Lina Khil family marks 4 years since disappearance; SAPD says no new update
Saturday will mark four years since Lina Sardar Khil — an Afghan refugee who was loved by the children in her northwest San Antonio community — went missing. She would now be 7 years old.
Lina's family and members of the community plan to gather Saturday evening to mark the anniversary of her disappearance, an observance that comes with no new answers in the case.
The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday at American Muslim Community Center of San Antonio Texas, at 4139 Gardendale Road.
Ahead of the anniversary, the San Antonio Police Department said the investigation remains active, though detectives have not identified new leads.
“Unfortunately there are no updates on this case at this time,” SAPD said in a statement Thursday.
Police said detectives have searched numerous locations and followed up on dozens of tips “with no positive outcome,” and that details about search locations cannot be released because the case remains under active investigation.
“For over three years, SAPD has continued investigating the disappearance of Lina Khil. The San Antonio Police Department remains committed to following-up on and investigating every lead that we receive,” officials said. “SAPD continues to use all tools available, including working with our partners at the FBI to investigate all leads. SAPD would like to take this opportunity to ask anyone with information on Lina’s disappearance and/or whereabouts to please call police.”
Lina disappeared from a playground at the Villas Del Cabo apartments, now known as the Vive, in the 9400 block of Fredericksburg Road. Her disappearance prompted one of the most extensive missing-child searches in San Antonio history.
Police said they searched every room of the apartment complex, including some rooms twice, even overturning mattresses to see where she might be. They even brought in all-terrain vehicles and searched wooded areas nearby.
In the days after her disappearance, the FBI sent a specialized dive team from Washington, D.C., to San Antonio to search a drainage culvert off Babcock Road near Huebner Road on the Northwest Side for any evidence related to Lina’s disappearance.
That year, the investigation included repeat ground searches, K-9 units, helicopter searches and continued FBI involvement.
San Antonio police Chief William McManus has described the case as a hybrid missing-person and abduction case, but there has never been any confirmation that she was taken.
In the years that have passed, images have been developed as to how she might look as she grows older. The most recent is a rendering produced last year by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In recent months, the family and advocates have publicly expressed frustration with what they describe as limited communication from law enforcement.
At an October news conference marking three years and 10 months since Lina vanished, Pamela Allen of Eagles Flight Advocacy and Outreach said the family last heard from SAPD in February 2024, when officers and FBI agents searched a wooded area on the Northwest Side near the family’s former apartment. The search, she said, produced no sign of Lina.
Lina’s family has "been very alone throughout this situation,” Allen said. Lina’s father "just wants his daughter back.”
Lina’s father, Riaz Khil, has said police have not contacted him in more than a year and that he is paying for a private investigator to continue the search. He has asked the public to keep Lina’s name in circulation.
Last December, on the three-year anniversary of her disappearance, Khil added $30,000 of his own money to raise the reward to $280,000.
A Houston-based forensic artist volunteered to create an age-progression image showing what Lina might look like years after her disappearance, using family photos and facial features as a guide. The image has been shared by law enforcement and advocacy groups as the years pass.
Saturday’s observance is expected to include prayers, remarks from advocates, and renewed calls for anyone with information to come forward.
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