The key facts

  • The family's acquaintance claims that there is a real danger to people in the search area
  • After the Usoltsevs disappeared, illegal migrants were found there; they were deported from Russia
  • The investigation considers an accident the most likely version, but does not rule out a crime

What the family's acquaintance said

Dangerous individuals may be present in the area where Sergei and Irina Usoltsev and their five-year-old daughter went missing in September 2025. The acquaintance of the missing family, Valentin Degterev, told aif.ru about this. According to him, vagrants live in the forest, and after the family's disappearance, illegal migrants were found there living at a timber enterprise; the foreigners have already been deported from Russia.

Versions considered by the investigation

Degterev claims that local residents are afraid to contact the police because of the 'bad situation,' and emphasizes: 'This is a real fact, not a fabrication. People in that area really can be in danger.' Investigators are indeed considering the version that the Usoltsevs could have fallen victim to poachers, gold miners, or other people. Earlier the investigation allowed for the possibility of a quarrel between family members: an accident was named as the most likely version of the disappearance, but a crime is also not ruled out.

Context of the search

The Usoltsev family went missing in the Kuturchinskoye Belogorye area in September 2025. Volunteers and the police conducted extensive searches, but no traces of the missing were found. Earlier, rescuer Railko assessed the chances of finding the family. The new information from the family's acquaintance does not confirm any single version: it merely adds to the picture of the situation in the search area that the investigation is taking into account.