San Antonio – San Antonio police continue searching for Lina Khil, a toddler seen nearly a year ago. Residents in her apartment complex worry her case has been on the back burner.
Rita McMikens lives next to the playground where Lina Khil was last seen playing. San Antonio police said the 3-year-old vanished on December 20, 2021. Her mother was nearby, just out of sight.
McMikens remembers seeing the police and FBI for weeks, interviewing neighbors and looking for any piece of video.
“The next day when I come home from work is when the SWAT, the whole FBI, are out here, and they’re all sitting here waiting. And I’m like, ‘OK, what’s going on?’ And then they’re like, ‘We were all waiting for you.’ And they’re like, ‘You have this camera on your doorbell, and we want to know if we can look at any footage and if you were able to capture anything,'” McMikens recalled.
There was nothing in the footage. Time passed, and she said other children and AMBER Alerts were called off, but for Lina, there’s been no good news.
“What about the little girl from our neighborhood? She was right here at the playground next door to my apartment. You never found her, but you keep finding all these other kids. Something don’t seem right,” McMikens said, referencing the investigation’s lack of evidence.
Abel Bautista lived in another complex but remembered the citywide search. He’s now worried about his own kids’ safety.
Bautista said he’s also worried about the lack of urgency in the community and from neighbors.
“Nobody’s saying anything. The way people are acting is like, ‘Everything is good,'” he said.
On Wednesday, leaders with the Islamic Center in San Antonio could not be reached for comment. At one point, they were offering a $250,000 reward for information to find her.
Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact SAPD’s Missing Persons Unit at 210-207-7660 or Crime Stoppers at 210-224-7867.