'I just want my baby girl back': Missing Calgary girl's father begs for her return

FOR THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS, SEE:Calgary family, police 'devastated' as charges laid in deaths ofTaliyahMarsman, mother

The father of Taliyah Leigh Marsman has issued a statement to the media through a friend, pleading for anyone with information to come forward after the five-year-old disappeared and her mother was found dead in the Calgary home she shared with the child.

An Alberta-wide Amber Alert has been in effect forTaliyahsince early Tuesday, hours after shewasdiscovered missing andSaraBaillie wasfound slain in theirrented basement suite in Panorama Hills.

Investigators are treatingBaillie'skillingas a homicide, but they have not revealed the cause of death.

"With all my heart, I love her sooo much; she is my light! Please allow her to come home to her family," said Taliyah's father, Colin Marsmanwho was Baillie's estranged common-law spousein thestatement sent out by his friend Gabriel Goree.

"Those who know me best, know the person and kind of father I am, and know more than anything,I just want my baby girl back," said Marsman, 36.

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A day earlier,Insp. Don Coleman of the Calgary Police Service major crimes section said thereis a "limited" history of domestic violence between Baillie and Marsman, "both reported and unreported."

He saidMarsman has beenco-operating.

Goreetold CBC News he and Marsmanhave been friends for more than 25 yearsand were very close growing up together in Halifax.

Marsman is a hardworking construction worker who has another child a teenaged boy and is distraught and in shock about the disappearance of his little girl, said Goree.

Race against the clock

Mount Royal University criminologist ScharieTavcer says that in the search for missing children, the clock can be a bigobstacle.

"This is not a science, right, we can't pinpoint anything. But police will tell you the same thing. The more time that passes, the chances are slimmer that we find her," she said.

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"And so it's a race against the clock and I know police, our police service is phenomenal and they're doing everything they can."

Anyone with information is urged to contact the police or Crime Stoppers.

The head of the Missing Children Society of Canada, which is helping with the search for Taliyah, says investigators are using all the resources they have to find the littlegirl.

"These types of cases are infrequent in Canada," said Amanda Pick, chief executive officer of the Calgary-based organization.

"When police have a missing child, they are immediately investigating every single opportunity, possible, lead, tip, so that they can bring that child home right away."

Pick said tips from the public can be crucial, and that people should pay attention to what's happening around them and report any information, no matter how inconsequential it may seem.