Toronto police spent Friday morning searching a North York park for clues that could lead them to the whereabouts of a 17-year-old student who vanished 11 days ago.
Det. Sgt. Dan Nealon said nothing specific has lead them to the grounds of Earl Bales Park but that it is an area that Mariam Makhniashvili is familiar with.
The teen and her family have come here several times throughout the summer for picnics and walks through the lush, wooded trails that snake through the park.
Makhniashvili went missing Sept. 14 shortly after arriving to Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, a high school located in the Bathurst Street and Eglinton Avenue area.
The girl and her 16-year-old brother walked to school together that morning but went their separate ways once they reached the building. She told her brother she'd be going through a separate entrance, one that was closer to her first-period class.
She was never seen again.
Nealon said officers are hoping a search of the park will unearth new details about the girl's disappearance. The police helicopter will be outfitted with infrared technology and search dogs may also be called in.
Police have said they don't have evidence to suggest the girl met with foul play.
Makhniashvili was a new student at the school. She and her brother George moved to Toronto from the Republic of Georgia in June to join their parents who relocated to the city months before.
The girl had reportedly made no new friends since she moved to town but her family says she was happy and is not the type to run away from home.
Earl Bales Park is located at Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue, about five kilometres north of where the Makhniashvili family lives.
