Mariam Makhniasvili, 17, is seen with her brother in this security footage picture taken at the north entrance to Union Station Sept. 13 at 11:15 a.m., the day before she went missing. Mariam and her brother were on their way to Marilyn Bell Park to assist as volunteers with a YMCA program associated with Dragon Boat races. (TPS supplied photo)

TORONTO -- An OPP helicopter will hover above a North York park today to assist police in the search for missing teen Mariam Makhniashvili.

Toronto Police enlisted the chopper to scour the 58-hectare Earl Bales Park near Bathurst St. and Sheppard Ave. because the girl and her family visited the park regularly, said Det.-Sgt. Dan Nealon, the lead investigator in the hunt for the 17-year-old.

Nealon said the helicopter search does not mean police have information the park contains any evidence of the girl, who has been missing since Sept. 14.

"I don't really want any speculation over this," Nealon said yesterday. "This is strictly in aid of the Level 3 search, to search by air. It's not a pointed area (the park). It's not anything generated by investigative work. This is overall, to be cautious in our search."

Makhniashvili and her family visited the park two to three times a week and it's one of the few areas in Toronto the teen is familiar with, Nealon said.

"This area is known very well to the family and to our missing girl," he said. "In the event that she could've stumbled upon this park on her own and has befallen anything from foul play to misadventure -- this is the reason why we're there."

NO FOOTAGE

Makhniashvili, also known as Marika, and her brother, George, 16, were walking to their school, Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, when she split up from him to enter a front door closer to her classes. That was 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 14 -- and it's the last time she was seen.

There are no surveillance cameras outside or inside the school, nor at the neighbouring Forest Hill branch of the Toronto Public Library.

There is also no surveillance footage from the apartment building at 20 Shallmar, where the Makhniashvilis live.

Mariam and her brother arrived in Canada in June from their native Republic of Georgia after a five-year absence from their parents, who lived in Los Angeles while their father, Vakhtang Makhniashvili, worked a research job.

In April, Vakhtang was acquitted of two lewd conduct charges by a Los Angeles jury. Soon after, in May, he and wife Lela Tabidze moved to Toronto.

Nealon, who heads up a special task force of about a dozen detectives dedicated to the Mariam search, said Vakhtang, 49, has been up front about the acquittal. "He's been totally 100% co-operative through it all. He's never denied any of these issues."

Nealon said investigators are examining all known sex offenders in the Toronto area.

BRETT.CLARKSON@SUNMEDIA.CA