HUNTER: Nagging questions remain after missing teen Esther found safe

But with each passing day, police concerns have become increasingly heightened.

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Published May 28, 2026  •  Last updated 25 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

Esther has been missing since Friday night. TPS

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The panic button gets pushed every time a kid goes missing. Kids like Esther.

Esther’s story had a happy ending when cops announced on social media at 2 p.m. that she had been found “safe and sound.” Esther or “Esti” (no surname as per TPS missing persons policy), who is on the autism spectrum, vanished on May 16.

Law enforcement sources told The Toronto Sun she was found with a man at a residence in Rexdale. A bucket of questions remain. Most missing persons probes don’t raise so many queries.

Every day, scores of kids go missing in the big city, and 99% of the time, they’re quickly found. Hanging with friends, on a jolly with pals and other kid stuff. But sometimes, things aren’t quite so simple.

No phone or other devices

According to cops, Ether was last seen shortly after midnight near Bathurst St. and Hotspur Rd., south of Hwy. 401. Just 30 minutes earlier, she had been spotted at Earl Bales Park in North York. There have been a number of other unofficial sightings, but nothing solid.

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Parents Shira and Joseph appeared in front of the cameras in Earl Bales Park on Tuesday, where they pleaded for the return of their daughter, Esther, who was last seen in the North York park on Friday night. Photo by SUPPLIED

The disappearance of the Jewish teen was particularly vexxing for detectives.

“We don’t really have anything,” one law enforcement source close to the investigation told The Toronto Sun. “She ran away and didn’t take her phone or any other devices with her. Really, we have no idea.”

In the decades before cell phones, CCTV and other crime-fighting weapons, too many missing persons cases went cold because the victims could not be tracked. Over the past 20 years, that’s changed.

‘Everything is on the table’

The law enforcement source said investigators believed she was alive but her family and police worried because she didn’t have her medication.

Investigators initially feared that the teen had fallen into the clutches of sex traffickers, then moved away from that theory. With Thursday’s developments, that piece may be back in play.

“But everything is on the table, every possible scenario. We are not leaving anything to chance,” the source said.

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A poster circulated to help locate missing girl Esther is seen in Toronto. (HANDOUT)

According to the source, the TPS had thrown “just a ton of people” at the investigation and “every other resource imaginable.” They added that the service assigned its “top investigators” to the case.

The source added: “It’s more likely she wanted to escape her family structure. She’s a smart, smart girl.

And because she didn’t take her devices or bank cards, if you want to go missing, you can stay missing.”

‘Can she survive on her own?’

But with each passing day, police concerns have became increasingly heightened.

“Our concern is how can she survive on her own,” the source said.

ESTHER: Still missing.

“Not being able to use the tech and track her that way, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack,” the source added. “It was a daunting task.”

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