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'Nobody Disappears Into Thin Air': Police Chief Says Leads Have Slowed In Missing Child Case
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told a local outlet that hopes of finding Lina Sardar Khil alive are dwindling.
Leads are slowing in the case of a missing 4-year-old Texas girl, the police chief on the case has announced.
Lina Sardar Khil vanished on Dec. 20 while on the playground of the apartment complex in north San Antonio, Texas, where her family — who immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2019 — lives.
Now, six months later, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told a San Antonio outlet KSAT that leads in the case have slowed down.
When asked if the hope of finding Lina alive is decreasing with each passing day, he said "unfortunately it does, to be candid."
He expressed despair over that fact.
“Nobody disappears into thin air,” he said. “Something happened to her. We just haven’t been able to discover what it was.”
He noted that San Antonio Police Department’s special victims unit is currently handling the vanishing and that resources typically reserved for an abduction case are being used. However, the case is still classified as a missing persons case.
“We still don’t have any evidence or proof that it was an abduction," McManus said. "So we still we’re doing it. It’s kind of a hybrid missing person and abduction,” he said.
The FBI joined the San Antonio Police in early January in trying to find Khil. They deployed a dive team to look for the child in an area located not far from the family's apartment complex, the San Antonio Police announced in January. However, there have been absolutely no apparent signs of the missing girl.
The Islamic Center of San Antonio increased its reward for the safe return of Lina Sardar Khil by $20,000 in February, bringing the total up to $170,000. Previously, they offered $100,000 for the safe return of the child, and Crime Stoppers had offered $50,000.
Khil has brown hair and brown eyes and was wearing a black jacket, red dress and black shoes when she disappeared. Her mother had stepped away for a minute and, when she returned, Lina was gone. However, the toddler was never alone as other children were on the playground when she vanished. Her parents are cooperating with the investigation.
Anyone with information is urged to call the San Antonio Police Department Missing Persons’ Unit at 210-207-7660.
