2 families hold breath
'A celebration of peace, happiness'
By CHRIS DOUCETTE AND DON PEAT, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 21st September 2009, 4:22am
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Facebook Digg Del.icio.us Google Stumble Upon Newsvine Reddit Technorati Feed Me Yahoo Simpy Squidoo Spurl Blogmarks Netvouz Scuttle Sitejot + What are these? Two families -- with daughters that went missing two years apart -- spent a heartbreaking weekend in two separate searches in two corners of the province.
In Toronto, with little else to go on and a week into her disappearance, investigators are turning to students at Forest Hill C. I. to try to find 17-year-old Mariam Makhniashvili.
Hundreds of kilometres away, relatives of Christina Calayca, 20, and professional searchers yesterday wrapped up three days of scouring Rainbow Falls Provincial Park, just east of Thunder Bay, in another unsuccessful bid to find the remains of the Toronto woman who went missing more than two years ago.
Makhniashvili is a newcomer to Canada and vanished without a trace a week ago while walking the few hundred metres from her family's highrise on Shallmar Blvd. to her high school, just east of Bathurst St. and Eglinton Ave. W. It would have been her fifth day at the school.
The teen was last seen around 8:40 a.m. last Monday when she and her brother George, 15, parted ways to enter different doors, Toronto Police say.
Officers have been scouring the area ever since, but still have no clue what happened. In the hopes of generating new leads, police will address students during an assembly at Forest Hill today. "They're hoping someone will remember seeing Mariam that morning," said Peggy Aitchison, the school's principal.
Aitchison has been walking around the city looking for the missing teen. She remains hopeful there is a simple explanation for the bizarre disappearance.
"I'm still optimistic," she said. "The entire city is hoping she will be found safe and sound."
Mariam's parents appealed for their daughter's safe return through the media on Wednesday, but they haven't spoken publicly since.
The couple moved from the Republic of Georgia to Los Angeles five years ago, leaving their kids behind to be raised by their grandmother. They moved to Toronto in May and brought the kids here in June.
Mariam, who speaks little English, is 5-foot-3, 140 pounds, with light brown hair and brown eyes.
The teen was last seen wearing black pants, a light blue shirt and a dark blue jean jacket. She was carrying a large black knapsack with a green stripe.
Last night in the park where Calayca was last seen going for a morning jog in August 2007, search crews -- including the woman's mother Elizabeth -- were wrapping up without any sign of her. Search leader Jeff Hasse said searchers were frustrated they couldn't help bring closure to the family this weekend.
"It went well, we again had perfect weather, good search conditions," Hasse said.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/09/21/11024106-sun.html
