SAN ANTONIO — For the fourteenth time, an Amber Alert was continued for a missing three-year-old girl from San Antonio.
Lina Sardar Khil went missing around 5:00 pm on December 20 from a playground at her apartment complex at the corner of Fredericksburg and Bluemel Road.
The San Antonio Police Department says the search is still active, and the police chief has previously said there is nothing they haven’t done to locate her.
People who have experience in searches like this say Lina Sardar Khil could be in dire need of help.
The search, yielding no answers, is heartbreaking to some in the San Antonio community.
“We’ve been below [freezing] temperatures…I’m fearful that if she’s missing, if she’s actually out there, she’s in dire need, she’s in harms way,” Eric Herr, vice president of the Search and Support San Antonio group said.
Herr is a US Army veteran who received training in mortuary affairs following a deployment in Afghanistan in the early 2000’s. The specialized training focuses on finding human remains during times of battle and peace.
Herr’s hope is that Lina Sardar Khil is still alive.
“The case itself seems to be more of an abduction,” Herr says.
The San Antonio Police Department does not believe that Lina was abducted. An Amber Alert was issued Monday, December 20 after Lina Sardar Khil’s parents reported her missing.
Police say when Lina’s mom left her daughter at the playground and came back, her daughter was gone.
According to the FBI, there is a gap between 4:49 and 5:07 pm where they did not have visibility of Lina. So far a lot of the tips received were outside of that timeframe.
Herr believes there is no way Lina couldn’t be seen at that time.
“That’s like the busy traffic hours of San Antonio, there’s no way she’s out walking around and nobody sees her,” Herr said.
The San Antonio Police Department, the FBI, Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies and volunteers have spent the last two weeks trying to find her.
Last week, Police Chief William McManus said while their search has changed over the past two weeks, it remains in tense.
“It’s frustrating and disheartening and disappointing we haven’t come up with something yet,” Chief McManus said last week.
The police department is still asking for the community to submit any actionable tips. A $150,000 reward is being offered for information in Lina’s disappearance.
Abel Pena, CEO of Project Absentis, an organization made up of retired FBI agents who have worked abduction and kidnapping cases, says he is sure investigators are trying to investigate every possible lead or tip they receive.
“As far as law enforcement, they’re going to continue interviewing, continue talking to people and establish what happened and hopefully we find Lina very soon,” Pena said.
Volunteers are organizing a search on Tuesday at 9:00 am at a church located at 4398 Bluemel Road to search nearby apartment complexes.
If you’ve seen anything, please call the SAPD missing persons unit at 210-207-7660.