First stop was a PDF document on the website of Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho (one of the two churches sponsoring the ill-fated trip), entitled New Life Children’s Refuge - Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission, which contained this :

Contact Information:

New Life Children Refuge:

Laura Silsby, Executive Director and Founder

<snip>

Website under construction: newlifechildrensrefuge.org

If you go to the URL newlifechildrensrefuge.org, it's a dead link, no website there.

So, next stop was the "whois" listing for domain name, which shows the "Registrant" data as :

Registrant Name:Laura Silsby

Registrant Organization:New Life Children's Refuge

Registrant Street1:2828 S. Alfani Way

Registrant Street2:

Registrant Street3:

Registrant City:Meridian

Registrant State/Province:ID

Registrant Postal Code:83642

Registrant Country:US

OK, the name & organization match up, so I think this is reliable data to be used for further searching.

Commercial Break

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Next, I stumbled upon PersonalShopper.com, which Silsby happens to be the award-winning CEO of; so, she's an entrepreneur making good money, right?

A search on Silby's address (2828 S Alfani Way, Meridian, Idaho, from the "whois" record) turned up this 2007 YouTube video of a $399,500, four bedroom, two-and-a-half bath house, so yah, she's loaded.

Or is she?

On the website of the Ada County (Idaho) Assessor's office, the "Tax" tab of the Land Record / GIS entry for the above address show's half ($2,086.41) of the 2009 property tax bill still due, although not yet delinquent.

But here's the kicker - the Canyonside Irwin Realty company's MLS listing for the property shows that it's an REO / Bank Owned property, meaning it was foreclosed on!

Is this a possible motivation for snatching kids from Haiti, given the exorbitant fees a "good Christian" orphanage could charge?

Update [2010-2-1 12:9:12 by The Werewolf Prophet]:

According to the website of the Idaho Secretary of State, New Life Children's Refuge, Inc. was incorporated November 25, 2009, which lends credence to the idea that some sort of orphanage was truly in the works.

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