing of time. For her, they have created an album, A Day Goes By: Tribute to Christina, with 12 original songs, and are donating all the proceeds to a summer search for her remains at Rainbow Falls.

It is not the first time this community has been unified by loss. When 17-year-old Jeffrey Reodica was shot and killed by a plainclothes Toronto police officer in 2004, the community formed the Justice for Jeffrey Coalition and held a prayer rally outside the Special Investigations Unit's headquarters in Mississauga.

As Filbert Wong, the 25-year-old co-producer of the album puts it, "The Filipino community is like the parent, and Christina's like the missing child."

While Christina's mother, Elizabeth Rutledge, moves through the banquet hall in a black pant suit, holding a tray of pastries one minute and wondering aloud why the singers are late the next, Christina's friends jot down memories of her on cue cards. The master of ceremonies, who did know the young woman, will read them aloud later, to try and keep her presence in the room.

They write in the present tense.

"Christina's contagious laughter," says one. Her "motherly care for younger kids." "She's always smiling," says another. And, inexplicably, "her dirty feet," with a smiley face.

Katrina Hipol, 20, worked with Christina at a summer camp the same summer she went missing.

"She told me about her plans, going camping that weekend, and I told her to be careful and all the things you say to someone ..." says Hipol, a petite young woman in a fuchsia cocktail dress.

Hipol, like many of the young people here, believes there is still a chance her friend is alive.

"As small as that hope may be, I'm still clinging to that hope."

But even finding her dead would bring some long-sought closure. And they might be getting close.

Last June, working with the OPP, Christina's family organized an extensive private search of the park. But after 22 volunteers with search dogs, five days and nearly $44,000, they found nothing.

But then, in November, a private team with six cadaver dogs took to the park again. All six dogs detected human remains in the bottom of the river. But water rushed rapidly over the rocks, and it was too deep and too swift to go further, says Jeff Hasse, the search manager.

"It's most likely Christina," says Hasse, a volunteer with the Search Rescue and Recovery Resources of Minnesota, who has been working with the family on a volunteer basis. "Because of her personality we think that she's probably pretty close," he says.

Tracking dogs can detect human remains that are 100 years old, he says.

But how much longer can a mother go on?

While Rutledge, 51, once had a robust team of family members supporting – or even leading – the fundraising and organizing for two extensive private searches already conducted, she admits that family support is dwindling.

"Right now, I'm just by myself. I'm so tired," she says, a few days before the fundraiser. She hoped to raise $5,000 to $6,000 of the $20,000 needed for yet another search. They only raised $1,200, plus $610 in CD sales.

But Rutledge says there is $14,000 to $16,000 left in Christina's trust fund, so they are not too far off. If they don't find anything this time, she vows to give up.

"I will quit," she says. "I'm so tired, everybody's tired."

In November, she and her cousins almost hit a moose while driving along Highway 17 to Rainbow Falls, she says. The experience rattled her. She says she does not want to put anyone in danger. She is getting closer and closer to saying, "I'm sorry, hon. I did my best," and trying to let go of Christina, with or without her body.

But it is incredibly difficult to grieve when you do not know for certain what happened to the person to love, says Janet Wilson, executive director of Bereaved Families of Ontario, who has followed Christina's story in the news.

"When you're in that in-between place of not really knowing, thinking that it's very probable that your child is dead but not really knowing, you can't even begin to grieve," says Wilson, whose 26-year-old son drowned 11 years ago.

"They'll always be that hope that maybe, maybe something will happen, and maybe she'll come to the door one day."

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/610296

[Edward]

Why would it cost 20,000.00 to search for anyone ?
That is an absurd amount of money.
That close knit Filipino community should be out there on foot looking.. Sitting around and eating off paper plates wont find anyone and either will money unless they need special equipment. That does not sound like it is the case.

Anyways...Besides for that, it sounds like the boogieman got her and Why I have said a million times women of this generation take great risk in doing things like jogging or biking by themselves in vacant places like parks.
Whom ever got her could have taken her anywhere and Canada is one very big desalinate place.

[Nut44x4]

2009-08-06

Two year anniversary of Calayca’s disappearance

Two years ago today Christina Calayca, 20, went missing in the area of Rainbow Falls Provincial Park.

A Minnesota-based search and rescue team will conduct a final search for the Toronto woman on Sept. 17.

OPP Sgt. Shelley Garr said they have already conducted several searches of their own on the treacherous terrain.

"And the terrain there is very treacherous," Garr said. "It is a very dense wooded area with rivers and rock faces. It is dangerous."

A spokesperson for the search team said the group will focus on the White Sand River. That is the area that cadaver dogs picked up a scent last fall. At that time slippery conditions made it too dangerous to allow investigators take a closer look.

Calayca vanished on Aug. 6, 2007. The Toronto resident had been camping with friends at the Rainbow Fall Provincial Park, which is located near Schreiber.

Calayca told friends that she would be going for a jog before 7 a.m.

She was last seen on a park campground roadway.
http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=62911

[Nut44x4]

Christina Calayca's family plans to search once more for remains of daycare worker

Aug 08, 2009 04:30 AM
The family of a young Toronto woman who disappeared in a provincial park near Thunder Bay two years ago is planning another search for her remains this fall.

Christina Calayca, a 20-year-old daycare worker remembered for her loving nature and her deep faith, disappeared in Rainbow Falls Provincial Park on Aug. 6, 2007.

Christina parted ways with a friend during an early-morning jog and never returned to their campsite.

Forced to assume the worst, Christina's family has been raising money to fund private searches of the park since her disappearance, praying they will find her body. The OPP has also continued searching.

Last November, a private team from Minnesota scoured the park with six cadaver dogs and detected human remains in the bottom of the river, but the water was too deep and the current too swift to explore further.

The family spent nearly $44,000 on their first private search for Christina last June. Since then, they have been working with fewer and fewer funds, and this summer they are gathering Air Miles to pay for their flights, says her mother, Elizabeth Rutledge.

The next search is scheduled for Sept. 16. Rutledge says a music album created by the Filipino community in Christina's name has not sold well and the family is doing everything it can to pay for the trip.
   
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/678258

[MuffyBee]

http://www.findchristinacalayca.com/

[Edward]

Christina Calayca's family plans to search once more for remains of daycare worker

Aug 08, 2009 04:30 AM
The family of a young Toronto woman who disappeared in a provincial park near Thunder Bay two years ago is planning another search for her remains this fall.

Christina Calayca, a 20-year-old daycare worker remembered for her loving nature and her deep faith, disappeared in Rainbow Falls Provincial Park on Aug. 6, 2007.

Christina parted ways with a friend during an early-morning jog and never returned to their campsite.

Forced to assume the worst, Christina's family has been raising money to fund private searches of the park since her disappearance, praying they will find her body. The OPP has also continued searching.

Last November, a private team from Minnesota scoured the park with six cadaver dogs and detected human remains in the bottom of the river, but the water was too deep and the current too swift to explore further.

The family spent nearly $44,000 on their first private search for Christina last June. Since then, they have been working with fewer and fewer funds, and this summer they are gathering Air Miles to pay for their flights, says her mother, Elizabeth Rutledge.
The next search is scheduled for Sept. 16. Rutledge says a music album created by the Filipino community in Christina's name has not sold well and the family is doing everything it can to pay for the trip.
   
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/678258

That seems like an absurd amount of money for a search..
I wonder what the breakdown of that money looks like.. How much they spenty for what.

[Nut44x4]

Christina found?
Search to focus on area of park where signs of human remains seen

Last Updated: 19th September 2009, 10:24am

Searchers may bring some closure this weekend to the two-year-old disappearance of a Toronto woman.

Christina Calayca, 20, vanished inside Rainbow Falls Provincial Park on Aug. 6, 2007.

Her family and friends have been searching for Calayca ever since but so far have failed to find any sign of her in the park, east of Thunder Bay on the north shore of Lake Superior.

Search leader Jeff Hasse says the team will focus on the Whitesand River where there may be evidence of human remains. Signs of remains were spotted by the team last fall, but the terrain was too slippery to allow access.

Two dozen searchers, with five cadaver dogs, will take part in the search that will wrap up tomorrow, Hasse said.

Before she went missing, Calayca had obtained her degree in early childhood education and was working at a daycare in the Yonge St. And Eglinton Ave. area. She had planned to go back to York University to become a teacher.

CAMPING TRIP

Calayca's family hasn't heard from her since she left her home in the Parliament and Wellesley Sts. area, where she lived with her mom, Elizabeth, and her teenage brother, for the camping trip in August, 2007.

She drove the 14 hours up to Rainbow Falls with her cousin, Faith Castulo, 20, and two men she knew from the Youth For Christ group.

Calayca set off from the group's campsite with one of the men intending to go for a jog along a highway outside the park. But she quickly realized she couldn't keep up with her friend and decided to pack it in.

She may have gone for a walk within the park on her own along a trail that leads to Rainbow Falls while the man carried on out to the highway. She has not been seen since.

At the time, police described the area where she went missing as "one of the most rugged" in the province, including thick brush and cliffs up to 240 metres high.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/09/19/10989971-sun.html

[Sister]

Christina found?
Search to focus on area of park where signs of human remains seen

Last Updated: 19th September 2009, 10:24am

Searchers may bring some closure this weekend to the two-year-old disappearance of a Toronto woman.

Christina Calayca, 20, vanished inside Rainbow Falls Provincial Park on Aug. 6, 2007.

Her family and friends have been searching for Calayca ever since but so far have failed to find any sign of her in the park, east of Thunder Bay on the north shore of Lake Superior.

Search leader Jeff Hasse says the team will focus on the Whitesand River where there may be evidence of human remains. Signs of remains were spotted by the team last fall, but the terrain was too slippery to allow access.

Two dozen searchers, with five cadaver dogs, will take part in the search that will wrap up tomorrow, Hasse said.

Before she went missing, Calayca had obtained her degree in early childhood education and was working at a daycare in the Yonge St. And Eglinton Ave. area. She had planned to go back to York University to become a teacher.

CAMPING TRIP

Calayca's family hasn't heard from her since she left her home in the Parliament and Wellesley Sts. area, where she lived with her mom, Elizabeth, and her teenage brother, for the camping trip in August, 2007.

She drove the 14 hours up to Rainbow Falls with her cousin, Faith Castulo, 20, and two men she knew from the Youth For Christ group.

Calayca set off from the group's campsite with one of the men intending to go for a jog along a highway outside the park. But she quickly realized she couldn't keep up with her friend and decided to pack it in.

She may have gone for a walk within the park on her own along a trail that leads to Rainbow Falls while the man carried on out to the highway. She has not been seen since.

At the time, police described the area where she went missing as "one of the most rugged" in the province, including thick brush and cliffs up to 240 metres high.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/09/19/10989971-sun.html

I pray they find her today.  Her mother assuredly needs some peace.