SAN ANTONIO — The case of missing San Antonio 4-year-old Lina Khil will be told to a national audience on Wednesday during the popular true crime television show “In Pursuit with John Walsh.”
Lina disappeared seemingly without a trace on Dec. 20, 2021, near the playground at the Villas Del Cabo on Fredericksburg Road. Her mother told police that Lina, who was 3 at the time of her disappearance, left her line of sight for a moment and then vanished.
San Antonio police and the FBI immediately began searching the apartment complex but couldn’t find the child. For months after, law enforcement and community activists followed up on several leads — sending FBI dive teams into streams near her home and searching grassy fields, drainage ditches and empty lots in San Antonio and as far as Fredericksburg — to no avail.
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An FBI Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team diver searches on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022, near the 5700 block of Babcock Road for missing 3-year-old Lina Khil.
William Luther /San Antonio Express-News
On ExpressNews.com: ‘We can’t give up’ on Lina Khil: Community gathers to urge SAPD to keep searching
Lina’s disappearance was initially classified as an abduction, prompting an Amber Alert from the Texas Department of Public Safety hours after she was reported missing, but the next day San Antonio police said they were investigating it as a missing person because they didn’t have evidence to suggest an abduction.
There is a $250,000 reward for information leading to Lina’s whereabouts, but no credible tips have come forward, the Express-News reported.
During his show, Walsh showcases unsolved violent crimes that “urgently need to be closed — where time is of the essence and harnessing the power of (Investigation Discovery’s) active and engaged audience could bring these criminals to justice,” a press release about the episode said.
Lina Khil
San Antonio Police Department
The show asks viewers with any information to call or text 833-378-7783 or to submit online at InPursuitTips.com.
Police are asking anyone with information about Lina’s disappearance to call them at 210-207-7660. She is described — at the time she went missing — as being 4 feet tall and weighing 55 pounds, with brown eyes and straight, shoulder-length brown hair that was last seen in a ponytail. At the time she disappeared, she was wearing a red dress, a black jacket and black shoes.
taylor.pettaway@express-news.net