The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 33

SECTION EDITORIAL ISSUES IDEAS THE VANCOUVER SUN HEALTH SCIENCE BOOKS I C4 IDEAS I C5 BOOKS I C8 WEEKEND ISSUES Harvey Enchin on the poor timing of the Liberal government's new carbon tax, which will increase fuel prices and lead to cost-push inflation in what is a slowing economy. Peter McKnight on what happens when science runs into an ideological wall and how the Canadian government has been taken to task for its lack of support, or knowledge of, scientific research. Montreal psychologist Susan Pinker is sure to make a splash with The Sexual Paradox, her new book about malefemale differences. However, it disappoints our feminist reviewer. -I I -I WEEKEND REVIEW EDITOR STEPHEN SNELGROVE E-mail: ssnelgrovepng.canwest.com SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2008 DANIELLE LARUE NEVER HAD CHANCE TO SUCCEED Vancouver I A childhood full of pain and abuse led her to drug addiction, working the streets and an unsolved death a fate that's been all too common among first nations children in the city WEEKEND EXTRA BY DAPHNE BRAMHAM VANCOUVER SUN COLUMNIST '1 V- I I A 1, a A -4 i Danielle LaRue's life was a disaster from the beginning to its haunting end.

Like too many first nations children, she never had a chance to succeed. Home was never safe for her. As a child, no one, no parent, social worker, police officer, lawyer or law ever protected her. "She was physically and sexually abused. She was abused in every way a child could be," says her sister Kim.

By the time Danielle reached her teens, only heroin eased the pain and selling sex on the street was the only way to pay for it. On May 12, 2003, Vancouver police issued an alert that the 25-year-old had been missing from the Downtown Eastside since the previous December. Not a single newspaper in Metro Vancouver reported it. It wasn't until a year ago that Global TV's John Daly revealed that police had received an unsigned note, presumably from Danielle's killer, in early December 2002. When nothing was reported in the newspaper, the killer sent a second chilling note to police.

"This is about Vancouver prostitute who disappear at the end of November 2002. Don't remember name she gave me, had no ID. Sounded like she had just recently come to Vancouver. Caucasian, long black, curly hair, jeans, black leather jacket, tattoos and jewelry. She is dead "I send this info so you can notify her family.

If you can, please make mention of her name in Vancouver Sun. I would like to know who she was "To her family. I am sorry more than you can imagine. I did not intend this but am still responsible. She will not be unmourned.

Have brought flowers to her grave once already, plan to do so every years as am able. Not ideal, but better than no visits at all. I know you can't forgive me but please believe I tried my very hardest to bring her back." The police file remains open. Danielle's body has never been found and nor has her killer. "I can't say that anything could have saved her," Kim says.

"When you're abused to the extent that she was as a child, I don't think anything can help. That's why I think anybody who hurts or molests a child should be killed because that child never gets over it. Some kids live as normally as they can be. But they never get over it." Despite her own short, brutal life, Danielle did what she could to keep her brother and sister safe. i WEEKEND EXTRA CONTINUES ON C11 Danielle LaRue went missing from the Downtown Eastside on May 12, 2003, but not one media outlet reported on her disappearance..