Schoolgirl Who Was Searched For 9 Years Has Been Found With Her Husband And Children

When a teenager goes missing, it is always a tragedy. Especially if the disappearance is shrouded in mystery and lasts for years. In December 2016, 15-year-old Victoria Konetskaya left a hospital in St. Petersburg — and seemed to evaporate. The girl’s tracks ended at the banks of the Neva, leaving behind only guesses and the pain of her family. Nine years passed, hope was almost extinguished, but suddenly the girl was found alive.

On June 5, 2025, news broke that 25-year-old Victoria Konetskaya, who went missing in 2016, had been found alive. She lived in an apartment in Sestroretsk, near St. Petersburg. Vika disappeared on December 25, 2016, from the Regional Children's Clinical Hospital in St. Petersburg, where she had been taken for a planned knee operation. Before disappearing, she left her clothes, tablet, and phone at the hospital, and deleted her social media accounts.

To escape, Victoria took clothes from a woman in the next room. The search for the 15-year-old 9th grade student began immediately. At first, law enforcement officers took over, then volunteers joined in. They searched for the girl everywhere: on the streets, in abandoned buildings, forests, wells, rivers, and along the shores of the Gulf of Finland. They even checked shelters in different cities of Russia, where the minor could have been taken from the street.

The police questioned relatives, friends and classmates of the missing girl. After talking to relatives, a version of a possible suicide emerged. The girl's mother lived with her new husband and their son, paying little attention to her eldest daughter. Her biological father also showed no interest in her life. As a result, Vika stayed with her grandmother, effectively abandoned by her closest people.

Victoria's birthday passed while she was preparing for the operation in the hospital. None of her relatives remembered this event, which deeply affected the girl. The hospital was located right on the bank of the Neva, and there was a version that the girl could have drowned. But the police had no confirmation that this had happened. The search lasted three years, they covered 29 regions of Russia, as well as Estonia and Finland.

Over the years, law enforcement officers have interviewed more than 450 witnesses, tested the girl's relatives and friends on a polygraph, conducted 15 large-scale operations and several complex examinations. The case of Victoria Konetskaya's disappearance has grown to 24 volumes. The disappearance was reported in an episode of the TV show "Wait for Me", which was watched by the entire country. Psychics were even brought in to help with the search. They claimed that the girl was most likely dead.

Only nine years later, on June 2, 2025, the girl was caught on camera in the city of Sestroretsk. The police found her, and Victoria told the story of her mysterious disappearance. Then, in 2016, she was very offended by her relatives who ignored her birthday. In addition, she was afraid of having knee surgery and was determined to run away. These reasons became the final impetus for her disappearance.

Until she was 18, Victoria lived with a friend. Later, she got married and had two children. All this time, the girl lived in Sestroretsk, completely shutting herself off from her past life. When she was found, she was 24 years old. Journalists spoke with Victoria's mother. She is in shock and admits that she is to blame for what happened. The woman has not yet decided to meet with her daughter.

Victoria's story evokes many emotions and questions: about attention to loved ones, about mistakes that change lives, about how a fine line separates teenage rebellion from tragedy. What do you think - could this story have turned out differently if adults had shown a little more concern and warmth in time?