A 4-year-old boy went missing on the morning of 10 June 2017 near Reftinskoye Reservoir in Sverdlovsk Region. The Sverdlovsk Region Office of the Investigative Committee opened an investigation in negligent homicide under Part 1 of Article 109 of the RF Criminal Code. The decision to open the homicide investigation was made for the purpose of conducting the full set of investigative operations to find out all the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the child and to mount a search operation. Investigators put forward a number of versions checked simultaneously with the search operation.
A lot of people and resources were involved in the search. Special forensic equipment was used, including UAVs, divers examined the reservoir and its banks. More than 600 people, including employees of the Investigative Committee, Interior Ministry, Ministry of Emergency Situations, representatives of municipal authorities and volunteers. The people did stop searches for three days and nights. The boy was found on 14 June alive, but in grave condition. He was near a tangent tower, about 7 kilometers off the place it had gone missing.
The investigators contacted specialists of the Healthcare Ministry supervising the boy’s treatment. Now the boy is being transported by a helicopter to the city of Yekaterinburg to get necessary medical aid.
The investigators thank all citizens who took part in the search operation and helped save him from death.
It is pleasant to see that such instances when missing children are found thanks to joined efforts are becoming a tradition. We remember recent instances in Orenburg and Kursk where children went missing and everybody – law-enforcers, volunteers and regular people went searching for them. Those children were found and saved thanks to people’s caring attitude.
The investigation opened into the disappearance of the boy is ongoing. A forensic medical examination will determine the bodily damage the child suffered. A lot of investigative operations have been conducted. More than 50 people have been questioned (the boy’s relatives, neighbors, staff of the daycare facility and the fishermen that were on the bank on the reservoir when the boy went missing). More than 10 examinations of the incident scene have been conducted (the boy’s house, the route the family took from the house to the place they had rested, the place they set up their tent, the place where the fishermen were stationed, the tracks in the forest, etc.).
The investigators are looking into the reasons and contributing factors of the situation when the boy’s health and life were jeopardized. This done, the investigators are going to take necessary preventive steps.
Official spokesperson for the RF Investigative Committee S.L. Petrenko
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