Toronto Police attended two assemblies at Forest Hill Secondary School in Toronto in 2009 to make an appeal to the student body for any information they may have regarding the disappearance of Mariam Makhniashvili, 17.Peter Power / The Globe and Mail
The mother of Mariam Makhniashvili, who has been missing for more than two years, has been contacted by police after a body was found in north Toronto on Tuesday.
Mariam's disappearance in September, 2009, captured the attention of the city as officers conducted door-to-door interviews and released surveillance footage of the then 17-year-old in hopes that she would be found.
A police spokeswoman said officers did not know the sex of the remains but a source revealed that they had found a pair of thong underwear at the site. A second police source confirmed the finding.
Mariam's mother, Lela Tabidze, said police contacted her earlier this week but provided little information, warning her "just in case" the body is her daughter's.
Ms. Tabidze said police have called her before in similar situations, and nothing seems different this time.
"It could be anything," Ms. Tabidze said. "They always keep me updated."
A police source familiar with the investigation said Mariam's mother was notified the same day the body was found, near where Highway 401 intersects with Yonge Street.
"If you have a very high-profile missing [person]and then a body is found, you'd have to tell the parents quickly, " the source said.
"Whatever this turns out to be, what [the police]didn't want was for her to be hearing about it in the media."
Mariam went missing months after she and her brother moved from the Republic of Georgia to reunite with their parents.
Her father, Vakhtang Makhniashvili, pleaded guilty last year to three counts of aggravated assault and was sentenced to six years in prison. The charges followed two separate stabbing incidents.
It's unclear if he was notified of the body being found this week.
A forensic pathologist at the coroner's office and the Centre of Forensic Sciences are analyzing the remains to determine the dead person's age, sex and cause of death and to estimate how long the body had been there, police said.
"At this point we don't even know the sex of the remains," said Constable Wendy Drummond, a Toronto Police Service spokeswoman. "We've got a forensic pathologist who is working on the case and we haven't received any information back."
Autopsy results aren't expected until next week, police said.
With a report from Tu Thanh Ha