Arrest warrant issued for B.C. dad missing with daughter, not seen since January

An arrest warrant has now been issued for a man who was reported missing with his daughter back in January.

Now Cowichan/Duncan RCMP say investigators have gathered sufficient evidence to recommend a criminal charge against Jesse Bennett.

He is wanted for abduction in contravention of a custody order after failing to return the seven-year-old girl to her mother on Jan. 20.

The girl’s mother reported her missing on Jan. 23.

Roget Hall said Bennett failed to return her daughter as part of a joint custody agreement set out in Victoria family law court.

Hall told Global News in February that she doesn’t know where her daughter is.

“I want to believe that she’s safe but at the end of the day, I don’t know,” Hall said.

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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. “(Her father) doesn’t believe that she should wear a mask for that long.”

Hall said the girl 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.

Bennett is described as five feet 10 inches tall and 160 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair (possibly a shaved head or wearing a hat) and a beard.

The girl is approximately four feet tall and weighs between 50 and 60 pounds, with blue eyes and big natural curly hair.

Police said Bennett could be anywhere in Canada at this point.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP or the police in their jurisdiction to report.