By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-08 15:50:04 | Updated at 2025-01-09 06:31:48
14 hours ago
A Florida woman's remains were found at the bottom of a pond more than a decade after she vanished from her home.
Yekaterina 'Katya' Belaya, 47, was last seen in her Melbourne home on the evening of September 28, 2014.
She told her daughters that she was going to buy milk and would return in 30 minutes.
The mom of three, however, never made it to the store, and she was never seen or heard from again.
More than 10 years later, after a search-and-rescue group got involved, her body was found inside a van submerged in pond less than two miles from her home.
Sunshine State Sonar, a group that specializes in searching water to help solve cold cases, shared the tragic discovery in a Facebook post.
'After searching 32 bodies of water and locating 2 submerged vehicles, we located Katya's white Honda Odyssey minivan with human remains submerged 24 feet deep, upside down, in a retention pond off Viera Blvd in Melbourne,' the group wrote.
Sunshine State Sonar took on the case on August 28, 2024, leading to the December 20, 2024 discovery.
Yekaterina 'Katya' Belaya, 47, was last seen in her Melbourne home on the evening of September 28, 2014, before her body was found by a volunteer rescue group more than a decade later
The mother-of-three had said she was going out to buy milk but was never seen or heard from again
Belaya's remains were found in her 2003 Honda Odyssey in a retention pond less than two miles from her home in Melbourne, Florida
Belaya's van was found around 1.6 miles from her home, and the cause of death is still under investigation with the help of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.
'We extend our deepest sympathies to her friends and family,' the search group added.
One of Belaya's daughters, Sonya Belaya, wrote a statement on behalf of her and her sisters, Masha and Sasha, to express their gratitude and grief.
'On December 20th, a volunteer group called Sunshine State Sonar located our mother, Yekaterina 'Katya' Belaya, less than two miles from her home. Her car and remains were found submerged at the bottom of a retention pond,' she said.
'We would like to thank [the] Sunshine State Sonar team for their incredible work and for taking on our mother's case without us even asking.
'We have many new questions that deserve an answer. This is not closure, but the beginning of a renewed and arduous journey to find out what happened to our mother.
'We will be carefully following the investigation and wish to raise awareness around this case in hopes of finally getting the answers we didn't receive when she went missing ten years ago.'
Mike Sullivan, the owner of Sunshine State Sonar, said the group took the case on being sent 'some of the heartbreaking messages' posted online by Belaya's daughters, WESH reported.
The search group took on the case on August 28, 2024, leading to the December 20, 2024 discovery. The cause of her death remains under investigation
'We have many new questions that deserve an answer, said Belaya's daughter, Sonya. 'This is not closure, but the beginning of a renewed and arduous journey to find out what happened to our mother'
'This is an unbelievable shock and tragedy for us... We continue to seek the truth. That's what our mother deserves,' Sonya Belaya's statement said
Sullivan said the group uses three types of sonar technology, and found Belaya based on the last place her cell phone pinged.
'I spoke to the daughters...they reached out to me on the phone...and they expressed their gratitude...and I think they were still in shock,' Sullivan told the outlet.
In their statement, Sonya and her sister called it 'an unbelievable shock and tragedy for us... We continue to seek the truth.
'That's what our mother deserves,' the statement concluded.
