Missing teen train surfer from Lobnya not found after two weeks
The search for 14-year-old Vsevolod Serov from Lobnya has yielded no results even after two weeks. The boy left home and disappeared on the night of October 13, but he has still not been found. His father Mikhail told MSK1.RU that there is no new information from investigators.
Following the disappearance, the Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case under Article 105 of the Criminal Code, “Murder” — this is standard procedure when minors go missing. On the forum of the search party LizaAlert, the status is “stop, information verification.”
We recount how the child was searched for all this time and what is known about the relationships in the Serov family.
How the Boy Disappeared
Vsevolod left home two weeks ago at night — he climbed out through a window. The family has three children, and the middle son woke the parents when he heard a noise. At first, the adults thought Vsevolod was warming up in the sauna — the family lives in a private house, but he did not return.
In the morning after their son’s escape, the parents turned to search parties and the police. The boy’s mother Elena told MSK1.RU that he had never run away before and there were no arguments in the house on the eve of his disappearance. Two days before the escape, the parents learned that Vsevolod had connected with train surfers, but they explained the risks to him — and he reacted calmly.
“After we went to a birthday party, and in the evening before this incident, Seva was so happy. He was telling us what delicious raspberry tea he bought and how he would brew it,” the mother recalled.
Probably, the boy met with a group of train surfers and might have gone to meet them in Zvenigorod; he even tried to buy a train ticket. The family does not understand why Vsevolod decided to run away. His father Mikhail confirmed to MSK1.RU that his son had never left home before and gave no cause for concern.
“Two Shoes Were Lying on the Tracks”
The criminal case regarding the disappearance was initiated four days later, and on the same day, there was a chance to find the child. On October 17, near the railway tracks in the settlement of Nekrasovsky — north of Lobnya — sneakers and a mobile phone were found, and later the teenager’s jacket.
“Everyone is in shock. Two shoes were lying on the tracks, very similar. We had two pairs, one on me, the second, apparently, the child put on,” the father told MSK1.RU. “In the last video, he was wearing them when he was clinging to the train.”
But contrary to the emerged hope, there were no other traces of the boy. Reviewing footage from surveillance cameras also yielded no results.
Why the Search Was Interrupted
Two days later, volunteers suspended the search: in the rescue team LizaAlert, a message appeared about information verification. Usually, this means either that the missing person has died and their body needs to be identified, or that they are alive and should be seen by relatives.
Since then, the situation has not clarified: nothing new has been reported to the parents, but they gave blood for examination.
“The mother is crying, I’m trying to work. At most, we can write to the investigator, but they are silent… They took blood for examination, and so far nothing more,” the father said in a conversation with MSK1.RU.
Such a decision by the investigators may mean that the child has died or that they are preemptively collecting DNA, explained a lawyer, an expert in criminal law, to MSK1.RU.
Is Vsevolod Being Searched for Now
On October 22, the Investigative Committee for Moscow Oblast announced that they resumed the rescue operation: they searched for the teenager in tunnels, forest belts, and abandoned buildings along the railway.
At the same time, in the search and rescue teams, MSK1.RU clarified that they have not returned to large-scale searches for Vsevolod, since volunteers have already combed all possible locations, and no new leads have appeared.
As of today, the family still knows nothing about Vsevolod’s fate.
“I can’t suggest anything, there is no information from the investigation,” the father said.
He sincerely does not understand what provoked his son to leave home. According to Mikhail, the family had no idea that Vsevolod could do such a thing.
“The child behaved absolutely normally, and what could be in his head, to leave the family… He had all the conditions, a life anyone would want, no one laid a finger on him, everything for our beloved children,” the father said.
Vsevolod’s disappearance became part of a series of alarming events: a few days before, two teenage train surfers sustained severe injuries, one of them died. The authorities blocked several Telegram channels promoting the dangerous hobby, and the children’s ombudsman of Moscow Oblast demanded that train surfing be recognized as an extremist movement.
