Hoping this is the year to find Christina.
2010
By Raveena Aulakh
www.thestar.com
''Christina Calayca
‘I have to have faith’
Elizabeth Rutledge will give up neither hope nor the search for her daughter.
“My family thinks Christina is dead; I don’t think so,” she says, steel in her voice. “I won’t give up looking for her.”
Rutledge’s daughter, Christina Calayca, 20, disappeared in August 2007 from Rainbow Falls Provincial Park near Thunder Bay, where she had been camping. She was last seen by a friend as they parted ways during a jog on Aug. 6.
Ontario Provincial Police and trained civilians with search dogs, aircraft, divers and tracking equipment searched very metre of the 575-hectare park for 17 days but found nothing.
Three years later, Rutledge, who believes her daughter was abducted, hasn’t given up hope and continues to organize search parties at the park. She’s even moved in with her mother to save money for searches.
“It’s very hard but I have to have faith,” says Rutledge, a devout Catholic who emigrated from the Philippines in 1980. Her faith gets a bit of a boost every time she hears of a missing child found, even if it’s taken a dozen years.
This October, she rushed to Thunder Bay when she heard a body had been found. On her way there, Rutledge prayed it wasn’t Calayca’s.
It wasn’t.
It’s kept her hope alive, but also the pain of not knowing.
“But I haven’t stopped living,” says Rutledge, pointing out she has a younger son to look after. “I still work, go out with friends … life is worth living even more now because I have to find Christina.”
But this time of the year is always tough. Calayca’s birthday falls on Dec. 19, a day that Rutledge spends by the lake or at church, two places her daughter loved. Then Christmas rolls around, when the young woman organized family dinners and outings for children.
“I always feel I’m falling apart in December,” Rutledge admits.
“But I get by knowing that I have to find Christina.”
2010
By Raveena Aulakh
Families of the missing: Grieve or keep looking?
Families of people who have gone missing live in a state of suspension.
''Christina Calayca
‘I have to have faith’
Elizabeth Rutledge will give up neither hope nor the search for her daughter.
“My family thinks Christina is dead; I don’t think so,” she says, steel in her voice. “I won’t give up looking for her.”
Rutledge’s daughter, Christina Calayca, 20, disappeared in August 2007 from Rainbow Falls Provincial Park near Thunder Bay, where she had been camping. She was last seen by a friend as they parted ways during a jog on Aug. 6.
Ontario Provincial Police and trained civilians with search dogs, aircraft, divers and tracking equipment searched very metre of the 575-hectare park for 17 days but found nothing.
Three years later, Rutledge, who believes her daughter was abducted, hasn’t given up hope and continues to organize search parties at the park. She’s even moved in with her mother to save money for searches.
“It’s very hard but I have to have faith,” says Rutledge, a devout Catholic who emigrated from the Philippines in 1980. Her faith gets a bit of a boost every time she hears of a missing child found, even if it’s taken a dozen years.
This October, she rushed to Thunder Bay when she heard a body had been found. On her way there, Rutledge prayed it wasn’t Calayca’s.
It wasn’t.
It’s kept her hope alive, but also the pain of not knowing.
“But I haven’t stopped living,” says Rutledge, pointing out she has a younger son to look after. “I still work, go out with friends … life is worth living even more now because I have to find Christina.”
But this time of the year is always tough. Calayca’s birthday falls on Dec. 19, a day that Rutledge spends by the lake or at church, two places her daughter loved. Then Christmas rolls around, when the young woman organized family dinners and outings for children.
“I always feel I’m falling apart in December,” Rutledge admits.
“But I get by knowing that I have to find Christina.”
