Toronto police will appear at two high schools in the area where the backpack of missing teen Mariam Makhniashvili was found last week and ask the students there for help.
They will make an appearance at Northern Secondary School, 851 Mount Pleasant Rd., at 8:50 a.m. on Thursday. Next, they will speak to students at North Toronto Collegiate Institute, located at 70 Roehampton Ave.
Det. Sgt. Dan Nealon, the lead investigator in the case, will speak to the students and ask them whether they remember anything that might be helpful. Mariam's parents told CTV Toronto they will not be appearing at the assemblies.
North Toronto Collegiate is just north of where the backpack was found last week at 120 Eglinton Ave. E., while Northern Secondary is just a few blocks further east.
Mariam, who will turn 18 on Oct. 27, was last seen on Sept. 14. She walked to school at Forest Hill Collegiate with her brother George. She told him that she would be going in the front door as it was closer to her first-period class -- and then seemingly vanished.
Since then, police have been frustrated in their investigation.
The hopes of police and Mariam's family were buoyed when her backpack laden with school books was found just over two kilometres east of her school.
Police say they have received good co-operation from residents in the area of the discovery. They continue to canvass the neighbourhood and follow leads, but have discovered no new evidence that would help them find the girl.
Police have said they don't have enough evidence to say whether Mariam is a victim of foul play, whether she voluntarily disappeared -- or if something altogether different happened.
Sandy Slater, a Yonge-Eglinton resident, told reporters last week she's convinced she saw the girl on the first weekend Mariam had gone missing.
"I saw her walking up the street with a guy, a guy probably in his early 20s," she said.
Her family said running away would be out of character and that Mariam has not tried to contact friends or relatives back in Georgia.
Their children left the Republic of Georgia for Toronto to reunite with their parents, who had lived in Los Angeles the last five years.
Mariam is white, 5'3" with light brown, shoulder-length hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing black jeans with front and back pockets and buttons as well as a baby blue, long-sleeved v-neck shirt. She was wearing a waist-length blue jean jacket and was carrying an oversized, used black backpack with a silver stripe that was hastily painted over in green.
People with information are asked to contact police at 416−808−5300, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416−222−TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, or text TOR and a message to CRIMES (274637).
With a report from CTV Toronto's John Musselman
