Teen sought after going missing in Mississauga; police seek public’s help

UPDATE: Peel Regional Police said shortly after 1 p.m. on Monday that the missing teen from Mississauga had been located. (Earlier story appears below)

Police are seeking the public’s help in finding a 17-year-old Mississauga boy who went missing in the city early on Monday morning.

Detectives from the Peel Regional Police 11 Division Criminal Investigation Bureau said they need the public’s assistance in locating the teen, whose given name is Qays. 

The boy was last seen at 4:30 a.m. on July 20 at the intersection of Eglinton Avenue West and Creditview Road in the city’s west end, police said in a news release issued on Monday. 

Qays is further described as white, 6-foot tall, with a medium build, brown curly hair and green eyes. He was last known to be wearing a black V-neck T-shirt and black-and-grey plaid pyjama pants.

“Police and family are concerned for his well-being,” Peel police said in the news release. 

Anyone with information on Qays’ whereabouts is asked to contact the 11 Division Criminal Investigation Bureau at 905-453-3311, ext. 1133. 

Peel police and several other GTA police forces, including in Toronto, adopted a policy in 2023 in which they make public only the given names of people who’ve gone missing.

When deemed necessary by investigators, they will release surnames of missing persons as well, police said earlier.

Peel police numbers show they investigate anywhere from 1,200 to 2,000 missing persons cases each year.

While statistics from 2025 aren’t yet available, the numbers show police in Mississauga and Brampton looked into 2,009 missing persons cases in 2024.

Going back a bit farther, Peel police handled 1,893 such cases in 2023, 1,851 cases in 2022, 1,418 cases in 2021 and 1,239 missing persons cases in 2020.

Across Canada, just over 68,000 people went missing in 2025, according to the RCMP.