TX TX - Lina Sardar Khil, 3, last seen on playground @ apartment complex, San Antonio, 20 Dec 2021 #2

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The family has recruited retired FBI agents with Project Absentis to help in the search.

"We've been knocking on doors, just talking to a number of people that have given us quite a bit of information," says Abel Pena with Project Absentis. "But still not leading to the whereabouts or what happened to Lina. And we're a little perplexed by that."

During a canvass by his team, they found an arrest in September 2022 that caught their attention.

"We learned that there was an individual, who used to live at the apartment complex that Lina lived at. And he was arrested for possession with the intent to distribute and promote child *advertiser censored*. We do not believe he still lives at that apartment complex."

The person is also someone known to Lina's family.

"The conversation I had with the family member was that he did know, the person that was arrested. Again, we're not pointing the finger at this individual," says Pena.

.......

The family tells us they shared the information with the police and the FBI. But the person told the family no one had contacted him, so they asked Pena to check it out.

"He first mentioned Los Angeles, and he mentioned a city in central California that Lina was there," recalls Pena. "We made contact with the local police departments in the area. They had people on the ground while I had this person on the phone. It just did not work out. Did not establish that this person actually knew what he was talking about. But nonetheless, when somebody has information, if they come to us, we'll do everything we can to vet it. If it turns out that this information is good information, we'll take it to the police or the FBI."
Wait, what?
 
No. But they say they do not believe the individual still lives at the complex...Huh, they don't "believe"? That kinda struck me as strange. Maybe his arrest record showed him residing there. Then, the PI couldn't find him when they went door to door? MOO MOO
Lina vanished Dec 2021 and the arrest of the child-censored individual happened in Sept 2022.

We don't know where he lived in Dec 2021 or where he currently lives.

All we know from Pena is that the allegation by an unknown Jordian that Lina was in CA proved untrue (and source unreliable). JMO
 
I have always believed that she was grabbed in the parking lot, as she and her young friends ran through there, as her mom watched from the bench, where her view was blocked for that small window of time. Mom saw Lina and the kids run from that small kids park area towards the parking lot , but Lina was no longer with them when the others came back into view, according to some earlier articles.

It would make sense that a resident or former resident, might be in their car when the youngsters came parading by. If someone had a perverse interest in children, that would be a tempting opportunity. :mad:
 
I have always believed that she was grabbed in the parking lot, as she and her young friends ran through there, as her mom watched from the bench, where her view was blocked for that small window of time. Mom saw Lina and the kids run from that small kids park area towards the parking lot , but Lina was no longer with them when the others came back into view, according to some earlier articles.

It would make sense that a resident or former resident, might be in their car when the youngsters came parading by. If someone had a perverse interest in children, that would be a tempting opportunity. :mad:
Yes, it definitely seems like a crime of opportunity since the perpetrator did not even enter the playground.

Most likely Lina became separated from the rest of the children and the perpetrator thought, "Jackpot!"

She may not have been pulled into a vehicle; she may have been taken into the perp's apartment. The suspect is being described as a former resident, but was he a "former resident" at the time of Lina's abduction, or was he still living there at that time? Did he move right after the abduction? I hope that LE has gone over his old apartment with a fine-tooth comb. If they find Lina's DNA, they can fry the SOB—or inject him, I should say, since we're talking about Texas.
 
I have so many thoughts running through my head with this one.

Who could have done this? Why isn't there more information? How can anyone disappear into thin air? Why wasn't their more surveillance? Why does it seem (to me) that no one is working hard enough to find her?!

Sorry, I'm frustrated. MOO on all these.
 

UPDATED: 13:40 EST, 27 December 2022

1672202228767.png
The young child looked both ways and twirled her hair before walking out of view.

Zarmeena has said she remembers letting her daughter out to play with other children on December 20, 2021.

Around 5.30pm, Zarmeena was watching Lina, who was wearing a black jacket, a red dress and black shoes, run around the complex's playground. She saw the back of Lina's head before she turned away for five minutes.

When she turned around, she couldn't find Lina among the dozen-plus children.

She then knocked on every door for the next 30 minutes before calling Lina's father, Riaz.

'I kept thinking Lina would appear,' she said, noting she figured her daughter went off to play with another local Afghan family.

Both Riaz and Zarmeena then reached out to several local Afghan community leaders to aid in their search for their daughter.

'Our community does not trust the authorities,' said Lawang Mangal. 'He did not know what to do.'

After an hour into Lina's disappearance, Mangal urged the Sardar family to call the police.
 

UPDATED: 13:40 EST, 27 December 2022

View attachment 390344
The young child looked both ways and twirled her hair before walking out of view.

Zarmeena has said she remembers letting her daughter out to play with other children on December 20, 2021.

Around 5.30pm, Zarmeena was watching Lina, who was wearing a black jacket, a red dress and black shoes, run around the complex's playground. She saw the back of Lina's head before she turned away for five minutes.

When she turned around, she couldn't find Lina among the dozen-plus children.

She then knocked on every door for the next 30 minutes before calling Lina's father, Riaz.

'I kept thinking Lina would appear,' she said, noting she figured her daughter went off to play with another local Afghan family.

Both Riaz and Zarmeena then reached out to several local Afghan community leaders to aid in their search for their daughter.

'Our community does not trust the authorities,' said Lawang Mangal. 'He did not know what to do.'

After an hour into Lina's disappearance, Mangal urged the Sardar family to call the police.
I just realized that you can see her distinctive dress in the surveillance!

 

UPDATED: 13:40 EST, 27 December 2022

View attachment 390344
The young child looked both ways and twirled her hair before walking out of view.

Zarmeena has said she remembers letting her daughter out to play with other children on December 20, 2021.

Around 5.30pm, Zarmeena was watching Lina, who was wearing a black jacket, a red dress and black shoes, run around the complex's playground. She saw the back of Lina's head before she turned away for five minutes.

When she turned around, she couldn't find Lina among the dozen-plus children.

She then knocked on every door for the next 30 minutes before calling Lina's father, Riaz.

'I kept thinking Lina would appear,' she said, noting she figured her daughter went off to play with another local Afghan family.

Both Riaz and Zarmeena then reached out to several local Afghan community leaders to aid in their search for their daughter.

'Our community does not trust the authorities,' said Lawang Mangal. 'He did not know what to do.'

After an hour into Lina's disappearance, Mangal urged the Sardar family to call the police.
What took so long to release this?
 
I have so many thoughts running through my head with this one.

Who could have done this? Why isn't there more information? How can anyone disappear into thin air? Why wasn't their more surveillance? Why does it seem (to me) that no one is working hard enough to find her?!

Sorry, I'm frustrated. MOO on all these.

Good questions....

I'm not breaking any new ground here but I'll offer my thoughts on some of the things you're asking out of frustration....

Who could have done this? It's probably someone who is a stranger to the family or has only seen her in passing and is not well known to them. The person likely has some legitimate reason for being in the area of the apartment complex (may work there, deliver there, know someone else who lives/works there) and has been noticing when kids are unattended by adults. Statistics would say that she was probably abducted by someone who intended to sexually assault her.

How can someone disappear into thin air? It's likely that a vehicle was involved, in my opinion. Again, statistics would tell us that Lina was probably already killed by the time her family called police since they spent an hour and a half (?) looking for her first. The place where her body ended up is probably not random, it's likely somewhere the killer feels comfortable and is familiar with. In fact, a not-insignificant number of child predators will return to the place where they've left their victims body. If she is ever found, this place where her remains are recovered will have a lot of value to investigators looking to identify the person responsible.

Why isn't there more surveillance? Just my opinion, but I don't think most complexes like the one in which Lina's family lived have much surveillance. Residents may be prohibited by their leases from attaching any type of security cameras to doors. Also, and this is colored by my own experience - I once lived in a complex where the surrounding neighborhood was rapidly changing from a "nice" to "less nice" area. You'd think that as crime increased in the area, the management company would increase surveillance cameras but they actually did the opposite - they removed them, because they did not want to be held responsible by residents for the property time that started routinely occurring to parked cars.

Why does it seem like no one is working hard to find her? My guess is that investigators may be pretty sure that she is deceased, and they may be working leads that they don't require the public to help with at this point. So the quiet could, in fact, be progress in the case - though it's also sad but very possible that investigators don't have much to go on since her body has yet to be found.

All my personal opinions only.
 
Good questions....

I'm not breaking any new ground here but I'll offer my thoughts on some of the things you're asking out of frustration....

Who could have done this? It's probably someone who is a stranger to the family or has only seen her in passing and is not well known to them. The person likely has some legitimate reason for being in the area of the apartment complex (may work there, deliver there, know someone else who lives/works there) and has been noticing when kids are unattended by adults. Statistics would say that she was probably abducted by someone who intended to sexually assault her.

How can someone disappear into thin air? It's likely that a vehicle was involved, in my opinion. Again, statistics would tell us that Lina was probably already killed by the time her family called police since they spent an hour and a half (?) looking for her first. The place where her body ended up is probably not random, it's likely somewhere the killer feels comfortable and is familiar with. In fact, a not-insignificant number of child predators will return to the place where they've left their victims body. If she is ever found, this place where her remains are recovered will have a lot of value to investigators looking to identify the person responsible.

Why isn't there more surveillance? Just my opinion, but I don't think most complexes like the one in which Lina's family lived have much surveillance. Residents may be prohibited by their leases from attaching any type of security cameras to doors. Also, and this is colored by my own experience - I once lived in a complex where the surrounding neighborhood was rapidly changing from a "nice" to "less nice" area. You'd think that as crime increased in the area, the management company would increase surveillance cameras but they actually did the opposite - they removed them, because they did not want to be held responsible by residents for the property time that started routinely occurring to parked cars.

Why does it seem like no one is working hard to find her? My guess is that investigators may be pretty sure that she is deceased, and they may be working leads that they don't require the public to help with at this point. So the quiet could, in fact, be progress in the case - though it's also sad but very possible that investigators don't have much to go on since her body has yet to be found.

All my personal opinions only.
Thank you for this well thought out response.

Though, one of your thoughts make me think! I agree that she is probably deceased, and her body is in a place where the killer feels safe, and she is unlikely to be found. But that makes me wonder... how many other people has this killer killed? MOO.
 
Thank you for this well thought out response.

Though, one of your thoughts make me think! I agree that she is probably deceased, and her body is in a place where the killer feels safe, and she is unlikely to be found. But that makes me wonder... how many other people has this killer killed? MOO.

I always think about this too, though.... for every kind of criminal there has to be a first time.

I think that some percentage of people who offend in this way find that the experience was not exactly how they fantasized it would be. Maybe it was harder than they thought, perhaps they almost got caught. These people may be one the "one and dones" that are coming to light now that genetic genealogy is solving a lot of older cases.

But, I also think that people who abduct and kill a child are already more like a serial killer in their motivation than your "average" murderer so I do think that those who target kids are likely to act impulsively and offend more than once.
 
I just realized that you can see her distinctive dress in the surveillance!

Yes! I intentionally posted the screen grab by police from the surveillance video since so many still question whether Lina was ever at the playground as reported by her mother.

I think the women and children had an afternoon routine when the children would gather together to play outside and this was observed by her abductor. A predator stalking in the shadows...
 
Yes! I intentionally posted the screen grab by police from the surveillance video since so many still question whether Lina was ever at the playground as reported by her mother.

I think the women and children had an afternoon routine when the children would gather together to play outside and this was observed by her abductor. A predator stalking in the shadows...
I agree, and I'm leaning heavily towards a resident or former resident of that complex or the adjacent complex.
 
Last updated January 10, 2023; casefile added.

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  • Missing Since 12/20/2021
  • Missing From San Antonio, Texas
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race Asian
  • Date of Birth 02/20/2018 (4)
  • Age 3 years old
  • Height and Weight 4'0, 55 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A red long-sleeved dress, a black jacket, black shoes, blue and gold-tone plastic bangle bracelets, gold earrings, and a taweez (an amulet with verses from the Koran) around her neck. Photos of Lina in the clothes and jewelry she wore on the day she went missing, and a photo of the taweez, are posted with this case summary.
  • Distinguishing CharacteristicsAsian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Lina's ears are pierced. She was born in Afghanistan and speaks Pashto.

Details of Disappearance​

Lina was last seen playing at the playground at her apartment complex in the 9400 block of Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio, Texas, on December 20, 2021. She was at the playground with her mother and younger brother between 4:30 and 5:10 p.m. when her mother left for a short time, and when she returned, Lina was gone. The child has never been heard from again.

Lina and her family are refugees from Afghanistan; they arrived in the United States in 2019. She lived in the Villas del Cabo apartment complex with her parents and brother, and her mother was pregnant with another boy. Many refugees lived in the neighborhood, and Lina's parents initially thought a refugee family was taking care of Lina and would return her.

After they realized Lina was missing, her parents went door-to-door in the apartment complex, asking if anyone had seen her. They also reached out to San Antonio's Afghan community. When they were unable to locate her by 7:15 p.m., they called the police.

The family has cooperated with the police and are not considered suspects in her case. Although little evidence is available in her case, the circumstances of Lina's disappearance suggest she was abducted by a non-family member. Her case remains unsolved.
 
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