News

It’s called shaking the tree and it underscores the urgency of a mystery with few precedents.

In an exercise that will last at least two weeks, scores of police officers began fanning out across a triangle of streets in north Toronto Monday, canvassing residents door-to-door in efforts to retrace the movements of teenager Mariam Makhniashvili, who vanished two months ago.

And the inquiries of those 60 officers will go beyond merely trying to jog people’s memories: They will also be asking residents to let police into their homes for a look around.

In the absence of search warrants, nothing compels residents to agree.

But the tactic has been used successfully before. A case in point was the 2003 murder of 10-year-old Holly Jones, whose killer first stirred suspicion by being unhelpful in what should have been a routine canvass, and subsequently refused to provide a DNA sample.

In this case, uniformed officers will be knocking on the doors of about 6,000 homeowners and tenants, said Detective Sergeant Dan Nealon. Police will focus on an area bounded by Bathurst Street, Eglinton Avenue, Shallmar Boulevard (where Ms. Makhniashvili lived) and Chaplin Crescent.

“We’re going to be asking [for] the co-operation of the people who do live there, there will be a large presence of police in your neighbourhood,” he told reporters.

“We’re also going to be asking that we be invited inside your home for just a quick peek into areas of your home to ensure that there is no evidence in relation to this case with respect to you, and we can move on, close the door, and go on to the next place.”

Police also released a new, digitally altered photo of Ms. Makhniashvili, who was 17 when she disappeared Sept. 14 but has since turned 18.

It shows her in the clothes she was wearing when she disappeared and will be displayed on a large screen outside the Yonge-Eglinton Centre, a block away from where her school backpack was discovered Oct. 8.

On Friday, an OPP helicopter equipped with a high-resolution camera hovered over three parks – Earl Bales Park, Sunnybrook Park and Sherwood Park – in a fresh but apparently fruitless hunt for clues.

And on Oct. 27, police seized several computers from two libraries in efforts to learn whom the missing teen might have had contact with before she vanished.

Her parents have said they believe she was abducted, and that it’s unlikely she ran away since she left home with no money, passport or extra clothes.

Police, however, have said that so far they have no evidence of foul play.