The key facts

  • The Investigative Committee for the Krasnoyarsk Territory is requesting subscriber data from mobile operators for people who were in the area of the family's disappearance on September 28, 2025
  • The settlement of Kuturchin itself has no mobile coverage, and signals in the mountains are registered unpredictably, complicating the analysis
  • Large-scale searches in June and July 2026 yielded no results; investigators consider an accident the most likely theory but are also examining a criminal one

Investigators turn to mobile operator data

Investigators are searching for witnesses to the disappearance of the Usoltsev family — Sergei, Irina, and their five-year-old daughter Arina, who went missing on September 28, 2025. To do this, they are obtaining subscriber data from mobile operators and cross-referencing it to identify people who may have been in the Kuturchinskoye Belogorye area on the day of the disappearance. Yana Syrymbetova, head of the first department for investigating particularly important cases at the Investigative Committee's Main Directorate for the Krasnoyarsk Territory, told RIA Novosti: 'We receive information from mobile operators, which we then analyze.'

Technical limitations of the search

As Syrymbetova explained, it is practically impossible to determine the exact number of people who were in a specific location at a specific time: the signal may be absent or registered unpredictably. According to Life.ru, in the settlement of Kuturchin itself, where the family set out on their hike to Mount Buratinka, there is no mobile coverage at all. This is a significant technical obstacle: even if operator data points to someone who was nearby, the completeness of such a picture remains limited.

Progress of the investigation and theories

Large-scale search operations were carried out in June and July 2026, but the missing family was not found. Investigators consider an accident the most likely scenario, but continue to examine the criminal theory as well. Earlier, former rescuer Yuri Railko suggested that the Usoltsevs' bodies may never be foundif the family fell victim to a premeditated crime: in his opinion, the perpetrators could have carefully concealed traces, making the search virtually fruitless. This assessment belongs to Railko himself and is not a conclusion of the investigation.