Toronto Escort Kera Freeland Found Dead

 

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Today's Shocking News - March 21, 2011

Cachet Escort Kera Freeland Age 20 Found Dead in Field. Story by Liem Vu of the Toronto Star
A 20-year-old who moved to Toronto to work at an escort agency and went missing in January has been identified as the woman whose remains were found in a ditch in Caledon last Thursday.
A friend says Kera Freeland arrived in Toronto from Vancouver last December to work at Cachet Ladies, an escort agency with branches in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Whistler.
She was last seen on Sunday, Jan. 16 in the Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Queens Ave. area. In February, Toronto police issued a missing-person alert for her.
Freeland, who also went by the names Kera Gray and Megan Parks and used the name Chloe when she was working, was living off and on with her friend Jaymi Deubelbeiss near Lansdowne Ave. and Davenport Rd. The two had grown close and nicknamed each other Bonnie and Clyde, Deubelbeiss said Sunday night.
The 26-year-old George Brown student fought back tears as she described her friend.
"She was so amazing. She had the sweetest voice you could ever imagine ... she carried herself so well. She was so kind," said Deubelbeiss.
The last text message she received from Freeland read, "Clyde, I'm so sorry. There's so much drama going on right now. I can't wait to get to your house tomorrow and tell you all about it." She never made it.
The two were supposed to meet up on Jan. 17, but Freeland didn't show up. A missing-person report was filed by Deubelbeiss and she also started a Facebook group in hopes of getting tips on her friend's whereabouts.
"I knew something was horribly, horribly wrong," said Deubelbeiss, her voice breaking.
Deubelbeiss said she tried to track down Freeland by pretending to be a prospective client in a phone call to Cachet Ladies. "I thought she was alive for a while because they kept saying, "Yeah, yeah she's on, she'll be there in half an hour,' so I thought maybe she was mad at me but...they would just send a different girl."
The Cachet Ladies website no longer includes Freeland on its roster of escorts, but a cached profile page shows her in a number of provocative poses wearing only lingerie. She is described on the site as one of the "newest top models," with "beautiful body and facial features."
Freeland was diagnosed with cervical cancer in December, according to Deubelbeiss, who added that Freeland was also pregnant.
Her remains were found on Mar. 17 around 6 p.m. in a ditch on Heart Lake Rd., between Boston Mills Rd. and Olde Base Line Rd. The OPP have not yet declared the death a homicide.

The Toronto Sun Reports

Police are appealing to the public for help in tracking the last moments of a Toronto escort's life.

On Sunday, OPP identified remains found in Caledon on March 17 as 20-year-old Kera Freeland.

The woman had last been seen in the Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Queens Ave. area on Jan. 15.

Freeland had been living in Toronto for a few months, but was originally from Calgary.

She was working at Cachet Ladies, an escort agency, where she used the name "Chloe."

According to media reports, she may have recently been diagnosed with cancer and may also have been pregnant.

Anyone who was in contact with Freeland prior to her death, or who may have helpful information in the case, is asked to contact the Caledon OPP Crime Unit at 905-857-3304.

The National Post also reports in

Aileen Donnelly Mar 21, 2011 - 11:07 AM ET

Ontario Provincial Police have released the name of a 20-year-old woman who was found dead in Caledon last Thursday.

Police located the body of Kera Freeland in a ditch off Heart Lake Road near old Baseline Road, northwest of Toronto.

Ms. Freeland was last seen January 15, 2011 in the Lakeshore Boulevard West and Queens Avenue area and was reported missing in February. She was known to use the alias Megan Parks. According to media reports, Ms. Freeland moved from Vancouver to Toronto in December in order to work as an escort under the pseudonym "Chloe."

Police are asking that anyone with information regarding the case, or who was in contact with Ms. Freeland prior to her death, contact the Caledon OPP Crime Unit at 905-857-3304.

Discussion on Adult Board

Press Release by Cachet Ladies

First and foremost, Cachet Ladies would like to express their sincere condolences to the family and friends of Kera Freeland for their loss. In the very brief length of time Cachet had with her, everyone agreed that she was a sweet, intelligent girl with a bright future before her and she will be missed by anyone who met her.

It is unfortunate that the press has chosen to partially speculate their coverage of this situation, casting a wide net of suggestion and inference over what is already both a tragic story, and for the moment, a complete mystery.

Cachet had the decency and sensitivity to remove her photos from their site immediately, upon hearing of her disappearance.

The Star reports that: "A friend says that Kera Freeland arrived in Toronto from Vancouver last December to work at Cachet Ladies, an escort agency with branches in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Whistler."

In fact, Kera Freeland, (aka Kera Gray & Meghan Parks) came to Cachet Ladies on Dec 4th 2010, after appointments with several other escort agencies in the GTA. She decided to work with Cachet Ladies for she had intentions to go to college and study Social Work dealing with Foster Kids.

Cachet Ladies promotes continuing education & has been successful in encouraging the ladies who work with Cachet to move forward with their lives and make the transition in whatever career they choose to pursue.

Kera worked with Cachet Ladies between Dec 6th - Dec 20th 2010. She informed Cachet that she would be travelling back to BC to undergo cancer treatment, but asked the agency to keep her photos up on the website, since she planned to return in Feb 2011 and didn't want potential clients to think she was gone or inaccessible. (It is Cachet Ladies policy to always respect the wishes of their escorts when it comes to their profile; If an escort asks for her profile to come down it's usually done within 30 minutes.)

In Mid Jan 2011 Cachet received a phone call from Kera's friend Jaymi asking of her whereabouts. Due to the sensitive nature of Kera's cancer treatment. Cachet did not divulge any personal information about Kera. Jaymi indicated that she would be contacting the police, which Cachet encouraged and supported fully. (Discretion is a paramount policy strictly enforced at Cachet Ladies)

The police contacted Cachet later that day asking of Kera's whereabouts. The agency cooperated fully with police, clearly stating the dates she worked with Cachet, submitting full documentation supporting their statements (ie. signed contract with copy of photo ID, etc) and the last date she worked at the agency before her disappearance. At that time, the administration removed Kera's photos from the website.

The Toronto Star contacted Jaymi, however did not contact Cachet to delve any deeper. The Star reporter, who would have found the agency most cooperative, decided instead to focus on the fact that Kera had once worked with Cachet.

Although it is alleged in the Star that Kera had been in contact with her friend via text message in early January 2011, she had not, in fact had any communication with the agency after December 20th.

He also suggested that Kera's only goal was to relocate to Toronto in order to work with an escort agency is not entirely accurate. Kera relocated to Toronto early Dec. 2010 in order to enroll herself in school for Sept 2011 semester and focus on a career in Social Work. Cachet Ladies was a means for her to enhance her financial state and assist her in paying her rent and future school expenses.

The statement taken from Kera's friend Jaymi "I thought she was alive for a while because they (Cachet) kept saying, "Yeah, yeah she's on, she'll be there in half an hour", is absolutely false. This may be the impression she got because there was a girl with a similar name working that evening. Our receptionist quickly realized the mistake and corrected it. It's not Jaymi's fault that things were misconstrued, briefly, however it goes against Cachet Ladies policies to do what is known in the industry as a "bait and switch."

Jaymi allegedly goes on saying, "they would just send a different girl". Cachet does not use these kind of tactics, potentially placing a lady in an awkward situation with clients. The agency never takes advantage of a client's trust by sending a different woman other than the one the client requests. In the case of Kera it wouldn't be possible to send anyone else, for Kera chose to promote herself on the website by showing her face.

For the short time Kera worked with the agency she made friends with several girls and she was always up beat and positive. She was a wonderful, well-mannered young lady with a definite goal and a promising future. The ladies who worked with her, as well as the entire Cachet administration are saddened and distraught by her death. Cachet has and will continue to be available to assist police anyway they can regarding this matter.

Kera should be remembered as the sweet, spirited, friendly young lady who had aspirations to help foster kids and not a girl who moved to Toronto in order to work as an escort.

For that matter, it should be noted that Cachet is a legitimate business whose involvement with their employees is kept professional and does not extend into their personal lives.

Kera aspired to better her life by registering in a local college in the hopes of becoming a Social Worker thereby assisting the lives of individuals in need. What we should all remember is a sweet intelligent girl who, during her brief association with Cachet, has left all who knew her saddened and affected by this loss of a young woman.

Gregory W Leslie - Legal Counsel to Cachet Ladies
Katie Daubs Staff Reporter

When a teenage Kera Freeland posted the escort ad on Craigslist, she was excited to make some money and take control of life.

"Her and another girl, they were always going to travel as a pair," said Madelyn McDonald, the program manager at a Calgary youth shelter. "Nothing was going to happen to them."

Thousands of young people move in and out of the Wood's Homes Exit shelter in Calgary. Freeland's striking face was one McDonald never forgot.

Freeland, who had recently worked as an escort in Toronto, was last seen in mid-January. Her body was found last week in a Caledon ditch. Her death remains suspicious; OPP are awaiting the toxicology results from an autopsy.

"If she wasn't murdered, how did she end up in a ditch on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere?" said Chris, a friend and roommate from Toronto.

In Calgary, the news has rippled through the shelter community. McDonald was saddened but not surprised.

"This was not a kid who had fear," she said. "I do recall her being dropped off in this shelter in this car once, saying these were some guys she had just met."

Many street kids wear donated clothes. Freeland wore stylish tartans and always had well-done hair. She also had a reputation for speaking her mind, McDonald said.

"Some of the kids have a lot of bravado, but you know it's talk," she said. "She talked about the physical fights she got into. Some instances she got the crap beat out of her."

Melissa Marie Creyke remembers the day she met Freeland. She was having a bad day, waiting for a friend on the steps of a Calgary shelter. Freeland sat down beside her and started a conversation that turned into a five-year friendship.

"She always had a way of putting a smile on everyone's face," she wrote in an email. "She was a good friend with a big heart."

Although Freeland was known for getting into fights, McDonald said she was never aggressive with shelter staff. In a world where many were without hope, Freeland was bright and energetic.

"Part of you felt, take that energy, go back to school, you can be anything," McDonald said.

Friends say the 20-year-old was trying to do that. Freeland's roommate said she wanted to be a veterinarian to help abused and homeless animals.

Freeland had an adopted family in Calgary but she didn't "stick," McDonald said. She used the shelter for housing and food, but would leave it for months at a time.

She arrived in Toronto this December and got job as an escort at Cachet Ladies on Dec. 4.

When she came home from work, she would sometimes open up.

"I'd just let her talk, just get whatever she needed out of it," said Chris, who didn't want his last name used. He last saw Freeland on Jan. 16, when he and his mother shared a pancake breakfast with her.

Freeland liked the night life in Toronto and spent her days playing with her roommate's cat and shopping with friends. She wanted to see Niagara Falls, but never made it.

In mid-December, she received news that she might have cervical cancer. She was pregnant, and the doctors told her they couldn't do any more tests unless she had an abortion, Chris said.

"It bothered her a lot. She procrastinated and put it off. She shut down," he said. "As far as I know she never actually had an abortion. She was told her condition would turn into full-blown cancer."

Cachet Ladies, the escort agency where Freeland worked, said the "sweet and intelligent girl" stopped working at the agency on Dec. 20 because she was planning to travel to B.C. for cancer treatment.

In a statement, the agency says what happened to Freeland is "a tragic story and for the moment, a complete mystery."

This Friday afternoon, the Alex Youth Health Centre in Calgary is holding a memorial for Freeland.

She leaves behind friends and family, as well as the son she gave up for adoption as a teenager.

Freeland bought him a Christmas present this year, Chris said.

She never mailed it. She couldn't afford the postage.
Sources say a 20-year-old woman who worked as an escort in Vancouver and recently moved to Toronto was looking forward to a better life. Instead, she ended up dead, her remains found last week in a Caledon ditch.

Kera Freeland, who hailed from Calgary and more recently worked as an escort in Vancouver, hopped a bus to Toronto in December.

Once here, sources told CTV's Tamara Cherry, she worked for a well-known escort agency called Cachet Ladies. Her rates were listed at $400 an hour or $4,000 a day.

Freeland was last seen in Sunday, Janurary 16 in the Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Queens Ave. area of Etobicoke.

Her remains were found Thursday about one hour north of there, in Caledon, in a ditch on the side of Heart Lake Road. OPP believe the body likely became visible after large amounts of snow began to melt.

"It's very important to us to figure out how she got there," OPP Const. Peter Leon told reporters. "In doing so, we'll be able to fill in a number of the voids along the timeline that exists between her disappearance and the time she was discovered."

Police have released her photo in the hope that someone will recognize her and contact police with new information about her last whereabouts.

Friends from Kera's hometown of Calgary told CTV News she had struggled with drug addictions and came to Toronto in December looking for a better life.

As a teenager, she lived in downtown Calgary shelters and was once arrested for driving a stolen car into a house.

One friend said: "She got into some bad things but she was a really good person ... It's just really sad, the road she ended up going down."

Another said: "She was trying to work everything out in her life. She wanted a change. She wanted a new start."

Investigators with the OPP are asking anyone who last saw Freeland to call 905-857-3304.
TORONTO - By all accounts, young escort Kera Freeland was living a life on the margins when she died.

The 20-year-old's remains were found Thursday in a ditch in Caledon, Ont., west of Toronto, just a few months after she had moved to Toronto to work as a call girl for an escort agency.

A friend recalled that in 2007 she was a pregnant teen living at a youth shelter in her home province of Alberta.

"She couldn't wait for the baby to be born," said Danzell McNeilly, who met Freeland at the Avenue 15 shelter in Calgary in the summer of 2007.

"She had clothes, a carriage. I don't know how, but she had money to get them."

Freeland gave birth to a baby boy, Jayden, in September or October of that year, said McNeilly.

Freeland was always optimistic and kind, he added.

"She would always put a smile on your face, (and) poke and prod you until she made you smile," said McNeilly, adding that Freeland would often talk about having a wealthy family but never spoke about her reasons for leaving home.

"I don't want people to see her as a hooker," he said. "She was a kind person."

Calgary friend Melissa Creyke had known Freeland for five years and said while she lived a troubled life, she was a good pal and cared for people.

"Deep down she was a really nice person with a really big heart with a really messed up situation," she said.

Freeland worked for Cachet Ladies escort service last Dec. 4 to Dec. 20, said Gregory Leslie, a lawyer for Cachet. Freeland left Cachet a short time after joining the agency to return to Alberta for cancer treatment, said Leslie.

"She told Cachet Ladies that she was going back to Calgary to get treatment for her cervical cancer," he said, adding Freeland vowed to return when she was well.

On the Cachet Ladies website, the woman is described as a "top model" whose daily rate started at $4,000.

"Gentlemen" would find themselves intoxicated by her "beautiful body and facial features," says the site.

OPP investigators, who have notified Freeland's family, are considering her death suspicious and have appealed to the public for information on her final days.

"Our primary concern is how she ended up on that stretch on Heart Lake Rd.," said Const. Peter Leon.

A school bus drives along Heart Lake Rd. in Caledon near the ditch where the body of Kera Freeland was found. She was last seen on Lake Shore Blvd. near Queens Ave. in Toronto. DAVE THOMAS/QMI Agency

MYSTERY SURROUNDS ESCORT AGENCY

Cachet Ladies escort service has a “good reputation” as a respected agency for women who want to get into the business, says Toronto criminal lawyer Gregory Leslie.

“They have a good rapport with police,” said Leslie, who represents Cachet. “They have a very good reputation for women who want to get into the field of escorting.”

At the same time, a certain amount of mystery surrounds the 10-year-old escort agency.

When QMI Agency called the number on Cachet’s website, a woman with an Australian accent answered and said she could not comment on the death of Kera Freeland, who worked as an escort for Cachet in December 2010.

She then hung up, declining to give her name or the address of the agency. The address Cachet lists as their location in downtown Toronto is not an escort agency, but ExecuSpace Inc., a company that rents out executive office space.

ExecuSpace Manager Jacqueline Montmarquette said the company is not connected in any way to an escort service.

She said Toronto police visited her office after Freeland went missing, asking if she knew of Cachet Ladies, as well as Freeland’s whereabouts. Montmarquette said she knew nothing on both counts.

Cachet Ladies advertises that it has offices in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and boasts a "star-studded line-up" of women with names such as Desiree, Paris and Anastasia. Rates are as high as $400 an hour and $4,000 per day.

terry.davidson@sunmedia.ca

Press Release by Maggie's

The following statement about the death of Kera Freeland was released today countering mainstream media’s reporting on the matter.

Maggie’s: the Toronto Sex Workers Action Project respectfully offers our condolences to the friends, family and community of Kera Freeland.

We must also condemn the recent media coverage of her death, which exemplifies sensationalistic, lurid and exploitative journalism.

Ms. Freeland was a 20-year-old woman who we believe was also an escort. So far we have no evidence that her death is linked to her work nor that she was killed by a client or anyone connected to the sex industry. We also have no evidence that Ms. Freeland was open about her work to her family and friends. Regardless, her death is being feasted on by those who are attributing her death to her work and her “lifestyle” and her privacy is being disregarded entirely.

We regard this as sexist victim-blaming and discrimination against sex workers. We’re confident that the same associations between work and violence would not have been made if Ms. Freeland were in any other profession. If her death is work related, it is further evidence that lack of rights and criminalization put sex worker’s lives at risk.

In our 25 years, we have seen the media and politicians shamelessly appropriate violence against sex workers (whether the violence was work related or not) and use it to advance their own anti-sex work agendas, stereotypes and prejudices. We firmly oppose any proposal for a “red-light district” as it would only further segregate sex workers, who also live, work, study and have families in Toronto. Sex workers themselves must lead any initiatives to further their safety.

We call on city politicians and media to respect the family and friends of Ms. Freeland and end the speculation about her death and its relationship to her work.

If these same people are concerned about the well-being and safety of sex workers, then we encourage them to listen to those who are experts in sex work safety: sex workers themselves.

Maggie’s: The Toronto Sex Workers Action Project is an organization run for and by local sex workers. Our mission is to assist sex workers in our efforts to live and work with safety and dignity. We are founded on the belief that in order to improve our circumstances, sex workers must control our own lives and destinies.

Police Don't Buy Story

Toronto Police aren’t buying a statement by an escort agency that it can protect the women who work for them — a claim made shortly after one of its escorts was found dead.

Det. Paul Gauthier was responding to a release from Cachet Ladies that it looks out for its women, and even encourages them to further their education. “It’s a dangerous business, and there’s only so much protection an (escort) agency can offer,” said Gauthier, a member of the special victims unit.

“And at the end of the day, they are still exploiting her, even if the escort doesn’t see it that way,” he said Thursday.

The remains of 20-year-old Kera Freeland, who moved to Toronto three months ago to work for Cachet Ladies, were found in a ditch in Caledon last week.

And while Freeland’s death is still under investigation — and so far not linked to her job — a source from the sex trade said her death may have been because of a “date” with a client gone wrong.

“(Freeland) called her roommate earlier that night and told her she was having a bad date,” Tim Lambrinos of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada told the Sun.

“She said she was going to leave the date and return home.”

Some sex workers will turn to escort agencies, thinking they’ll be better protected than walking the streets or going it alone, Gauthier said.

Security could involve agencies sending escorts to upscale apartments or hotels, dealing with more sophisticated clients, and having a driver keep tabs on the women.

But this isn’t much protection, Gauthier said. In just seconds, a multitude of bad things can happen to a sex worker after entering the room of a client alone — assault, robbery or rape.

“It depends on the agency,” Gauthier said.

“The agency’s goal is to make money, and they use that girl to make money ... some of these agencies are started by former escorts themselves, so they are sort of (protective), but in the end, they are in it to make money.”

Gauthier is “generalizing”, said Nikki Thomas, executive director of the Sex Professionals of Canada.

“Like other businesses, there will be better ones than others,” said Thomas, adding that the better agencies provide blacklists of abusive clients.

“The agencies do provide a good deal of support ... (escorts) work in safe and secure circumstances.”


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