On Wednesday the 2nd of February, 2022, Alisha Apostoloff-Boyarin (24) was reported missing by her Grandmother. Alisha is considered vulnerable due to her struggles with alcohol dependency. She was picked up in a 2003 gold-coloured Volkswagen Passat saloon and travelled to the Bishop Auckland area, County Durham, on Friday 14th January 2022.
On the 17th of January, CCTV in an Asda shows Alisha with a man (wearing a mask due to covid) in an aisle. Alisha uses her card to purchase some items, and this is the last transaction recorded from her bank account. She is then seen in the passenger seat of a car with the same man filling it with petrol.
She was then seen travelling in the same vehicle on the 22nd of January leaving Glossop towards Chapel-en-le-frith in Derbyshire. She has not been seen since, and police are treating this case as a murder inquiry. The car has since been seized and examined thoroughly by investigators.
Before going missing, Alisha lived with her great-grandfather in Tameside (Ashton-Under-Lyne, Manchester), and she was very close with her grandmother. Her family believe that the man who picked her up and was seen travelling with her is a 60-year-old man who Alisha met through a friend of a friend whom she had been messaging through text and social media. The man lived over a120 miles away from Alisha but was native to the Ashton-Under-Lyne area.
This man has been arrested (March 2022) and released on bail pending further investigation, and another man was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. The Greater Manchester Police believes that Alisha came to harm after being taken to Derbyshire on January 22nd. It's believed she may have been killed and her body left abandoned, potentially in Derbyshire woodland or farmland. The Police are particularly interested in rural areas in Derbyshire, especially around Glossop, Buxton and Chapel-en-le-frith.
In a statement made by Alisha's family, they described her as a shy girl and said, "We know in our hearts that someone has prevented Alisha from coming home to us and that she is no longer alive. Alisha’s world revolved around her family. She was a shy girl and did not socialise very much.”
The Timeline
14th January 2022 - Alisha is picked up and travels in the passenger seat of a gold Volkswagen Passat to the Bishop Auckland area, County Durham.
17th January 2022 - Alisha is seen twice that day on CCTV. The first sighting is with a man wearing a green hat, coat, and a covid mask, standing in an aisle of Asda. She uses her card to buy items. CCTV then captures both of them leaving the store, with Alisha carrying a bag. She is then captured in the passenger side of the gold vehicle, while a man believed to be the same man, filling the car with petrol.
22nd January 2022 - Alisha was again seen travelling in the VW Passat, in the Glossop and Chapel-en-le-Frith area of Derbyshire. This is the last confirmed sighting and police believe she came to harm after this sighting.
2nd February 2022 - Alisha's Grandmother reports her missing to police.
See the map below for reported movements and areas of interest.