Lila Smith is described as a 5 foot 10 Caucasian girl with a slim build, weighing around 100 pounds, with brown eyes and short brown hair.
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The search for 13-year-old Lila Smith has expanded outside of Edmonton and Calgary, as well as to other cities in Canada.
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Smith was last seen around 8:30 a.m. Friday near 131st Avenue and 91st Street. Her family reported her missing to the Edmonton police. She is described as a 5 foot 10 Caucasian girl with a slim build, weighing around 100 pounds, with brown eyes and short brown hair. She was last seen wearing a hoodie with a white and blue body, a green arm, and a purple arm, with a plaid pocket on the front. She was also wearing ripped blue jeans, black Converse shoes and carrying a backpack.
Earlier this week, Edmonton police asked for the public’s help in searching for Smith, and since then, posters and photos of her have quickly circulated online throughout the Edmonton community. Billboards have also featured photos of her in the hope that someone will recognize her.
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Smith’s family friend Robyn Hanson said Thursday that they have received numerous leads and all are being investigated. She said Smith’s family continues to hope for the best, but since it has been nearly a week since he disappeared, they are expanding the search to other parts of the province and the country.
“This is not who Lila is, this is out of character for her,” Hanson said. “We recognize that we need to broaden the scope of it and see if there are people who have seen it in other places in Alberta, in Canada, who can provide some type of information to the police.”
Hanson said Smith is an introverted homebody and if she’s not home, she’s usually with her family. She said Smith is taller than most girls her age and asked Calgarians to be on the lookout for anything that seems out of the ordinary.
“Because she’s so tall, it’s easy to write her off as older than she is. She is 13 years old,” Hanson said.
There are approximately 30 billboards in the Edmonton region that will display Smith’s photo with more billboards across Canada, including at least one in Calgary.
Anyone with information about Smith’s disappearance is asked to contact Edmonton police at 780-423-4567.
Calgary police confirmed Thursday that they are assisting EPS with the investigation.
— Archived by Kellen Taniguchi