Grim spectre of abduction offers mom cold comfort
In notorious Cleveland case, three women survived years of captivity
Imagine finding a sense of comfort from the details of a case where three young women were kidnapped, imprisoned and raped for a decade.
For Paula Bali, whose daughter Mekayla went missing from Yorkton in April 2016, the idea of captivity is better than the alternative.
“In my heart, I believe she’s alive. In my heart, I know she’s not safe,” Bali said.
On Thursday, she sat at the back of a Regina hotel ballroom taking notes while Special Agent Andrew Harasimchuk (formerly of Cleveland police’s sex crimes unit) and assistant prosecuting attorney Saleh Awadallah told a crowd of law enforcement personnel about their experiences with the Ariel Castro case.
The presentation was part of a three-day conference put on by the Saskatchewan Association of Cold Case Investigators.
Noting that she’s not an investigator, Bali said she was looking for clues or commonalities from the Castro case that could be applied to finding Mekayla.
“There are some similarities,” Bali said. “I was certain at the moment I heard she was gone that she wasn’t gone on her own.”
Castro was a Cleveland, Ohio resident who, between 2002 and 2013, kidnapped and imprisoned Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Georgina DeJesus. Castro kept all three females (Knight was 21, Berry was 16 and DeJesus was 14 when they were abducted) in his large house — essentially converted to a prison — until Berry, who gave birth to Castro’s daughter while in captivity, was able to escape in 2013. He pleaded guilty to 937 criminal counts of rape, kidnapping and aggravated murder to avoid the death penalty. The aggravated murder charge is related to accusations that Castro starved and beat one of the women while she was pregnant until she miscarried.
One month into his sentence, Castro killed himself in prison.
All three young women were taken within blocks of each other and held for between nine and 11 years in Cleveland. That detail haunts Bali, who has previously travelled to Vancouver to investigate alleged sightings of Mekayla.
“I believe Mekayla may be in Saskatchewan. I strongly believe that,” Bali said, adding she wouldn’t be able to sleep at night without following up on every available tip.
She said in some respects the police handling her daughter’s case have prepared her for the possibility that Mekayla has only been blocks away for a year and a half.
“Do I look funny at my neighbours? Yes. Do I look funny at people who avoid me all of a sudden? Yes. Do I think suspiciously of almost everyone around me? Of course. I can’t do anything but. And until we receive some evidence, some closure, some information, I’m going to be that way,” Bali said.
She knows the odds of finding her daughter alive. But in the majority of missing persons cases, she said, the victim isn’t taken out of the area. She knows it sounds terrible, but in some ways she hopes Mekayla was subjected to human trafficking because it means she’s still alive.
“We can’t exclude anything,” Bali said.
The Bali family, including her nine- and 10-year-old kids, needs hope. And she stressed the importance of communication between families and police, an element she believes could be improved in her case.
Sgt. Alex Yum, cold case co-ordinator with the Regina Police Service, said communication is vital to any investigation: “If you’re not there to talk to the family, someone else will fill in the gaps — conspiracy theories, rumours on the street.” However, Yum said, sensitive information regarding an active investigation can’t be shared, but he makes sure to explain to families the reason why.
He knows the lack of closure can torment those whose family members have not been found. Cold cases aren’t determined by the passage of time but when all investigative avenues have been exhausted.
He empathizes with Bali and other families of missing loved ones.
“I can’t even imagine the anguish that she’s going through, the uncertainty,” Yum said. “Until you get a definitive answer, we will never know. And as an investigator, we have to keep that same kind of approach.”
Until remains are found, there’s a question mark that won’t go away. While it answers whether the person is alive or not, it raises another question: What happened?
The passage of time reduces the likelihood of a positive outcome. That’s why the Castro case is so remarkable.
“It’s a great lesson as a cold case investigator: Even if you have a dominant working theory, you have to keep an open mind to the possibility that the road that you’re going on is not the right investigative path,” Yum said.