SAN ANTONIO — The disappearance of 3-year-old Lina Sardar Khil has changed the apartment community where she lived. One resident said children no longer play outside.
“It’s not the same, you don’t see the kids running outside playing anymore. You don’t feel that sense of fun when you walk outside the door. It’s just this sense of fear and dread and worry,” said Deli Saiza.
Saiza has lived at the Villas Del Cabo apartment complex for several months. She remembers one time seeing Lina with a group girls.
“They all came running up and started petting my dog. That definitely kind of stuck out as I started seeing her in the news and everything, so it was kind of hard to know that it’s someone that’s just a couple buildings over,” Saiza said.
San Antonio police and the FBI have talked with residents and combed through dozens of video feeds.
Lina was last seen 5 p.m. December 20th at the Villa Del Cabo apartments on San Antonio’s northwest side.
Authorities are investigating Lina’s disappearance as a missing persons case, not an abduction.
The massive search effort for Lina has caught the attention of the Afghan-American Foundation.
“It struck a particular chord because when you resettle and whether you’re a refugee or an asylee or however you get here, it’s a pretty long road and it’s a pretty trauma-filled road,” said Joseph Azam, board chair of the Afghan-American Foundation.
The foundation pitched in $25,000 toward the Islamic Center of San Antonio’s now $100,000 monetary reward for information on Lina’s whereabouts. (Crime Stoppers of San Antonio is also offering a $50,000 reward, making the total $150,000.)
Azam is holding onto faith as the search for Lina continues.
“If there’s something that’s sort of a common thread for Afghans in the U.S. and Afghanistan is that our well of hope runs pretty deep. My hope is that Lina is found, and she is returned safely to her family and they are able to heal from this really traumatic incident,” Azam said.
San Antonio-based non-profit Culturingua has been at the forefront of the city-wide response to welcome new Afghan refugees.
“We are actively working and hope that we can create a vibrant community in and around the Medical Center area for people to live prosperous lives and the foundation for that is having a safe neighborhood in which to live,” said Nadia Mavrakis, CEO of Culturingua.
Saiza questions if functioning apartment gates would have prevented Lina’s disappearance. But she’s focused on the future and rallying behind Lina’s family.
“For those were at the vigil they said we’re all San Antonians, we’re all Americans here. I’m glad that the community sees it that way.”
A GoFundMe has been setup to support Lina’s family. To learn more click here.