Student Vanished in 2002, Parents Got Cryptic Note Decade Later
Valya Shklyayeva traveled from Cheptsa to Perm for her studies
Journalist, director, and documentary filmmaker Yelena Pogrebizhskaya dedicated the latest episode of her YouTube channel «Stories Without Sugar. Pogrebizhskaya» to a student of the Perm Pedagogical College. In autumn 2002, Valya Shklyayeva went to Perm to take an exam and vanished without a trace. Ten years later, the girl«s parents received a mysterious note instructing them to look for her in Pskov. We tell the story of how Valya disappeared and how for over 20 years her relatives have not given up hope of finding her.
Did Not Arrive for Studies
19-year-old Valentina Shklyayeva lived in the small village of Cheptsa in Udmurtia. In the morning she left home for the electric train to go to Perm, where she studied at a pedagogical college. The first train departed at 4:30.
«I saw her off, but not all the way to the station, only halfway,» the student«s mother, Nadezhda Shklyayeva, told Yelena Pogrebizhskaya. »«It»s already light here, mom, go,« my daughter said. And that»s where we parted forever.«
Valya Shklyayeva in her youth
The girl was expected home in two weeks. There were no mobile or landline phones in her family. The parents called Valya at the dormitory«s reception, but they were told she wasn»t there. The mother and father thought the girl was exploring the big city and socializing.
On the way back to Cheptsa, Valya was supposed to meet her brother on the train—he was also returning from studies in a neighboring settlement. But the young man arrived alone and said he hadn«t met his sister on the train.
Then the parents contacted relatives in Perm. They found out that Valentina had not shown up for studies. As it turned out, the college thought the girl had fallen ill and stayed in her home village.
Nadezhda shows the spot where she saw her daughter off
«Give Us At Least the Remains»
Realizing their daughter was missing, the parents filed a report with the transport police and began searching themselves. It emerged that two fellow villagers had boarded the train with Valya. One of them, 24-year-old Sergey Khalmetov, was a railway worker, a family man. He lived next door to the Shklyayevs. The other companion was a Cheptsa guy named Zhenya, but he got off earlier—at the Kez station.
According to Khalmetov, they rode to Vereshchagino, then Valya went to another carriage, and he went to sleep. The girl«s father suggested that Sergey was guilty because he had already served time in a colony for robbery and assault. But the police believed Khalmetov and excluded him from the list of suspects in Valya»s murder.
The parents continued searching for their daughter. The student«s father constantly rode the trains and questioned potential witnesses. The police also conducted a search at first, but then everything quieted down, and after five months the parents received a notice that their daughter had been declared a federal fugitive.
Six years after Valya«s disappearance, in 2008, Sergey Khalmetov was detained for the murder of a girl from Balezino. On 1 January, he killed her for refusing to have sexual relations with him. Valya»s parents suggested he could have done the same to their daughter, but he denied his guilt.
Sergey Khalmetov in 2017
«I told him: »You«ll be convicted anyway. Give us at least the remains, we»ll bury the person, at least we«ll have somewhere to go, to remember,»« Valya»s father recalls. «After all, she»s not registered anywhere, she«s like missing without a trace.»
But Khalmetov still denied his guilt in Valentina«s murder. He was sentenced to 10 years in a colony for the murder of the girl from Balezino.
«We Were Sold, Dropped Off in Pskov»
When Khalmetov was already in a colony, in 2012, police came to the parents and brought a letter found in the post box at Cheptsa station. It said their daughter was alive and needed help. The letter was written by a certain Galya, who asked to pass this note to the Shklyayevs.
«Their daughter was lost many years ago, her name is Valya,» was written in the letter. «We ran away from the place where we were held. We were sold, dropped off in Pskov. I»m hitchhiking and taking trains. She didn«t dare with a child. Let them look for her in Pskov. I»m from Perm, almost home, I«ve been traveling for a week already. My name is Galya. Pass it on, people, she lived in this village Cheptsa, her child is three years old, named Dashenka. Look, my train is about to arrive.»
The mother goes through photos of her daughter
After the letter, the police resumed the search. The mother sent out bulletins, they were published in the media, and she also submitted an announcement to the TV show «Wait for Me» (12+). The program«s correspondent went to Pskov, but did not find Valya.
«I both believe in this note and don»t believe it,« Valya»s mother admitted to Pogrebizhskaya. «I have hope. But after so many years, this Galya could have come to Cheptsa and found us!»
«It»s all a deception, it«s Khalmetov»s work, he«s such a scum, he likes to mock people,» Valentina«s father disagreed with his wife, who does not believe in the authenticity of the letter and thinks the note was planted by Sergey Khalmetov»s people.
The father asked investigators to compare the handwriting in the letter with Khalmetov«s, but no one did it.
In 2016, Sergey was released from the colony early for good behavior. He remarried and lived in Izhevsk, but within a year he was back in a colony. This time, an old and even more terrible crime came to light. In 2006, he killed two girls, 12 and 13 years old. He met them at Perm II station. Both girls were from troubled families and had run away from home.
«Khalmetov offered them dinner and a place to sleep, took them to a deserted spot, did what he intended, and then strangled them,» recounts Yelena Pogrebizhskaya.
When investigators were preparing to demand a life sentence for Khalmetov, he suddenly said: «I killed Valya too.» He said he persuaded her to get off at Kurya station and strangled her. After that, he went to the station for a shovel and buried her. And all because she refused intimate relations and threatened to tell his wife.
Khalmetov was taken to the station to show where he killed Valya, but he kept pointing to different places.
In 2018, Khalmetov was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the girls and sent to the harshest colony, «Polar Owl,» beyond the Arctic Circle. Valya«s case was shelved.
«If There»s Anything Human Left in Your Rotten Soul, Show Us Where She Is«
Journalists who wrote about Valentina«s disappearance showed that very letter, written by Galina, to a graphology expert. She concluded that the author of these lines shows no signs of mental disorder. It»s clear that the letter was written by a woman who was under stress and frightened at the time.
In 2024, Khalmetov was brought from «Polar Owl» to Perm again, this time for a situational examination. He was supposed to show at the crime scene how he killed Valya. And then came an unexpected confession.
«I didn»t kill her,« Khalmetov said in the courtroom. »I was forced to incriminate myself. Everyone wanted to solve a crime that was practically not considered a crime, just a missing person. They just wanted to close the criminal case so it wouldn«t hang around.»
Years later, Sergey admitted he had a deal with the investigation. In exchange, investigators promised not to seek the death penalty for him.
Sergey Khalmetov in 2024
Khalmetov said there were other people on the train, among whom possible murderers should be sought.
On 29 October 2024, Valentina«s birthday, Sergey Khalmetov was sentenced. He received another 9 years in a colony for Valya»s murder, in addition to his life sentence.
Valya«s mother admits that she sometimes sleeps on the bed in her daughter»s room. Her graduation suit and the 2001 graduate ribbon still hang there. «As long as I don»t find my daughter, I believe in this note!« her mother exclaims.
The father and mother of missing Valya
«If there»s anything human left in your rotten soul, then show us where she is, if not—what can you do,« the father sighs next to his wife. »She wanted to live too, probably wanted to get married, have children… She wanted to graduate. And he took—and that«s it!»
Earlier we wrote that a 16-year-old from Perm is accused of murdering his grandmother and uncle. Investigators say he was under the influence of drugs.
