SAN ANTONIO — The search for Lina Sardar Khil intensified Tuesday with a new lead.
KENS 5 captured an FBI dive team member getting hosed off after going underwater, as search efforts were underway. The elite squad is working along a creek off Babcock Road. Lina's father was also seen praying near where this special team was that day.
The special FBI dive team is from Washington D.C. They flew in on Monday. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said they're following up on a lead that brought them to the scene. It is a little more than two miles away from Lina's home where she vanished. Lina has been missing since December 20.
Chief McManus said they're following up on a lead but wouldn't go into specifics.
"We don't want to leave anything to chance," he said.
Frank Trevino is a volunteer who has been looking for Lina every day. He watched the dive team from a distance.
"I think they are looking pretty deep," he said. At one point the diver did disappear completely into what I think is a deep hole. At this point, hopefully something comes of it."
Just on Sunday, Trevino and several others searched an area on the other side of the bridge less than a mile from where the FBI team looked Tuesday afternoon.
"It is rocky," he said. There is a lot of debris. A lot of the debris gets washed down river. It accumulates. It is pretty dangerous down there."
According to the FBI, this dive team is made up of underwater experts that can find clues and map out scenes. They've got fancy tools and special technology.
"I wish there was more uplifting information I could give you to a least provide some hope," McManus said. But I don't have any of that information right now.
KENS 5 asked Lina's father through a translator about his thoughts on the developments. He said he didn't know the FBI search was going on, and at one point thought his daughter was found dead. But of course, that is not the case. KENS 5 was also there when an investigator spoke to Lina's father and a translator later in the evening. They were briefed on what happened.
The FBI special dive team plans to resume its search on Wednesday.
SAPD has continued to officially treat her disappearance as a missing-person case. Meanwhile, total reward money for information leading to Lina's discovery stands at $150,000.