A police forensic team headed to Delft on Tuesday morning to follow up on new leads they received about missing Linathi Titshala, 9.
The little girl was last seen by her family in Cork Tree Street, Thubelitsha, on Sunday, 16 December, after she was sent home by her ouma who lives two doors away.
The forensic team, accompanied by a sniffer dog, started their search in the shack the girl shared with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.
Linathi’s aunt KB Titshala opened the door for the team to search the two-roomed shack.
Titshala said she had been in the Eastern Cape when Linathi disappeared.
“We don’t know what to think. We are worried and frustrated and want our child to come home,” she said.
Cops lifted up the bed to dig a hole in the soft sand underneath, but nothing was found except some hair braids.
The search team consisting of the investigating officer, a rapid response unit and Western Cape Missing persons unit (WCMPU) members, headed about a kilometre into the bush behind Blikkiesdorp where a man lived in a hut.
Mandy the Alsatian was given a command and started sniffing.
Her handler explained that she was the only police dog in the province with the skills to detect a body.
At the hut, the unidentified man waited peacefully as Mandy and the team searched his premises but nothing was found.
Linatha was last seen wearing black skinny jeans, a grey top with laces at the back and black slippers.