Key facts
- Name: Jessica Edith Louise “Jessie” Foster
- Born: May 27, 1984, Canada
- Age at disappearance: 21
- Last seen: April 2006
- Location: Las Vegas Valley, Nevada (North Las Vegas)
- Height / build: 5’7″, slender, blonde hair
- Status: Still missing — open investigation
- Investigating agency: North Las Vegas Police Department; Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
The fourth woman
Between 2003 and 2006, four sex workers disappeared in the Las Vegas Valley. The bodies of three of them were found. The fourth — Jessica Edith Louise Foster, 21, a Canadian who had come to Vegas for a stopover and stayed — was never found at all.
Jessie had arrived in May 2005. She and a friend had visited Florida together, then stopped in Las Vegas on the way back north. Jessie decided to stay. Within a year she was involved in prostitution — arrested once for solicitation, the victim of battery on several occasions. Her mother, Glendene Grant, believes her daughter became an unwilling victim of human trafficking: a sexual slave, not a volunteer.
The last time Grant saw her daughter was Christmas 2005. By April 2006, Jessie was gone.
Who Jessie was
Before Las Vegas, Jessie Foster was a girl from Calgary, Alberta — daughter of Glendene Grant and Dwight Foster, who later separated. The family has described the ordinary Canadian childhood that preceded the Vegas year. What drew her to stay in Nevada in May 2005, and how exactly she was pulled into the sex trade, are questions her mother has spent twenty years trying to answer.
Grant has been unsparing about what she believes happened: that Jessie was trafficked, that she was sold, and that the investigation into her disappearance was mishandled from the start. “Until maybe five or seven years ago, [I] considered my own self the lead detective on the case,” she told 8 News Now in April 2026, “because they [law enforcement] didn’t respond to people who called in tips. They didn’t respond to me asking questions and wanting to talk to them about the case.”
She believes that if proper measures had been taken by the North Las Vegas Police Department in the beginning, her daughter might be home by now.
The investigation
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department investigated a person in question in connection with the disappearances — bringing in a forensic scientist to spray luminol at his property to detect invisible bloodstains. They found nothing, and he was not interrogated about Jessie’s disappearance.
In July 2015, a new name surfaced: Neal Falls, a man shot and killed on July 18, 2015, in Charleston, West Virginia, by a woman he had tried to abduct. Police investigating Falls found evidence suggesting he was a serial killer, and the Calgary Sun reported that investigators were examining whether Falls could be responsible for the four Las Vegas killings, including Jessie’s. Nothing conclusive was ever established.
In April 2026 — twenty years on — a spokesperson for North Las Vegas police told 8 News Now there had been “no new developments or changes in the status of the Jessica Foster missing persons case.”
A mother’s campaign
Glendene Grant turned her search into a cause. She founded Mothers Against Trafficking in Humans, hosted an internet radio show on BlogTalkRadio through Dreamcatchers for Abused Children (with guests including MP Joy Smith and Bobby Brown of Dog the Bounty Hunter fame), and built nearly a dozen websites advertising her daughter’s disappearance. She has contacted the FBI, bounty hunters, prostitutes, police officers, psychics, and private investigators. She lives in Kamloops, British Columbia, still looking.
Jessie’s story features in Benjamin Perrin’s book Invisible Chains — nominated for a George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature — and in the documentary Trafficked No More, which generated tips about her whereabouts. None panned out. The Las Vegas Sun‘s 2014 headline still reads as the case’s epitaph-in-progress: “After eight years, hope remains alive — even if a missing daughter isn’t.”
Theories: what might have happened
Twenty years, one of four, no body, no charge.
Trafficked and held. Her mother’s theory, and the one the circumstances lean toward: that Jessie was under the control of traffickers when she vanished — moved, hidden, or killed by people whose business is making women disappear. The pattern of four missing sex workers in three years supports the idea of a predator or network operating in the Valley. What it lacks: any confirmed trace of Jessie after April 2006.
Killed by a serial offender. The Neal Falls angle, and the broader fact of three other dead women. Falls is dead; the investigation into his possible Vegas victims never reached a conclusion. The “person in question” investigated with luminol was never charged. This theory has shape but no resolution.
Dead by violence, body concealed. The desert around Las Vegas has kept many secrets. Three of the four women were found; Jessie was not. Whether that means she was taken farther, buried deeper, or is alive, no one can say.
Alive. The hope her mother has never surrendered — that Jessie is out there, possibly still controlled, possibly free and afraid. Twenty years without a word makes it the longest of long shots, but Grant has spent two decades acting as if the next tip could be the one.
Have information?
Contact the North Las Vegas Police Department. You can also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: 1-800-843-5678. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- May 27, 1984 — Jessica Edith Louise Foster is born in Canada.
- May 2005 — Jessie stops in Las Vegas on the way back from Florida and decides to stay.
- December 2005 — Last time her mother sees her (Christmas).
- April 2006 — Jessie disappears from the Las Vegas Valley. She is one of four sex workers to vanish between 2003–2006; the other three are later found dead.
- 2006–2015 — LVMPD investigates a person in question (luminol search finds nothing); Grant founds Mothers Against Trafficking in Humans.
- July 2015 — Neal Falls is killed in West Virginia; police examine possible links to the Vegas cases.
- 2019 — NBC News: “Jessie Foster still missing 13 years after vanishing near Las Vegas.”
- April 2026 — 8 News Now: “Where is Jessie Foster?”; police report no new developments.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Jessie Foster still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Jessie Foster has been missing for more than 20 years. North Las Vegas police confirmed in April 2026 that there have been no new developments.
What happened to Jessie Foster?
She vanished from the Las Vegas Valley in April 2006. Her mother believes she was a victim of human trafficking. She was one of four sex workers who disappeared in the Valley between 2003 and 2006; the other three were found dead.
Was a serial killer investigated in Jessie Foster’s case?
In 2015, police examined whether Neal Falls — killed while attempting an abduction in West Virginia — could be connected to the four Las Vegas disappearances. No conclusive link was established.
Who is Glendene Grant?
Jessie’s mother, who founded Mothers Against Trafficking in Humans after her daughter’s disappearance and has campaigned for two decades to find her, criticizing the early police investigation.
How old would Jessie Foster be today?
Jessie was born May 27, 1984 — she turned 42 in May 2026.
How can I help?
Share this case file. Anyone with information should contact the North Las Vegas Police Department or the NCMEC at 1-800-843-5678.
Sources
- Official / law enforcement: North Las Vegas Police Department (statements via 8 News Now, April 2026); Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
- News: Las Vegas Sun, “THE CASE OF JESSIE FOSTER: After eight years, hope remains alive” (Feb 21, 2014); NBC News, “Jessie Foster still missing 13 years after vanishing near Las Vegas” (March 22, 2019); 8 News Now, “Where is Jessie Foster? Woman vanished from North Las Vegas 20 years ago” (April 16, 2026); Calgary Sun (July 26, 2015).
- Reference: Wikipedia, “Disappearance of Jessie Foster” (retrieved Oct 2026).
- Media: Invisible Chains by Benjamin Perrin; Trafficked No More (documentary).
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.