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Toronto family's hope fading for missing woman

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CTV Toronto: Naomi Parness on the dwindling hope

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CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Sun. Aug. 19 2007 6:28 PM ET

A Toronto family's hope is starting to fade that Christina Calayca will be found alive in the dense, rugged bush of northern Ontario.

Monday will mark two weeks since the 20-year-old disappeared after going on a morning jog in Rainbow Falls provincial park on the north shore of Lake Superior.

She was up on a camping trip with a cousin and two other people.

"You don't want to lose hope," her father Mario Calayca told CTV Toronto on Sunday. "Just hoping, hoping, hoping one day she'll show up."

Mario and other family members just returned once again from the search area after going up last Monday.

"It was the hardest thing for us to leave and stop the search," said Ken West, one of Christina's uncles.

However, it made them understand how difficult the search is and how easy it is for someone to get lost.

"Searching the falls, bushes -- there's no path, you have to make your way through," said Bayani Caguicla, another of Christina's uncles.

The Ontario Provincial Police were joined again by volunteers this weekend. A helicopter searched from above, and a dive team has searched waterways and about 40 officers assisted by three police dogs have scoured the ground.

They tried using an aircraft with an infrared-equipped camera on Friday, but it had problems penetrating the dense forest canopy.

Despite searching for two weeks in an eight-kilometre radius from Christina's last known location, police have turned up no solid leads, a source of frustration for the family.

"We are trying to hold on to faith, the OPP is working so hard -- we are having difficulty that there is no trace of her," said Caguicla.

Police don't believe Christina, a daycare worker, has been abducted. They haven't given up hope, but they admit that their concern is growing as the late summer nights grow colder, with temperatures dipping into the single digits.

Christina's large, extended family is deeply religious. They pray every day that she is still alive.

Mario admitted to feeling tormented by not knowing: "For me, no closure. As a parent, I don't want to lose her before me, but I also don't want to live this way."

He now prays for any news, even if it's the type that a parent dreads.

The OPP will make a decision tonight on whether the search should be scaled back.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Naomi Parness

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