A missing 14-year-old Toronto girl whose disappearance sparked an urgent police investigation and a large-scale community search has been found safe, Toronto police confirmed Thursday afternoon, May 28.
Supt. Donald Belanger of 32 Division said Esther, also known as Esti, was located by Toronto police at about 1 p.m. Thursday in a home in Toronto.
“It’s with great relief that I can confirm that Esther was located by members of the Toronto Police Service earlier this afternoon,” Belanger told reporters during a 3 p.m. press conference at Earl Bales Community Centre in Toronto.
“She appears to be in good physical health,” he told reporters. “That said, as you’d expect, she has been taken to hospital to be examined both physically as well as for medical staff to assess what emotional toll the situation may have caused her.”
Belanger said police are now investigating whether there is any evidence of criminality connected to Esther’s nearly two-week disappearance, but he declined to provide further details, citing the investigation and the family’s privacy.
No one had been arrested or charged at this point, Belanger said.
Although online chatter has suggested that Esther was found in Etobicoke, Belanger did not confirm the neighbourhood, saying only that she had been found in a home in Toronto.
“The next phase of the investigation is, was there any criminality related to her prolonged disappearance?” he said.
Belanger also declined to say who was inside the home, how Esther got there or whether she knew anyone there. He said investigators are looking into who resided at the home and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.
Police would not say whether a tip led them to the home, but Belanger said extensive video canvassing helped guide the search.
“From video canvasses, we move into search mode. It’s a painstaking long process, as you can appreciate. But that certainly contributed to us getting to where we are today.”
Asked whether there was any indication that politics or antisemitism played a role (as Esti is Jewish and has family in Israel) Belanger said, “I have no information to suggest that.”
Esther had been missing since late on May 15, when police initially said she was last seen in the area of Earl Bales Park, near Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue West. Police later said she had also been seen shortly after midnight on May 16 near Bathurst Street and Hotspur Road, almost three kilometres from the park.
The search was treated from the outset as what police call a Level 1 search, which brings in resources from across the service and is considered a top priority. Belanger said officers used “every resource” available in the early search of Earl Bales Park.
“As you will have heard, in the earliest stages, when we did the search of Earl Bales Park, we had the mounted unit out, we had the marine unit out, we had drones out,” he said. “We really utilized every resource we had to try to find Esther as quickly as we possibly could.”
Belanger thanked members of the Homicide and Missing Persons Unit, officers from 32 Division, emergency management, public order search teams and the search managers who co-ordinated ground searches.
“They had a singular goal from minute one of this investigation to locate Esther safely and as quickly as possible,” he said.
He also thanked the broader community, saying police had received numerous tips every day and that the effort to find Esther extended far beyond law enforcement.
“The manner in which this community came together to support this investigation and Esther’s family was nothing short of remarkable,” Belanger said. “This was more than a police search and a police investigation. It was truly a combined police and community effort, including the numerous tips we received daily, and for that, we’re extremely grateful.”
Members of Shomrim Safety Patrol embrace after learning that Esti, a 14-year-old girl, was found, May 28, 2026 in Toronto. (Credit: Lila Sarick)
In a statement, Esther’s parents, Shira and Joseph, said they were overwhelmed with relief that their daughter had been found safe.
“There are no words to describe the relief we are feeling knowing that Esti has been found safe. For the first time in days, we can hug our daughter and breathe again,” they said.
They said that while the search is over, their daughter still needs medical care, evaluation and support.
“We are incredibly grateful she is home, but we are still taking things moment by moment, and we ask that people refrain from speculating,” they said.
The family thanked the thousands of people who searched, shared Esther’s photo, hung flyers, checked cameras, sent messages and prayed. They also thanked Toronto police, Shomrim Toronto Safety Patrol and everyone who helped bring Esther home.
“We are so blessed to have a Jewish community here in Toronto that stood behind us and relentlessly did what they could,” the statement said. “There are not enough words to thank the overwhelming support from the Jewish community and every resident of Toronto and the GTA who searched for Esti as if she was their own daughter.”
The family said people from across the city, country and world came together for a child they had never met.
“Complete strangers stopped what they were doing to help bring our daughter home,” the statement said. “That love and humanity are something our family will never forget.”
Maureen Leshem, a spokesperson for Esti’s family, also spoke at the press conference, describing the moment as one of “immense relief.”
“We can breathe again,” she said.
Leshem said people from across Toronto and beyond joined the search effort.
“Thousands of people came out to help from all walks of life, not just from our community, but from the entire community, people as far as Hamilton, people as far as Mississauga,” she said. “We had old people, young people, children. Wherever they could post her, wherever they could spread the word, everybody was willing to do what they needed to do to bring a child home, regardless of whether they knew Esther or not.”
Belanger was also asked about people pulling down posters that had been put up to help find Esther. He strongly condemned the behaviour.
“I can’t think of anything more unethical than that type of behaviour,” he said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous. Anyone that would make any effort to disrupt our attempts to locate Esther, nobody can ever justify that.”
Belanger said police received “many, many tips every single day” and that investigators tried to track down every one.
A $25,000 reward had been offered by community members for information leading to Esther’s return. Belanger said police had taken steps to ensure information sent to the reward tip line was quickly relayed to investigators, but declined to say whether the reward would be paid out.
He said police will review the search after the investigation, as they do in cases of this scale, but said he was proud of the work done.
“These things are obviously very fluid and dynamic,” Belanger said. “We will debrief this and we will assess, are there things that we could do better next time around. But, I want to reiterate, we put everything we had into this investigation and we’re just so relieved that we’ve located her.”
Esther’s parents said their focus now is on their daughter’s health, recovery and well-being.
“We ask for continued prayers, love, and privacy as we begin the next stage of helping her heal,” they said.