 Bicycle cops prepare to search for signs of Mariam Makhniashvili in Earl Bales Park yesterday. (Alex Urosevic, Sun Media)
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One of Mariam Makhniashvili's closest friends in her native Tbilisi, Georgia, said her pal has "no reason to run away" from her parents, who called home every day to speak with their son and daughter during their five-year separation.
Dea Gigauri, 17, a former schoolmate of Mariam's at the Komarovi School of Physics and Mathematics, said in a series of e-mails to the Sun that Mariam, whom she referred to both as "Mari" and "Mary", had a healthy relationship with her parents and her brother, Giorgi, 16, whose nickname is "Giga".
"She and her brother Giga are great friends," Gigauri wrote. "I don't know about her parents, but I know that they called her every day on the phone. Mari loves them very much."
Mariam, 17, who has been missing since Sept. 14, lived in Tbilisi with Giorgi at their grandmother's flat for five years while their parents Vakhtang Makhniashvili and Lela Tabidze lived in Los Angeles.
After the parents moved to Toronto in May, the kids reunited with them in June and all lived together in an apartment at 20 Shallmar Blvd., near Bathurst St. and Eglinton Ave. W.
Gigauri said her friend had no reason to flee her family.
"I don't know what to think, but I'm sure that Mary wouldn't run away from her parents," she wrote. "When I heard that she was lost in Canada, I couldn't think about anything, I just prayed.
Gigauri said she doesn't know what to make of the fact her friend is missing -- but said she and Mariam's other friends in Georgia are sad and upset.
"I have known her for 11 years and of course I'm upset about her disappearance," Gigauri wrote. "We, everybody who knows her, love her, and we are very sad. I hope everything is OK with her."
Meanwhile, Toronto Police enlisted the services of an OPP helicopter to search Earl Bales Park near Bathurst St. and Sheppard Ave. W.
The OPP chopper, equipped with thermal imaging and camera magnification, flew low over the park beginning at 9:30 a.m. and then over other nearby greenspaces, including the Kay Gardner Beltline Trail and Marilyn Bell Park.
Det.-Sgt. Dan Nealon said police weren't drawn to the park because of anything gleaned from their investigation, but by a need to be thorough because the park is one of the few areas in Toronto that Mariam would know well.
"The family are very familiar with the park, specifically Mariam, who would come here with her family two to three times a week throughout the summer just shortly after they arrived here," Nealon said.
"They used to picnic and walk through the trails, so she's very familiar with this area."
The searches didn't turn up anything substantial.
Mariam's mom said yesterday she didn't notice anybody suspicious during the family's trips to Earl Bales Park.
According to reports, police also went to Mariam's house yesterday and retrieved the clothing she wore the day before she went missing. Investigators couldn't be reached to confirm this later in the day.
Tabidze, obviously distraught by the entire ordeal, said she doesn't know what to think about her daughter's disappearance.
It's difficult to articulate how she feels, she said.
"We can't tell what happened," Tabidze said. "It's too much, it's too hard to explain. Really, everything is so unusual and unexplainable. We don't have anything. I can't say anything."
Police Chief Bill Blair said the search will expand outside the city. He hinted the expanded search also includes her homeland.
"This is a young woman who has come from overseas to the city," Blair said yesterday. "We've looked in the local neighbourhood and the areas the young lady is known to have frequented, but now we just have to go further in our search."
BRETT.CLARKSON@SUNMEDIA.CA
