Serguei and Liliya Vlassenko moved across the ocean for the love of their child five years ago. From a comfortable life in Bryansk, Russia, about 235 miles from Moscow, to America, so their 10-year-old daughter Kristina, who had autism and was nonverbal, could have a better life.
“Our daughter was a wonderful child. We loved her very much,” Serguei Vlassenko said in Russian. “The main reason why I moved here is to help Kristina get better. Unfortunately, in Russia we couldn’t be helped, even though we asked a lot of institutions, even went to Moscow we went to many doctors. But they couldn’t help. When we had a chance to move to America, we took advantage of the opportunity.”
Vlassenko says his daughter vanished in just a split second on Monday. After searching into the early morning hours, dreading someone was holding onto their little girl, possibly doing terrible things to her, they came up empty, even though Kristina wore a bracelet that could send a signal showing her location.
Tuesday morning, the family saw TV reports about a body found at a construction site. Then police called.
“When they took her out of the water, the bracelet was working. As a police officer told us, if the bracelet is on the ground level, you can detect the person for 75 feet, but if it’s below ground level, it doesn’t work. Or 2 feet under water,” Vlassenko said.
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