BRYANSK, January 12 (Itar-Tass) —— First-year schoolgirls Anastasia Boraborkina and Olga Markelova lost in Bryansk were not found yet, chief police officer in the Bryansk Region Maj. Gen. Valentin Kuzmin told a press conference on Thursday.
Over 500 policemen, policemen from the railway police department, rescuers and over 100 units of machinery were involved in the search for seven-year-old girls, who got missing on January 11. The search lasted all night long and continues on Thursday. All law enforcement agencies in the Bryansk Region, the chiefs of urban and district authorities give an active assistance in the search. The police search team was reinforced by 200 policemen, which will be mopping up the city.
General Kuzmin, who heads the operational headquarters on the search for the children, said that the police had searched through the residential areas and neighbouring districts in the Otradnoye residential area. The checks of suburban passenger transport and cars were made in cooperation with the traffic police. The police interrogated all classmates and acquaintances of the schoolgirls and checked over 1,000 flats.
The schoolgirls decided to take a walk at 12:30 Moscow time upon the end of the classes at the school number 63, General Kuzmin said. The mother called up Nastya Boraborkina at 14:00 Moscow time and the girl answered that she was staying at home. However, when the mother came home she did not find the daughter, the girl did not answer the mobile phone calls, her mobile phone was switched off, so, the mother call up the police at 17:00 Moscow time. Olya Markelova did not have a mobile phone.
The schoolgirls dropped at their acquaintance at about 18:00 Moscow time in the Bezhitsky district and ask to stay for the night. The acquaintance said that Nastya Boraborkina had lost the mobile phone and had been afraid to go home. Their schoolmate refused to leave them for the night. After this the traces of the schoolgirls are lost.
Nastya’s mobile phone was on only once at about 23:30 Moscow time in the Bezhitsky district, the general said. This fact gives grounds to assume that the children did not go far away. The sector for the active search was selected, the chief police office said. He said with confidence that the result will be achieved in the daytime.
The schoolgirls did not make any attempts to escape from home before, the general said. Nastya Boraborkina went away from home without any permission from the parents some time ago, but her neighbours brought her back home.
The situation with Olya Markelova is more difficult. Over an unfavourable situation in the family her mother can be stripped of parental rights and the girl can be passed for care to her grandmother.
A criminal case was opened over 2 first-year schoolgirls from the school number 63 reported missing in Bryansk. The branch of the Investigative Committee in the Bryansk Region opened a criminal case under Article 105 Part 2 of the Criminal Code for murder of two people, murder of an underage person in the helpless position for the deliberate culprit along with kidnapping.
On the orders of the leadership of the Investigative Committee experienced criminal experts and specialists from the central police staff were dispatched in Bryansk to help find the details of the case of the children reported missing and their search. The leadership of the Investigative Committee put the investigation in the criminal case under control.
The policemen are searching through the neighbouring forest, all houses and buildings in the immediate neighbourhood, commuter trains, buses and cars, Kokotova said. The police are investigating friendly ties of the schoolgirls at the school number 63 and even in the kindergarten, where they went. The police distributed the identity profiles of the schoolgirls and asked local residents to help find the whereabouts of the children.
The rescuers also engaged in the search, chief press officer of the regional emergency situation department Oleg Yankov told Itar-Tass.