Giorgi "George" Makhniashvili, 17, turned up at a police station at about 5:15 a.m. Tuesday, about 10 hours after his parents had reported him missing. He was home with his parents by about 6:30 a.m.
"Well, it was quite a hell," Vakhtang Makhniashvili told reporters outside his Roehampton Avenue apartment building.
"Our first thoughts were about abduction and other such possibilities," he said. "My wife (Lela Tabidze) almost lost consciousness … it was almost more difficult than before."
But then they learned his son's cellphone had been left in his school locker, which made them think the situation wasn't so dire, he said.
Makhniashvili said George has recently been suffering from stress. It was his understanding that George left his school on Monday afternoon with his guitar and made his way to the city of Vaughan by bicycle before walking into a police station early this morning, he said.
By late Monday, George realized the authorities were looking for him, Vakhtang said, adding, "also it was quite cold."
George has told his parents that he wanted to play the guitar, while Vakhtang said he had pressed him to study mathematics.
George wasn't talkative when he got home, but he was sorry for the upset he caused, Vakhtang said.
Toronto's Police Chief Bill Blair noted that teenagers temporarily disappearing is a relatively common occurrence in Toronto.
Mariam's case
Mariam Makhniashvili, who would have turned 19 on Oct. 27, vanished after walking to school with George in September 2009.
She and George had moved to Toronto from the Republic of Georgia about three months earlier to reunite with their parents, who had been working in the United States for five years.
Vakhtang said the family is still very worried about what has happened to Mariam, who has still not been found despite many public appeals and search efforts by police.
They conducted aerial searches of Toronto parks north of the family's old home and went to the extraordinary length of conducting visual searches of the insides of thousands of nearby residences -- and also checking the garbage to see if anyone tossed out evidence in a panic.
The only evidence that has ever been found was the backpack she carried to school. It was located, still filled with books, at 120 Eglinton Ave. E., about two kilometres east of Forest Hill Collegiate.
That discovery came about three weeks after she disappeared, but since then, no clues have surfaced. A reward hasn't helped generate any solid leads.
When a body was discovered in northeast Toronto in early May, Vakhtang is alleged to have stabbed a neighbour. The Makhniashvilis have said they agonized that day that the body was Mariam's, but it wasn't.
As a result of that incident, Vakhtang is facing criminal charges. He is out on bail, but is essentially under house arrest.
Blair said the Mariam Makhniashvili case is one of the toughest missing-persons investigations his officers have ever faced.
Vakhtang said he clings to the hope that his daughter is alive and being held against her will.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Michelle Dube
