Mariam Makhniashvili Missing For Six Months
Posted March 15, 2010 10:30 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Toronto girl has been missing for six months and her family and police have no idea where she might be.
Mariam Makhniashvili, 18, was last seen outside Forest Hill Collegiate on September 14, 2009. She walked to high school with her younger brother but left him at the entrance.
Investigators found her backpack days later in an alleyway near Eglinton and Mount Pleasant. Other than that, there have been few leads in the case.
Officers interviewed almost 1,000 students at the school and canvassed about 6,000 residents in her neighbourhood. The Ingram Transfer Station, located near her Bathurst Street and Eglinton Avenue home, was also searched to no avail.
Detectives are exploring several theories about the disappearance, ranging from abduction to her running away.
There were rumours she was spotted in Alberta, but the RCMP says there was no trace of the teen in the province.
At the time of her disappearance, police cautioned that aside from her immediate family, Mariam was virtually alone in the city.
“She’s new to both Canada and Toronto. She wouldn’t be familiar with the transit system in Toronto, or any of the services. There are no other family members in North America. She would have no support system,” Det. Steve McIlwain said last year.
Makhniashvili had been living with her grandmother for the past five years while her parents worked in the U.S. The family only recently reunited in Toronto.
