Mariam Makhniashvili was last seen Sept. 14.

Family and friends of Mariam Makhniashvili gathered Saturday in downtown Toronto for the missing teenager, who disappeared more than six months ago.

The midday event, that had been billed as a march, attracted only tiny gathering at Yonge-Dundas Square in the city centre, local news reports said.

Mariam has not been seen since she left her home for Forest Hill Collegiate Institute on the morning of Sept. 14. She and her younger brother George separated at the back entrance to the school when Mariam decided to use the front entrance.

Her backpack was found Oct. 8 in a parking lot in midtown Toronto. The pack, which was open when police arrived, contained schoolbooks and loose-leaf binders belonging to the 17-year-old.

Since then, police have been unable to say what happened to her. Although RCMP in Alberta received a report Dec. 2 that she had been seen in Grande Prairie, and an earlier one that she'd been just outside Calgary on Oct. 27, the force later said it had ascertained that there was no evidence Mariam had been in the province.

Mariam had only been a student at her high school since the new school year started in September. She and her brother lived in Tblisi, Georgia, before coming to Toronto in June. They reunited in Canada with their parents who had arrived from Los Angeles a few months earlier.

Her parents said she had not made any friends in Toronto and that her disappearance was completely out of character for the girl, whom they described as quiet and shy.