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George is also a student at Forest Hill Collegiate.

Mr. Makhniashvili said he saw his son on Monday morning before he left for school, but has no idea what happened after.

Police at 53 Division said last night detectives were treating the boy’s disappearance as a missing person investigation.

Reporters gathered last night in front of the Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue apartment building where the Makhniashvili family lives.Chief Bill Blair, appearing on the CP24 cable show The Chief last night, said it is common for 17-year-old boys to not come home and not let their parents know of their whereabouts. But he acknowledged the alarm the public may be feeling over George’s disappearance.

“This one of course draws a great deal more public attention, and our attention as well, because he is the brother of Mariam, and Mariam remains missing and a great mystery and concern to the citizens of Toronto and to her family,” Chief Blair said. “The connection between brother and sister is what makes this newsworthy.”

The Chief noted that the family called the media before reporting George missing.

Mariam and her brother are natives of the Republic of Georgia and came to Canada last summer to join their parents, who had recently moved here from Los Angeles.

Since Mariam’s disappearance, any leads police may have had seem to have slipped away. Last November, an unprecedented 6,000-home canvas of the Bathurst Street and Eglinton Avenue neighbourhood where she lived turned up little, as did several searches of nearby parks and ravines.

Mariam’s backpack was recovered in a parking lot in early October 2009, and several computers the girl may have used were seized by police from two local libraries.

It is unclear if a search of that scale will take place in an attempt to locate George.

As of press time last night, it was also unclear if George disappeared before class or if he attended school during the day and simply failed to return home after classes were over.

National Post