Missing Châteauguay woman felt followed: sister
Erin Gray, 33, and her two children seemed to have left home quickly
Châteauguay police confirmed on Friday evening that video surveillance from a Gatineau Walmart on Thursday are not images of a missing woman and her two children who disappeared Sunday.
The images from the video surveillance on Thursday evening were initially thought to be the missing family, but were later identified as residents from Gatineau.
Erin Gray, 33, had complained to her family that she was being stalked and seemed to have left her home in a hurry on Sunday, her sister, Ashley, said. There was still food on the table, the door was unlocked, clothes were gone, and her daughter’s beloved iPod was left behind, but the single mother had not told anyone where she was going or even that she was leaving.
When there was no sign of her on Monday, the family called police that evening. The initial belief that Gray showed up in video surveillance footage Thursday raised the hopes of her distraught sisters and mother, who have had little sleep all week.
She lived very close to her mother, Jacqueline, and sister, Ashley, often leaving the two children with them. During the past few months, however, she had stopped talking to the fathers of her two children, Rachel Kaya Beckles, 11, and Robert Clarke Jr., 5. Rachel’s father, John Beckles, said he last saw Gray on Friday, when he travelled from Toronto for his daughter’s Grade 6 graduation.
“I saw Erin, but she didn’t speak to me,” Beckles said in a telephone interview from Toronto. The two split up about 10 years ago, but Beckles said he maintained a good relationship with the Grays and his daughter Rachel.
He said he spoke with his daughter about the possibility of moving to Ontario to continue school and about spending time together in the summer, as they usually do.
“I’m a little worried but to be truthful, I haven’t seen (Erin) do anything to hurt her daughter, her son or herself,” he said. “The children are the innocent ones here, so if you want to go off by yourself, leave the children with their grandmother or aunts or someone.”
He said Gray never displayed any unusual behaviour during the time he knew her and described her as a calm person. Robert Clarke, the father of Gray’s son, was at the Châteauguay police station waiting to be interviewed by investigators when reached by The Gazette on Friday. He said he was unable to talk.
Châteauguay police released a photo Thursday of Gray’s gold 2001 Buick Century with the licence plate number X08 EDT.
Ashley Gray said her sister recently complained of being followed, but was never able to provide her family with specific details, so they didn’t take the fear seriously.
She lived a quiet life, with no phone, no Internet, no job, little money and few friends. She didn’t drink, smoke or take drugs, and was often the designated driver for her three other sisters, Gray said.
“We’re hoping that because Rachel is older, maybe, if she’s not in danger, she’ll try to get to a phone and call me because she knows my number off by heart,” she said.
Gray is 5-foot-2 and 130 pounds. Rachel and Robert are 5-foot-3 and 100 pounds, and 3-foot-9 and 44 pounds, respectively.