Details of Chaverim’s Search for Missing Toronto Teen Revealed, with Troubling Questions of her Disappearance Surfacing
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The intensive search that turned up a missing 14 year old Jewish girl in Toronto may be over, but a police investigation to determine if any criminality was involved in her lengthy absence is continuing to unfold.
As previously reported on VIN News , police found the missing girl, identified only as Esti, at an Etobicoke home on May 28, some nine miles from where she initially went missing. Police superintendent Don Belanger shared news of Esti’s finding at a press conference later that day, saying that she had been found in good health, but had been taken to a local hospital to assess her medical and emotional condition following her two week disappearance.
The search for Esti was frustrating and difficult, noted Chaverim of Rockland coordinator Yossi Margaretten, who was called to Toronto three days after she went missing, along with Chaverim’s Search And Rescue team. While Chaverim’s SAR team trains regularly in wooded areas and is often involved in finding missing and injured people in state parks and other forested locations, they were unable to find any traces of Esti, who is reportedly on the autism spectrum, as they searched Earl Bales Park.
The first break for Chaverim came on May 20 when camera units operating remotely from New York accessing surveillance feeds from various Toronto buildings showing Esti in the city and walking in and out of stores. Chaverim shifted its focus out of the park and onto the streets, with 10 volunteers remaining in Toronto over Shavuos, continuing to monitor surveillance footage and canvassing area hospitals, hoping to pick up the missing girl’s trail once again. Footage of Esti riding a bus that weekend confirmed that she was still in the city, but the trail went cold when Esti went into the Toronto Transit Commission’s subway, with the agency declining to share footage with the SAR team.
“They told us that they couldn’t give us the footage, and that everything is deleted after 72 hours,” Chaverim coordinator Yossi Margaretten told VIN News. “We came to a dead end, and we called our rabanim to find out what to do. They told us that as long as we had seen her alive on camera, we had to continue.”
With no successes, sightings or tips regarding her whereabouts forthcoming for a lengthy time, Chaverim made the unsettling determination that Esti was likely being held somewhere indoors. Back in Monsey, Chaverim members were spotted at the kever of the Ribnitzer Rebbe, davening for her safe return.
The next break in the case finally came on May 27, when Esti called her uncle in what he described as a cry for help, one that didn’t reveal any information about her whereabouts. Tracing the call, Chaverim determined that it had been made from a public phone on a subway platform, zeroing in on the number’s general location. Members of the SAR team and community volunteers fanned out throughout the transit system, calling the command center from every public phone they found on subway platforms until they finally identified the one Esti had used.
Chaverim shared that location with Toronto Police whose officers reviewed the transit system’s video cameras, spotting Esti getting onto a train. Flooding the subways in search of Esti, detectives finally spotted her on a train early on Thursday afternoon, pinpointing her once again at a Walmart store. Surveillance cameras near the stores showed Esti entering the residence where she was finally found, which according to sources, belongs to a 30 year old man.
Speaking at the May 28 press conference, Belanger offered no comment on the occupant of the home where Esti was found, but sources told VIN News that he has been taken in for questioning. Belanger thanked the various law enforcement teams who participated in the lengthy search, taking a moment to extend his gratitude to the many volunteers who jumped in to find Esti.
“The manner in which this community came together to support this investigation and Esther’s family was nothing short of remarkable,” said Belanger. “This was more than a police search and a police investigation. It was truly a combined police and community effort, including the numerous tips we receive daily, and for that we are extremely grateful.”
I have an almost 12 yr old ASD son with other underlying diagnosis. Its not easy raising a neurodiverse child. Beyond lacking social awareness and/or social and communication skills, many are impulsive irritable and irrational and can have severe emotional dysregulation. For those types Anything can tick them off at any moment. My son is exceptionally stubborn. Hes threaten to run away multiple times over the smallest things. He gets medicated which helps with overall impulsivity but doesnt change his brain wiring. And with all his outbursts i love to him pieces and he knows it. May Hashem give yeshuous and refuous to all these children and continued strength to all the parents.
THANK YOU for all the people who tirelessly searched for her. Your job is well done especially considering the volunteers who came in from Monsey area who only have training in forested areas with heat IR drones versus an urban city area. I’m so impressed with what I’ve just read …taking the time to call from each subway payphone – amazing dedication and perseverance. YEASHER KOCHACHEM!
Now that she’s found and safe, it’s none of my business her personal & family matzav. I wish them well in this difficult time.
Why wouldn’t the transit system share the video footage????
I have a grandson who is autistic. when he was young he would just wander around. I remember once at a family gathering when he was very young he just disappeared,,
Many family members went to find him and B”H we found him. Since then the familly learned much about how to deal with him, plus medication that he MUST take. He is now in his teens and has problems but not like it used to be.
It’s not unusual for an autistic runaway to be found in a home of an older man.
The news media is replete with such stories.
some of these “details” are indeed puzzling.
the same transit commission that identified her on bus footage supposedly withheld subway footage. same system, same rules. and the police routinely review footage in other cases.
and if they already had the number of the phone that called, it’s called “caller id”, the police could have located that payphone in seconds, by just calling the phone company, without sending volunteers to try out each one.
very puzzling.
NOT ACCEPTABLE behaviour from Transit! Torontonians, please bring this up to your MLA and get this changed. “Footage of Esti riding a bus that weekend confirmed that she was still in the city, but the trail went cold when Esti went into the Toronto Transit Commission’s subway, with the agency declining to share footage with the SAR team.”
Why should we need to know all the details? Is that lashon harah?
Just asking for a friend
She was “taken in” and “kept” in a house by a 30-year ol man. Was it pure chesed of hachnosas orchim, or did he make her earn her keep by putting her to “work”? At 14. she cannot consent to womanly relations.
I hope they find her soon
Nebach r’l a runaway,
As was obvious from the original pictures.