Police searching for schoolgirl Cecilia Zhang have teamed with Crime Stoppers in an aggressive campaign to distribute hundreds of flyers featuring pictures of the missing nine-year-old.
After two days of canvassing two areas in nearby Brampton where a couple of mysterious phone calls were apparently made to the home of the little girl, police shifted their efforts today to reaching out to the public through flyers distributed in the transit system, including subways.
The flyers, in English and Chinese, emphasize a $50,000 police reward for the safe return of the little girl to her family.
Cecilia was discovered missing from her Toronto home Oct. 20 when her mother went to wake her for school. A broken screen window at the rear of the two-storey home suggested forced entry, and police have ruled out a random abduction by a predator.
Instead, investigators have been probing the case as a possible kidnapping for profit.
Earlier this week, police canvassed patrons of a rural general store and a doughnut shop northwest of the city, where two calls were made to Cecilia’s home from pay phones on the morning of her disappearance.
But after more than a week of intensive searching and several public pleas from Cecilia’s parents, Sherry Xu and Raymond Zhang, police don’t appear any closer to finding the girl.
The bizarre case has attracted the attention of the true-crime show America’s Most Wanted, which sent a film crew Tuesday to Cecilia’s home to film an episode focusing on the search for the Grade 4 pupil.
The episode expected to attract more than 10 million people in Canada, the United States and beyond, is set to be aired this Saturday night.
Police hope the attention from a major international television show might help crack the case of the missing girl.
“It’s a renowned show … that has been able to find people wanted by police services across North America,” Sgt. Jim Muscat said, while adding he hoped the girl would be found before the show airs.
“We hope that we don’t have to use their program in order to find Cecilia. We hope to have her home before Saturday.”
Cecilia’s parents remained sequestered Tuesday in the suburban house, cordoned off by yellow police tape. Flowers and candles sat on the front steps, while a larger-than-life photo of the smiling girl was displayed on the lawn.
The parents are “suffering tremendously,” Muscat said.
