MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — A family’s search for a Georgia woman missing for nearly a year is now focused on the Grand Strand and Myrtle Beach police are asking for people to be on the lookout.

Sonie Toe, now 25, was reported missing in Gwinnett County, Georgia, last New Year’s Eve, and her father, Joseph, recently spent five days in the Myrtle Beach area trying to find her. He said he got a tip Nov. 24 that she had been seen near a Boost Mobile along 3rd Ave. S. in Myrtle Beach in early September.

He calls her disappearance baffling and out of character.

“I’m surely devastated because ‘What can I do? What can I do?’ That’s why when I got the little tip, although it was late, I said ‘I have to pursue it.’ ” he said.

Joseph Toe’s search started Wednesday night and lasted through Sunday before returning home Monday. He handed out flyers around Myrtle Beach and visited the surrounding cities of North Myrtle Beach, Conway and Georgetown for any information he could find.

He said he spoke with at least four people who had seen or recognized Sonie and one of them said she was with two other people.

“If she is in Myrtle Beach, then there’s a likelihood whoever has her, or whatever is going on, is traveling with her around,” he said.

Toe said Sonie was family-oriented, regularly went to church and also excelled academically.

“Sonie has a soft heart,” he said. “She cares for everybody. She loves her family. She would do anything to help anyone.”

Angelica Konigina was one of Sonie’s college roommates in the 2016-17 school year at the University of Illinois. Konigina said she and Sonie kept in touch sporadically since.

“[She’s] just a caring, loving, selfless kind person,” Konigina said.

Konigina organized the GoFundMe page to help the family pay for a private investigator which has, so far, raised more than $7,500 dollars.

“Look at her pictures,” Konigina said. “Memorize her eyes; they’re her most distinguishing feature. She has huge, piercing, beautiful eyes.”

Contact the Myrtle Beach Police Department with any information regarding Sonie Toe’s disappearance at (843) 918-1382.