The search continues for a missing 3-year-old girl who disappeared from a playground in Texas over a week ago.
As previously reported, Lina Khil, 3, was last seen on December 20 at or near a playground at the Villas del Cabo Apartment Complex in San Antonio. Lina’s mother reportedly separated briefly from the girl, and returned to the playground around 5 p.m. to discover her daughter was missing. After looking for and failing to find their daughter, Lina’s parents, refugees from Afghanistan, reported her missing later that evening.
San Antonio police have reportedly interviewed hundreds of tenants at the 300-unit apartment building, including people who were at the playground at the time of Lina’s disappearance. Though authorities in Texas have issued an AMBER Alert, police say they are treating Lina’s disappearance as a missing persons case and have not identified any suspects in a possible abduction. Police also said that the parents have been cooperative. As previously reported, law enforcement officials asked for anyone who may have spoken to the girl or her family members on the day of her disappearance to contact police.
The Islamic Center of San Antonio has put up reward money of $100,000. Crime Stoppers has also offered a reward of $50,000, bringing the total reward for information leading to the girl and/or a suspect to $150,000. San Antonio Police have requested the aid of the FBI’s child abduction rapid response team, and FBI agents are working diligently to gather and review possible evidence in the girl’s disappearance.
“I know law enforcement is on top of this thing,” Abel Peña, a retired FBI agent who now runs the nonprofit organization Project Absentis, told KENS-5.
“They are working 24 hours a day,” he told the news station. “They’ve got agents deployed conducting interviews throughout the night going to addresses. There is a lot of things happening behind the scenes the average person doesn’t know (about).”
Anyone with information is urged to contact the San Antonio police missing person unit at 210-207-7660.
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