SAN ANTONIO — A Texas grandmother is holding onto hope for the family of Lina Sardar Khil after the 3-year-old girl went missing more than a week ago from a playground at the apartment complex where her family lives.
Natalie Vargas said watching the ongoing search for Lina reminds her of when her grandson, Joshua Davis, suddenly vanished from his family's mobile home in New Braunfels. He was 18-months-old at the time, and would be age 11 now.
"I try to block that day out. Sometimes, I can't believe that it's been ten years. You know, there hasn't been a lot of progress in his case," said Natalie Vargas, his grandmother.
Joshua disappeared in February 2011, and answers on his case have been limited. She often wonders if an AMBER Alert would've helped the day he went missing. However, she said police told her Joshua didn't meet the criteria for an alert to be issued.
"I remember thinking, God, if we could get it on the news. If we had an AMBER Alert, that would help because the freeway [near the house] goes in both directions really far," said Vargas.
She felt mixed emotions seeing an alert issued for Lina.
"I'm really glad that she got an AMBER Alert. That's important," she said. "It [also] breaks my heart that her family has to go through this 10 times more so than the average family, because if you think about it, they're not from here. There's a language barrier. They don't know what to trust. They don't have their family here and then they come here looking for a better life. Then, this happens. So can you imagine what their family is going through?"
It's tough for Vargas to watch police and volunteers search for the little girl as they look everywhere, just like they used to for Joshua.
"That's traumatic. I mean, I can't put into words what that feels like," she said. Including the questions and interrogations that comes up during a missing persons investigation.
In January 2021, New Braunfels police told KENS 5 in a press release that Joshua's case is considered suspicious in nature and said investigators were "frustrated and disappointed in the level of cooperation from some members of the immediate family who have repeatedly lied and misled detectives".
Police added they believe at least one of the adults in the home at the time of Joshua's disappearance knows what happened to him. Vargas disagreed.
"It's pretty much protocol. So I understand the need for them to question [family]. The police and I have different views of what happened, and different theories. In my case, they believe that something happened, somebody was covering it up and that something happened to Joshua. I disagree with that only because anything is possible," said Vargas.
For now, Vargas is holding onto the possibility that Joshua will be found and alive. It's a hope she is praying for Lina's family, too.
"My best advice is for them to hold onto hope," she said.
Anyone with information on either case is urged to contact police.
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