A couple from Flesherton, Ont., say a youth home that specializes in combatting human trafficking didn’t do enough to protect their 15-year-old daughter, who went missing from the facility last month.
Laura McKenzie and Erik Dixon say they entrusted youth home Studio Blue at the Women’s Centre Grey Bruce in Owen Sound, Ont., with their daughter, Jillianne Dixon, who they say had previously been a victim of online luring.
Less than three weeks into the program, she went missing.
“Our hearts were pounding. It was terrifying,” Dixon said about the early morning call from police about her disappearance last month.
The Owen Sound Police Service (OSPS) says it is investigating the disappearance along with police units in the Greater Toronto Area. OSPS say the teen was last seen at 8 p.m. local time on April 28.
McKenzie, 40, and Dixon, 41, allege the youth home did not act on a tip it received about Jillianne’s plans to meet a man from Brampton days before she disappeared. The tip came from another parent, but Jillianne’s parents say they were not informed about it by the youth home.
They also raise concerns about oversight and security measures at the home being inadequate to keep residents safe.
CBC Toronto contacted the facility with a list of questions relating to the parents’ concerns, including why the youth home did not inform the parents about the tip. In an emailed statement, the non-profit’s executive director said the organization won’t be answering any questions while the disappearance remains under police investigation.
“Our thoughts are with Jillianne’s family and we are hoping for her safe return,” Heather Sheldrick wrote.
Local police are asking for public assistance in finding the teen and say she is believed to have known associations in the Greater Toronto Area.
McKenzie and Dixon say they are speaking out because they want their daughter to come home safely, and to caution other parents with vulnerable children.
“She went there because she was sick. That’s what we were offered for our daughter who was struggling with mental health, who was vulnerable,” McKenzie said through tears.
“We love her, we miss her terribly. We want her home.”
During her stay at the youth home, Jillianne befriended another teen resident from Owen Sound. The teen’s mother, Christine St Coeur, told CBC Toronto Jillianne came over to her house on the evening of April 22. She described Jillianne as kind and polite.
CBC Toronto is not naming St Coeur’s daughter to protect her privacy as she has previously been a victim of human trafficking.
The next day, St Coeur’s daughter asked via text if St Coeur could drive Jillianne and her to Brampton a few days later. CBC Toronto has reviewed the text messages.
St Coeur said she called the girls right away and Jillianne told her she had been invited to a birthday party by a 20-year-old Brampton man she met online, who she referred to as her boyfriend.
“My response … was that it’s very dangerous,” St Coeur said.
The legal age of consent in Canada is 16, with an exception for 14- and 15-year-olds if their partner is less than five years older. According to the federal government’s website, other factors may be taken into account to determine if a young person is being exploited, including if the relationship developed over the internet.
CBC Toronto has not been able to independently identify the man Jillianne was communicating with, or his age.
Given what St Coeur knew about Jillianne already being at risk due to mental health struggles and previous online luring, she said she called the facility to alert them about the dangers of Jillianne meeting a man she knows from social media, but said the worker did not appear to take the tip seriously.
Call logs reviewed by CBC Toronto show a 10-minute-long call between St Coeur and the youth home at about 8:30 a.m. on April 24.
Later that same day, McKenzie said she did a welfare check with a social worker at Studio Blue and spoke with her daughter, but was not informed about the tip from St Coeur.
Jillianne was last seen four days later, on April 28.
“If we had any idea that was going on, boom, I would have gone and got her,” McKenzie said through tears.
St Coeur said she contacted Jillianne’s father on Facebook a few days after the teen went missing to share the information she had.
“It’s just horrific,” Dixon said. “When they found out that she was in danger, they should have picked up the phone right away, they should have called us and said, ‘You need to come pick up your daughter. Something horrible is going to happen if we don’t intervene.'”
St Coeur said she was disappointed to learn the facility didn’t relay her tip to the parents.
Her daughter has since left the program and returned home, she said. “She feels very guilty … she wishes she could have done more to stop her.”
The seven-bedroom home is advertised as being a safe place that provides protection and mental health services for youth. and according to the youth home’s contract with Jillianne and her parents, staff were supposed to perform room checks every shift and contact her parents if she was missing, followed by local police.
Jillianne was last seen at 8 p.m. on April 28, but McKenzie said she received the first call from the shelter more than eight hours later, at 4 a.m, and then from the police at about 5 a.m.
The facility also has a cell phone policy, which CBC Toronto reviewed. It says residents will only have access to facility-owned phones, which will have pre-installed safety features like a location tracking app, banned apps and staff having access to passwords.
However, Jillianne’s parents say the home provided their daughter with a cell phone without their knowledge, and without any security features. They also say it does not have an active SIM card to make or receive phone calls, meaning she would only be able to use it on Wi-Fi.
“They withheld important information that would have stopped this from ever happening … information that’s going to put my child in danger and at risk,” Dixon said.
CBC Toronto asked about these concerns and others in email to the home, which it did not answer.
The Women’s Centre Grey Bruce is a non-profit organization with an annual budget of about $2 million. According to its financial statements, about three quarters of its funding comes from the provincial government.
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said it “requires all community partners to have policies and procedures designed to protect the safety, rights and well-being of the individuals who receive services from them,” but added the organizations are responsible for their own governance.
Jillianne is 5 feet 6 inches tall, has medium-length red hair and brown eyes, according to a release from Owen Sound police on May 16.
She was last seen wearing loose grey pants, a dark long-sleeved top with light circular designs and dark socks, with a lavender hard-shell Swiss Gear suitcase and a leopard print crossbody bag.
Police are asking anyone with information to contact local police or Crime Stoppers.
