Despite the search efforts of police and community members, a teenaged girl who vanished from her midtown Toronto neighbourhood five days ago was still missing Saturday.
While investigators listed the case as a Level 3 search -- the highest priority available -- on Friday, the operation to find Mariam Makhniashvili, 17, was scaled back.
Only six officers were looking for clues in the case on Saturday, down from 40 the day before.
"We accomplished a lot yesterday (Friday), and today (Saturday) we're just following up on some stuff we didn't manage to get to," said Sgt. Rick Gibillini.
"We're just tying up some loose ends, just following up on some tips and going over some areas we weren't able to access yesterday."
While officers have yet to announce a break in the case, they said that tips have been flooding in about the girl's whereabouts.
Still, Gibillini said that so far, "nothing has come to fruition."
He also hinted that the search may have to be downgraded again if no clues turn up by the end of the weekend.
However, Toronto resident Gord Matthews said that he may have seen the missing teen at a McDonalds near St. Clair and Christie.
Matthews told CTV Toronto's Jim Junkin that a teenage girl was sitting with a middle aged man who was speaking a foreign language on his cellphone.
"My wife had a gut feeling that it could have been her," Matthews said.
The teen and her younger brother walked to school together Monday morning at around 8:30 a.m., police said.
When they arrived at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, she told her brother she'd be going into the building from another entrance. Makhniashvili never made it to class that day.
Police are also asking anyone who lives within a four-kilometre radius around the school to search their property for any sign of the missing teen, including garages and sheds.
Police and volunteers will continue to search the neighbourhood for any sign of the girl.
On Friday, officers could be seen checking alleys, backyards and dumpsters.
The superintendent of a nearby building gave police a security surveillance video.
The Makhniashvili family had moved to Toronto this past summer. The girl and her brother arrived from the Republic of Georgia where they had been living with their grandparents.
Their parents had moved to Los Angeles five years ago and brought the kids over to Toronto when they relocated here into an apartment building in the area in May.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, the teen's parents told the media there were no signs the girl was unhappy with the family's new situation. They described her as shy and calm.
"She was the perfect daughter, the perfect student," her father Vakhtang said.
Lela Makhniashvili, the teen's mother, said she last saw her daughter as she waved goodbye on her way to school before stepping into the elevator.
Police urged anyone with information to speak with officers at the command post that has been set up on Shallmar Boulevard, just west of Bathurst Street. The public can also call 53 Division with information at 416-808-5300 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS.
With a report from CTV Toronto's John Musselman
