The search for 11-year-old Natalia Asenova and 40-year-old Asen Simeonov entered its eighteenth day on Friday 17 July with a bleak piece of arithmetic attached: more than 70 tips logged since the pair disappeared from the Varna village of Konstantinovo, and not one of them confirmed, Novinite reports.

The most recent sighting investigators could verify dates back to 2 July, near the railway line outside the village of Yunak, roughly 30 kilometres from Konstantinovo. Put another way: for fifteen of the eighteen days this search has run, nobody has produced a trace of the pair that stands up to checking. Police and volunteers are still working around the clock.

The Search Has Narrowed to the Villages Around Snezhna

Operations remain concentrated on the Yunak area and the settlements around it. Volunteer teams say they have recently combed the terrain around Snezhna, Gradinarevo, Grozdevo and Tsonevo, and those names were not picked off a map at random: the villages became a priority after investigators learned that Simeonov's brother lives in Snezhna.

The volunteers are working to a strict division of labour. "We work in close coordination with the police. They indicate to us the areas to search," one told Novinite. The teams carry thermal-imaging cameras and night-vision equipment but do not act on their own findings: anything spotted goes to 112 for the police to check.

The patrols themselves now run on an inverted clock, starting around 10 p.m. and continuing into the early morning. The working theory is that Simeonov moves under cover of darkness to avoid detection, so the searchers have made the night their shift.

A Promising Lead That Turned Out to Be Sheep

The search's latest setback says a good deal about the terrain. A lead near the village of Velichkovo, fresh tracks and flattened vegetation, briefly raised hopes of a breakthrough. Police sent in drones and tracking dogs, and concluded the marks had been left by a flock of sheep, nothing to do with the missing pair. Anyone who has walked the back country between Provadia and the coast will recognise the problem: it is field tracks, scrub and grazing land out there, terrain that swallows detail and hands the search teams false positives.

Eighteen Days In, Patience Is Being Tested

The volunteers used the day to make a direct appeal to Simeonov himself. "If he is watching us, let him just let Natalia go. We don't want anything else, the most important thing is for the child to return alive and well," one participant said.

The strain between the searchers and the authorities has surfaced before: on 14 July, Novinite reported volunteers accusing the police of responding too slowly to leads.

The background has not changed since the operation began. Natalia disappeared in the early hours of 30 June after leaving her Konstantinovo home with Simeonov, her mother's former partner. Her mother told Novinite at the start of the search that Simeonov had threatened to kill her if Natalia did not go with him. Police have said Simeonov knows remote forested terrain well and has hidden from authorities for extended periods in the past; during an earlier manhunt he reportedly sheltered in abandoned buildings and followed the hunt for him through radio and television broadcasts. Our report from day four of the search covers how the operation first shifted inland from Konstantinovo towards Provadia.

If You Are in the Area

Plenty of British expats live in Varna province, on the coast and in exactly the kind of inland villages now being searched. If you live or have a house anywhere in that stretch of country, the guidance from the search teams is precise:

  • If you think you have seen Natalia or Simeonov, call 112 immediately, and note the time and place.
  • Do not approach or intervene. "People should report it to 112 and not take action themselves. A quick response is crucial," the volunteers said.
  • Expect night patrols. Teams with thermal cameras are working the villages named above from around 10 p.m. until the early morning.

Eighteen days in, with 70-plus tips checked and discarded, the operation keeps returning to the same simple request: look, report, and leave the rest to the people running the search.