Specialist officers have begun searching an area of Edinburgh as part of investigations to find a mother of three missing for almost a year.
Khasha Smith, 35, was last seen to be safe and well during a Facetime call with a friend on October 10 last year.
Police said they have to consider the possibility that she may have come to harm.
Specialist search trained officers began searching an area off Calder Road in Edinburgh on Wednesday as part of the inquiry.
She is described as around 5ft, of slim build, with blue eyes and long, blonde hair. She also has tattoos, one which is visible on her right wrist and says ‘Forever’.
READ MORE: Police fear missing Edinburgh mother ‘may have come to harm’
Detective Chief Inspector Bob Williamson said: “We continue to follow up several lines of enquiry and are working to find answers for Khasha’s family.
“As with every missing person inquiry, all aspects of Khasha’s life have been, and continue to be, explored.
"We know she would never miss events such as her daughter’s birthday and Christmas, and we have to consider the possibility she may have come to harm.
“We are constantly evaluating and exploring all the information we have and remain open minded. We are doing everything we can to find her.”
The family of Ms Smith appealed for information earlier in the year, describing her disappearance as a “nightmare".
Her daughter, Calley Smith, 18, said: “We miss her so much. We want nothing more than my mum to walk through the door and to be able to give her a massive hug.
“It feels like I’m living the worst dream I could ever imagine.”
Ms Smith’s mother Nicola Neil said: “Khasha is a brilliant mum to her three children and is loved by all our very close family.
“We are all sick with worry. Khasha is my friend as well as my daughter and we are living a nightmare.
“It’s hard to find the words to explain the ‘not knowing’ where she is and if anything has happened to her.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Police Scotland via 101, quoting incident number 3915 of 5 January 2024.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here