Missing Krasnoyarsk Teen Found With Girl, Money Gone

In Krasnoyarsk, 14-year-old Nikolai was found after he had previously mysteriously disappeared. His relatives believed the boy might have been kidnapped: he is the son of a local businessman. A ransom was demanded for the child, and he himself recorded a video message asking his father to fulfill all the conditions.

In the end, the teenager was discovered in an apartment together with a girl — and, likely, he was deceived by scammers. Our colleagues from NGS24.RU gathered everything known about this tangled story.

Two Disappeared at Once

On the afternoon of 22 January in Krasnoyarsk, two 14-year-old teenagers — a boy and a girl from the Oktyabrsky District — disappeared almost simultaneously. The girl left home around 15:00. Later, the Investigative Committee clarified that before this, she had argued with her mother; her family is well-off, and the teenager was not on any watchlists.

Nikolai went missing on the evening of 22 January. In the search party«s bulletin, it was indicated that between 16:30 and 18:50, the teenager left home and went away accompanied by an unknown person. This moment was captured by street surveillance cameras.

Due to the coincidence in time and age, a version quickly appeared on social networks that the disappearances might be connected. Additional suspicions were raised by video from a camera in which a person resembling the missing girl was seen next to the boy. However, law enforcement rather quickly refuted this version: the prosecutor«s office and Investigative Committee stated that the teenagers were not acquainted, and their disappearances were in no way connected to each other.

Later, the girl returned home on her own. Police began working with her family, and the case of her disappearance was closed.

By this time, it was already known that the boy had left by taxi with an unknown woman. The prosecutor«s office reported that the taxi driver»s identity had been established, but the route of the trip remained unknown for a long time. This episode became key: it was not a spontaneous departure from home, but a purposeful exit.

Money Went Missing and a Ransom Demand Appeared

In the evening, the teenager«s father returned home and did not find his son. Upon inspecting the house, it turned out that three out of four safes had been broken into — three million rubles (about $30,000) had disappeared from there.

Soon, the man was written to in a messenger. Unknown individuals reported that Nikolai had been kidnapped and demanded a ransom. Later, the prosecutor«s office clarified that the demand amount was 30 million rubles (about $300,000) — ten times more than the money stolen from the house. The phrasing of the messages indicated an attempt to pressure and intimidate the family.

Video and Correspondence

The parents were sent a video message from the teenager himself. In the recording, Nikolai said that he wanted to return home and asked that the demands be met.

«Dad, they say you»re very worried. Yes, me too. I really want to go home. Please do everything,« the boy said in the video.

Later, the prosecutor«s office also published correspondence with the alleged kidnappers. The teenager»s father asked to let him speak with his son and make sure the child was all right. However, the perpetrators did not agree to this.

Criminal Case and the Scammer Theory

After the teenager«s disappearance, investigators initiated a criminal case on the kidnapping of a minor. Almost immediately, law enforcement began considering the version that the teenager could have been acting under the influence of scammers. The authorities emphasized that similar schemes had been encountered before.

According to the publication Kras Mash, Nikolai and the 18-year-old girl accompanying him (not a woman, as law enforcement had previously reported) could also have been deceitfully drawn into a scammer scheme. It is claimed that the girl came to Krasnoyarsk from Surgut. At the instruction of the perpetrators, she picked up the teenager and took him to a rented apartment, from where they recorded a video message for the schoolboy«s father and waited for further instructions.

The businessman himself, Andrei, is convinced that his son became a victim of scammers. «I»m sure it was scammers. Nothing else,« he told TASS.

Outcome

The Investigative Committee reported that Nikolai was found on the evening of 23 January. The teenager was alive and was in a rented apartment together with the girl. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs used the phrasing «allegedly kidnapped.»

What Nikolai Said

It was the teenager who handed over the three million rubles (about $30,000) to the scammers, which he had stolen from the safes at home. So reported the press service of the Investigative Committee directorate.

The boy told investigators that scammers had threatened him over the phone.

«They said that reputation would definitely suffer, it would affect my brother, that he would be expelled,» the teenager says in the operational video.

The teenager admitted to the scammers that he was home alone when they asked him about it. The guy thought he was communicating with representatives of the law and helping his father.

«[They asked] not to tell anyone about this and [even] not to think [about it], because they are listening to everything,» the boy tells the investigator in the video. — «If they find out, there will be problems.»

As reported in the Investigative Committee, the boy handed the money to the scammers together with the girl from another city, who, obviously, had picked him up from Serebryany Bor (a cottage community in Krasnoyarsk), where the teenager«s family lives.

«The actions and role of the girl in the committed crime will be given a legal assessment,» clarified the press service of the Investigative Committee. She, like the boy, was taken to the Investigative Committee and is being questioned.

Gated Community with Security and a Hole in the Fence

The cottage community Serebryany Bor (a cottage community in Krasnoyarsk), where the teenager«s family lives, is positioned as a guarded territory. Security refused to let journalists in without prior approval, stating that access was possible »only by phone call.«

One of the family«s neighbors assured that outsiders allegedly could not sneak in unnoticed: »Security controls everything, everything is tracked.«

However, journalists from NGS24.RU discovered a door in the settlement«s fencing through which anyone could enter the territory. After it was pointed out, security closed the passage.

«Now they»ll film you on video, there will be problems,« declared the man who was closing the door.