Human remains found on golf course are those of Mariam Makhniashvili

Human remains found in a ravine on the Don Valley Golf Course last week belong to missing teen Mariam Makhniashvili, Toronto police said Friday.

“A DNA profile was identified and compared with outstanding missing persons. The remains were identified as being Mariam Makhniashvili,” Staff Insp. Greg McLane said at a news conference.

Her parents have been notified, McLane said, and the death is not considered suspicious or a homicide.

Mariam’s mother Lela Tabidze is doing “about as well as you’d expect,” McLane said, and has asked for privacy.

Makhniashvili’s skeletal remains were found under a highway overpass by two men on Feb. 28. She had been missing for two and a half years.

“The post-mortem results indicated that the cause of death was a fall from a significant height, and that the deceased was more than likely alive at the time of the fall.

“I’m not suggesting [that she took her own life] but what I will say is that the post-mortem results could be consistent with that conclusion.”  

Makhniashvili was 17 years old when she disappeared on Sept. 14, 2009, on her way to class at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute.
 
Makhniashvili attended the school for just four days before she disappeared. She was last seen walking with her brother, George. Video of the two was captured by surveillance cameras near Union Station.
 
Her disappearance sparked a massive investigation that involved 60 police officers, McLane said. About 5,000 people were questioned.

“We interviewed every student at her school and searched waste transfer stations…we used police agencies from around the globe. We received 267 Crime Stoppers tips and 245 tips from the general public.”

Computers at a nearby library were seized and searched, as was video from neighbouring businesses. Police helicopters were also used.

McLane said that police had scoured the area near the golf course by Highway 401 and Yonge Street, but had not found any sign of Makhniashvili. That’s not unusual, McLane said.

There was no indication that she had been depressed, Det. Sgt. Dan Nealon said Friday, but in retrospect, “you could see that, being an introvert, and a bookworm who kept to herself, one could assume that was a result of isolation and depression, but at this point it’s purely speculation.”

It’s not known if she died on the day she went missing, or if she was alone when she died, Nealon said.

Investigators are still working on the case, and will be reviewing Ministry of Transportation cameras from the highway.

Mariam and George Makhniashvili moved to Canada from Tblisi, Georgia, in June 2009 to be reunited with their parents who had moved to Toronto from Los Angeles a few months earlier.
 
A passerby discovered her backpack on Oct. 9, 2009, in an alleyway near Mount Pleasant Road and Eglinton Avenue but it didn’t provide any key information on her whereabouts.
 
Some people reported sightings of Mariam in Alberta. On Oct. 27, 2009, the RCMP received a report she’d been seen outside Calgary. On Dec. 2, 2009, authorities received another report she’d been spotted in Grand Prairie.
 
The family remained in the media spotlight after Mariam’s father, Vakhtang Makhniashvili, was charged with three counts of aggravated assault. He pleaded guilty to the charges.
 
The charges followed two separate stabbing incidents.
 
He was sentenced to six years in prison in December 2011.

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