News

In the morning of November 25, 2018, law enforcement authorities received a report about two boys, of 13 and 10 years old, missing in a forest in Perm District of Perm Region. The Perm Regional Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation immediately launched a pre-investigative probe.

To establish the whereabouts of the missing children, search activities were immediately arranged. Officers of the Perm Regional Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Ministry for Emergency Situation of Russian, as well as district administration staff, search and rescue volunteers, and local hunters promptly arrived at the scene.

Snowmobiles, cross-country vehicles, quadcopters, thermal cameras, ‘light tower’ lighting systems, and other high-tech forensic equipment were actively applied during the search due to heavy snowfall and the darkness.

Thanks to the timely and proper response to the report on the disappearance of the children, the children were found alive by hunters from Chuvaki rural settlement of Perm District Gennady Ivanovich Shadrin and Gennady Aleksandrovich Shadrin, the next day at 3 AM, despite the challenging weather and climate conditions. Currently, the boys are at a hospital under medical supervision; their lives and health are not in danger.

The search activities were personally led by Chief of the Perm Regional Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Colonel of Justice Sergey Yuryevich Sarapultsev, who promptly instructed Chief of the Perm Region Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, police Major General Mikhail Ilyich Davydov to reinforce the officers of the search groups. The instruction was executed immediately, and about 300 police officers arrived at the search site.

The scene was also searched by Head of the Perm Interdistrict Investigative Department, Major of Justice Mikhail Yuryevich Chuyko with the investigators of the Department; Head of the Forensics Department of the Investigations Directorate, Lieutenant Colonel of Justice Stanislav Yuryevich Lunin with the forensics investigators; police officers under supervision of Acting Head of the Perm District Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, police Lieutenant Colonel Yegor Vladimirovich Belov; volunteers of the search teams ‘Liza Alert’ and ‘Irina Bukhanova’ under the leadership of Xenia Makarova.

Experience has shown that the interaction of the above structures yield favourable results in most cases and children can be found safe and sound.

It should be noted that, upon initiative of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation together with representatives of community and involved governmental agencies (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry for Emergency Situations, Ministry of Defence, the National Guard), a regulatory act was signed in May 2018 on the interaction of the government agencies, volunteer organisations, and volunteers in search for missing persons, including minors. The document was introduced to all Regional Directorates of the Investigative Committee of Russia. The staff of the territorial investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee regularly cooperates with volunteer associations, such as ‘Lisa Alert’, ‘VolgoSpas - Missing Children Search’, ‘Legion’ Public Movement, and regional public organisation ‘Piter-Search’.

Experience has shown that the introduction of this document has made it possible to reduce the time needed to find a child and minimize the chance of negative consequences and a danger to health or life of missing children. In a number of cases, this helped expose the criminals who were trying to commit an illegal act against a child in the shortest possible time.