Jim Rankin

Missing call girl had drug problem, pal says

"I don't know if anybody knows, but I know Graycie, and she's a drug addict," said Mary, who says she's known the high-priced prostitute for about six years.

Mary, who didn't want her real name used, is also a prostitute and lives within sight of Baxter's waterfront World Trade Centre condominium.

"I know she was into crack cocaine," said Mary, 27, in a telephone interview. "She called me one morning. It was a Sunday morning and I was in bed with my girlfriend. She wanted us to come over.

"She had said that she had taken pills the night before. She said she was hallucinating and she didn't wnat to be in her apartment alone."

Baxter, a transsexual who underwent a sex-change operation seven years ago, disappeared around Dec. 8. Her 1989 black BMW was found abandoned two days later in the parking lot of Gerrard Square shopping mall at Gerrard St. and Pape Ave.

She was last seen at a friend's place in Mississauga, say police. Around 3 a.m. that morning, one of the escort agencies she worked for paged her. She left and drove off in her luxury car.

No one has heard from her since.

"I know she had a bad time with drugs and she had gotten off them," said Mary. "You just wonder whether it had anything to do with drugs. Maybe she was going out to get more drugs."

Homicide's Detective Sergeant Tony Warr said yesterday police have'nt heard of any drug problem Baxter might have had. Police are still trying to piece together Baxter's movements leading up to her disappearance, Warr added.

The 6-foot-tall, 160-pound woman was making a good living from prostitution, said Mary, but always separated her work from her personal life.

"She was trying to live her life as complete as she could. It's only an occupation, what she does -- what we both do. She lived just like everyone else.

"You know, a lot of people feel that people who in the position we're in are not responsible people. That is not the case, especially not with Grayce."

Baxter, who has straight blonde hair and a sturdy build, had a clientele made up of submissive wealthy business men, said Mary.

"She's a dominatrix. She's into heavier stuff than I am. I'm just into regular work. She had called me several times to go with her (on calls). I refused because I'm not into that kind of heavy domination.

"She did specialty things. I mean, she was a transsexual; she could do things that a lot of other girls wouldn't do. People pay more for doing things like that."