Toronto police detectives will knock on 6,000 doors in a triangle of northern Toronto starting today in the latest attempt to uncover information about the disappearance of teenager Mariam Makhniashvili.

"There will be a large presence of police in your neighbourhood. You will expect a knock at your door and police will keep knocking at your door," Det. Sgt. Dan Nealon told a news conference Monday morning.

"We're also asking to be invited into your home just for a quick peek into areas of your home to ensure that there is no evidence in relation to this case with respect to you and we can move on."

Sixty plainclothes detectives are involved in the massive investigation, which will knock on doors of houses, condos and apartments in the area around Shallmar Blvd., where Mariam and her family live, in the Bathurst St. and Eglinton Ave. area for the next two or three weeks, seven days a week, 12 hours a day, he said.

Even though police have already visited homes in this area, it's an opportunity to "drill down into that area," he said.

A new digitally enhanced photo of Mariam in the clothes she wore when she disappeared Sept. 14 has also been released and will be displayed for days on a large information screen outside the Yonge-Eglinton Centre, Nealon said. The intersection, a block away from where her knapsack was found last month, is "one of the busiest areas in the city and hopefully it'll grab someone's attention," said Nealon.

This "unprecedented move" by Toronto police follows helicopter searches that turned up nothing, he said. He insisted there was no firm evidence of foul play in the disappearance on that Monday morning in September of Mariam, who has since turned 18.

People "have the right" not to talk to police or let them into their homes, Nealon said. "We have gathered certain information," he said, without elaborating.

In the nearly two months since Mariam disappeared, police have appealed to hundreds of teenagers at two Toronto schools during public assemblies, used helicopters to search for clues, seized 27 computers at two libraries to try to trace her emails and Web surfing, and papered the city with posters.

Mariam was last seen while walking to Forest Hill Collegiate with her brother. They had moved to Toronto in late June from the Republic of Georgia to be reunited with her parents, who had been living in California for five years.

Her parents have said she did not speak English very well, had no friends and did not know her way around Toronto.

Last week, police began using Ontario Provincial Police helicopters in their search for clues, but a helicopter sweep of two Toronto parks failed to turn up new leads.

Toronto police used the chopper, equipped with heat-seeking equipment and capable of taking high-resolution photos, to scan Earl Bales Park and Sherwood Park. Fallen leaves provided better sightlines but offered no leads.

It was the second aerial search of Earl Bales Park, near Bathurst St. and Sheppard Ave. W., about six kilometres north of her school and home. It was the first time such a search was done at Sherwood Park, near Mount Pleasant Rd. and Blythwood Rd., about two kilometres north of the spot where Makhniashvili's knapsack was found one month ago.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Earlier, Toronto police seized 27 computers on Tuesday from the Forest Hill and Barbara Frum library branches, close to Mariam's home. She had visited them before vanishing on Sept. 14.

"We know that Mariam attended the library for the purpose of using the computer," said Const. Tony Vella