The Vanishing Act: The Mysterious Disappearance of Daria Bulba in Shanghai

The Enigmatic Case of Daria Bulba

Daria Bulba, a young woman with a captivating smile from Odessa, Ukraine, traveled to her dream city to pursue a modeling career. Today, she would have been 29 years old. However, on the morning of August 6, 2016, she vanished without a trace in the bustling city of Shanghai, where every inch of the streets is under surveillance. Nearly a decade has passed since her disappearance, yet the mystery of what happened to Daria in China remains unsolved.

A Happy Childhood in Odessa

Born on September 25, 1995, in the port city on the Black Sea coast, Daria grew up in a loving family. She played the guitar and had a passion for singing. In 2015, she graduated from the Odessa College of Hospitality with a degree in Law. Even as a student, she was drawn to modeling. After completing her studies at the Odessa modeling agency “Art-Podium,” Daria realized her dream and began appearing in catalogs, magazines, music videos, and advertisements. Her career took her to many countries, including Italy, Greece, and Turkey. China, which would later become a fateful destination for her, was a country she visited twice.

A Tragedy in Broad Daylight

On April 7, 2016, Daria flew to China once again for a modeling contract with the Shanghai-based BYS Model Agency. She maintained daily contact with her family, making these calls a ritual she never broke. She also stayed in touch with friends through VKontakte and WeChat. However, on August 6, she stopped responding to messages. On August 8, her family learned from her roommate that Daria had disappeared. According to her friend, Daria had gone to meet an acquaintance but never returned home.

The Official Version

Daria’s family reacted swiftly. After filing a criminal case and contacting Interpol and local authorities, they realized it was time to publicize her mysterious disappearance. Daria’s father sent emails to all major Ukrainian TV channels requesting help in finding his missing daughter, but none responded. Despite the lack of support, Daria’s father persisted in his quest for the truth about his beloved child.

For the first two months after the tragedy, the family was in almost daily contact with the Ukrainian consulate in Shanghai. They were assured that the police were diligently working on Daria’s case, but no concrete progress was made. The Shanghai police immediately suggested that Daria had committed suicide and refused to consider other theories. They discouraged her father from coming to China, claiming that his presence would hinder their police system.

After waiting for nearly two months, Daria’s father decided to fly to Shanghai. He discovered that he couldn’t simply meet with the investigator to learn about the case’s progress. First, he had to submit a note to the Ukrainian consulate, and only then could the police accept him. After completing the necessary bureaucratic procedures, the investigators at the Hongkou District police station met with Daria’s father. They explained that Daria had been walking along the embankment and disappeared in a blind spot between two surveillance cameras. They suggested that she had drowned while in an “inadequate state.” For them, it was obvious that if a person is walking down the street with headphones on and dancing, they must be under the influence of illegal substances.

The immigration service confirmed that Daria had not left China. The water police investigator reported that they had searched the area where they believed Daria had drowned but found nothing. They explained that there are places in the bay where all the debris collects, and if Daria had drowned, they would have found her there. According to the police, they had checked all the morgues and districts, but Daria was not there. They claimed that if she were alive, they would have seen her on the cameras, as all of Shanghai is under surveillance—she couldn’t have simply vanished in these concrete jungles.

It seems that no one but Daria’s father was bothered by the fact that the police were contradicting themselves. First, they said that Daria had drowned, and then they claimed she was alive.

Surveillance Camera Issues in a City Under Constant Watch

Those who have been to China know that cameras are everywhere. It would seem that the task of checking the footage and starting to unravel the case of the missing Ukrainian model would not be too difficult. Surprisingly, the Shanghai police were reluctant to show the footage to Daria’s grieving father for a long time. Only after contacting the General Consulate of Ukraine did he manage to achieve his goal. However, watching the footage did not provide any leads—it clearly showed Daria walking and dancing before disappearing from the cameras’ view on the embankment.

Strange Calls and a Meeting with a Moscow Friend

In this disappearance case, filled with mysteries and inconsistencies, new chilling details continue to emerge. It was later revealed that Daria’s phone received numerous calls from an unknown person who arranged a meeting with her at one of the hotels but never showed up. Neighbors later said that it seemed as if someone was following the girl—as if someone wanted to know how and by what means she would reach the designated place. After Daria’s disappearance, someone accessed her VKontakte page. The last activity there was on August 25, 2019, at 16:45. Her parents assured that only their missing daughter and her roommate, who would not have entered her friend’s profile, had access to social networks. At some point, information surfaced that Daria had met with an unknown friend from Moscow on the fateful evening.

Pasha, a Tattoo with the Model’s Face, and Jealousy

In this entire story, not only the inaction of the Shanghai police, the outright suppression of facts by the authorities, and the unknown fate of the missing girl are frightening, but also the cold-bloodedness and speculation on grief that took place.

After two months of fruitless stay in China, Daria’s grieving father decided to return home. Later, a certain Pavel contacted him. He wrote that he knew who was involved in Daria’s disappearance and was ready to provide information only after her relatives repaid her debt to him. After some persuasion, the guy told his version of what happened. He wrote that his Chinese girlfriend had an older brother who worked as a police officer in Shanghai and that he was the one who organized Daria’s kidnapping. When asked why he did this, Pavel stated that his ex-girlfriend was allegedly jealous of Pavel’s relationship with Daria and took revenge on her in such a sophisticated way. Later, the guy returned to Shanghai and wrote to the victim’s family that he was joking and did not know where Daria was, and that the entire content of the correspondence was nothing more than his fiction and assumptions. Daria’s relatives did the right thing—they passed the correspondence to the consul in Shanghai and showed it to the police in Ukraine, at their place of residence, where the investigation was being conducted, but the law enforcement officers chose to turn a blind eye to this information. The Shanghai police never called Pavel for questioning.

The strangeness does not end there—it is known that Marcus Riggi, a booker from the Milan-based Monster Management Model Agency where Daria worked, got a tattoo of her portrait on his shoulder. It is unclear why he did this, but it is strange that a person who worked with a large number of models decided to single out the missing girl in this way.

A local Chinese newspaper even put forward its own version, “even linking the disappearance of the Ukrainian with the alleged arrest of the well-known Chinese rocket and space industry specialist Hou Jianwen, who was accused of espionage.” As if Daria could have worked for him as a beautiful trap to replenish his a

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