It’s been almost one month since North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP issued the first of several alerts about a missing seven-year old girl and her father, who allegedly breached a court order to return the child to her mother.
Roget Hall said she reported her daughter missing on Jan. 23, when she failed to return home after a Jan. 20 joint custody agreement set out in Victoria Family Law court ordered the girl’s father, Jesse Bennett, to return her to her mother’s home in Victoria that same day.
“I want to believe that she’s safe but at the end of the day, I don’t know,” Hall told Global News Saturday.
“Because I don’t even know where she is.”
Since late January, Hall said Bennett has not answered her text or Facebook messages and his phone is disconnected.
“He just completely, like vanished,” she said.
In a Jan. 28 news release, RCMP said they had no reason to believe that the girl was in danger, but believed Jesse was “evading contact in order to keep (her) with him.”
Hall suspects her daughter is being withheld from her because she refused to agree to take the girl out of school — in a dispute over COVID-19 mask mandates.
“Because I was sending her to school with a mask on,” said Hall.
Hall said her daughter has never complained about wearing a mask, and had been quite content to cover up during school, gymnastics lessons and store visits.
“She’s literally my world, she’s everything to me,” she said.
Hall said her daughter is well-liked by everyone who knows her, and described her as a sassy child who loves swimming.
“I didn’t really ever have to pay for babysitters,” she said.
“People were happy to look after her.”
Hall said she hasn’t had her duaghter in her home since Oct. 7 and last saw her daughter on Jan. 2, when Bennett allowed the girl a short stay at her mother’s house over New Year’s.
“I missed her birthday, I missed Christmas with her,” Hall told Global News.
“My life is definitely a lot darker without my light in it.”
RCMP believe Bennett, who lives in the Cowichan Valley, was initially driving a 2005 grey Honda Civic with ‘Holy’ and ‘Fire’ stickers on the doors, but think he has since switched vehicles.
Investigators are now looking for a 2001 black Dodge Dakota Sport club cab pickup truck with a white canopy.
On Feb. 18, police released new photos of the pair, including the girl in a unique white and black jacket that she often wears and Bennett with a tattoo on his lower right arm.
“I keep looking, I go outside. I just kind of hope that one day he’s just sitting there,” said Hall.
“He doesn’t even have to get out of the car just, you know, let (her) out.”
Anyone with information about Bennett or the girl’s whereabouts, or the vehicle they are believed to be in, is asked to call their local police or the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP at 250-748-5522.
“I want my daughter back,” said Hall, who wants her duaghter to know that she is loved and missed.
“I don’t care how I get my daughter back, I want her back.”
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