Rainbow Falls Canada

The disturbing disappearance of Christina Calayca from Rainbow Falls Provincial Park

Christina Calayca disappearance Ontario

Christina Calayca, disappeared August 6, 2007, Rainbow Falls Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

On Monday, August 6, 2007, at around 6.30 am, Christina Calayca, 20, went for a jog with a friend in Rainbow Falls Provincial Park. When the two decided to split up to run separate routes, Christina was never seen again.

The provincial park is located on Highway 17 (Trans-Canada Highway) between Schreiber and Rossport, Ontario in Canada and on the north shore of Lake Superior. 

Christina was last seen wearing a blue ‘hoodie’ sweatshirt, a maroon/purple striped shirt, black pants, and white running shoes. She was in the area with her female cousin and two male friends from a Christian youth group called "Youth for Christ" based in Toronto. All of them were inexperienced in the wilderness.

Friends and family described Calayca as a mature, religious woman. She had obtained a degree in early childhood education from George Brown College and was working at a Catholic daycare before she disappeared. She told her mother the week before she disappeared that she wanted to do missionary work in the Philippines, before returning to university and becoming a teacher.

The group arrived at around noon on Sunday, August 5th to set up their camp and then decided to take a short nap. However, they failed to set their alarm and didn’t wake up until 10:30 pm. After that, they enjoyed more food and talked around the fire until around 6 am when they finally went to sleep. 

By 6.30 am on Monday, August 6th, Christina and Eddy Migue, one of the friends from her church group, were wide awake. They decided to go for a run together but later she split up with Eddy running on the road whilst Christina used the park trails.

At about 7.30 am Eddy returned to camp, but there was no sign of Christina. The friends began a frantic search for Christina before reporting her missing to the authorities after seven hours or so.

Rainbow falls provincial park Ontario

The OPP Northwest Region Emergency Response Team used four canine units, three helicopters, two fixed-wing aircraft and a floatplane to try to locate her. Approximately 100 police officers and specially-trained civilians searched the area for 17 days. 

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) believed that Christina had been killed by a bear but there was no evidence of blood, clothing or bones in the park during the search. They were convinced no foul play was involved.

After the search by the OPP found no sign of Christina her family financed as many as six private searches, costing $20,000 each, paid for from their own pockets, with help from money raised by the Find Christina Calayca Foundation. Volunteer search groups and cadaver dogs searched the rugged, heavily wooded parkland and hiking paths but with no luck. A year later in early June 2008, Officers went back in for a week-long search with a high-angle team scaling cliff sides for Christina's body. The family pulled together a team of American and Canadian volunteers and dogs trained to detect human remains. It went into the park on June 13, 2008. The Minnesota-based Jon Francis Foundation, a non-profit group that supports searches for lost hikers, helped the family plan what was supposed to be a 10-day, 30-man effort. The foundation thought the search master should be Canadian, so the family was connected with Doug Teeft, who trains dogs in Nova Scotia. But again nothing.

Elizabeth rutledge - christina calayca disappearance

Her mother, Elizabeth Rutledge, believes Christina was abducted or murdered in the park. To this day no trace of Christina has been found, she vanished.

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Sources

https://www.opp.ca/index.php?id=115&entryid=56b88bfc8f94acde68786816

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2008/06/28/search_for_camper_fails_to_bring_closure.html

http://www.katebarker.com/pdfs/win07missingkate.pdf

http://www.canada.com/daughter+disapearance+haunts+family/2127995/story.html

https://www.ctvnews.ca/calayca-s-mother-believes-daughter-was-abducted-1.253792