[转贴] 快讯：多伦多九岁华裔女孩离奇失踪
- 主题发起人 oread
- 开始时间
KerryInKanata
新手上路
- 注册
- 2003-06-11
- 消息
- 92
- 荣誉分数
- 0
- 声望点数
- 0
最初由 渐渐 发布
Careful! The "blacks" in your sentence can be substituted with any ethnicity. Racism affects all of us. We are in this together.
T.O. police hopeful missing girl will be found
CTV.ca News Staff
Toronto police say they are still optimistic that missing school girl Cecilia Zhang will be found, though it's been more than 36 hours since she disappeared from her bed.
Police released new pictures of Ceclia Tuesday evening, urging anyone who recognizes her and thinks they may have seen her to contact them.
"We remain vigilant and we remain hopeful. We have every reason to be optimistic that we'll be able to find Ceilia and return her home to her family," said Toronto Police Sgt. Jim Muscat.
"The alternative is not something that I'm prepared to think about."
Muscat says the police hotline has already received more than 175 tips and he vowed that every tip would be investigated.
Ontario Provincial Police called offf their province-wide "Amber Alert" for Zhang Tuesday. According to Muscat, the alert had "accomplished what it was intended to do -- get the attention of the community through the media province-wide."
He added that doesn't mean the police search has been scaled back.
"Our search will continue where we hope to find her -- wherever that is... We will continue to search until we find her."
Outside Cecilia's North York home, Muscat relayed a plaintive message from the missing girl's parents.
"To whoever has Cecilia, please return her home safely," Muscat said, describing the family as "extremely distraught."
"Please drop her off at a safe location so that police can bring her home."
A Grade 4 student, Dong-yue "Cecilia" Zhang, was reported missing Monday morning from her North York home in Toronto's northeastern suburbs. Her parents told police when they went to get their only child ready for school at about 8:30 a.m., she was gone.
Cecilia is described as Asian, 4'11, 70 pounds with shoulder-length straight black hair with blond highlights. She speaks good English.
But police have neither descriptions of a suspect, a possible motive, nor a handle on the clothes Cecilia might have been wearing when she went missing.
As the investigation moved into the second day of Cecilia's disappearance, concern is growing.
"As the hours go on, even though we continue to be confident, we continue to be obviously concerned for her safety... The longer this goes on, the more hard it is for us, but we will do everything we can to find her," Sgt. Muscat told reporters.
The case, he said, is being treated as an abduction. He added that the entire range of services -- from police marine units to volunteer search and rescue teams -- have been enlisted to the hunt.
"We're extremely concerned with the safety of Cecilia and continue to remain hopeful that... we can bring her home to her parents," Muscat said.
The search continued overnight, as investigators combed through garbage in a nearby processing station for clues. And the door-to-door canvassing picked up Tuesday morning, as police sifted through dozens of tips submitted to the case through their "Cecilia" hotline.
Anyone with information on the case is being urged to call (416) 808-3300 from Toronto, or 1-800-222-TIPS throughout Ontario.
Toronto police say that Cecilia has never run away or gone missing before. The search is proceeding informed by evidence of "foul play" at the home. The screen on Cecilia's bedroom window appears to have been tampered with.
According to Jan Barr, a member of Child Find Ontario, the investigation is hindered by a key similarity to the recent case of Holly Jones.
"We don't have any description of (Cecilia's) abductor. We don't have a licence plate, we don't have a vehicle, we don't have an individual," Barr told Canada AM Tuesday.
"I'm sure the community is going to be fearful... but it's so important that communities in Toronto pull together."
Last May, 10-year-old Jones disappeared from her Toronto neighbourhood. Her dismembered remains were discovered the next day, leading to charges against a man who lived in the neighbourhood.
Barr echoed police requests when she urged anyone with information to come forward quickly, because statistically, the chances of discovering Cecilia safe dwindle with time.
In 2001, almost 67,000 Canadian children went missing. The majority, 80 per cent, were runaways who were generally found within 24 hours. Almost 400 others were abducted by a parent or guardian. Only 48 were abducted by strangers.
With reports from The Canadian Press
