The large-scale search for 11-year-old Natalia Asenova from the village of Konstantinovo near Varna entered its fourth consecutive day as police, gendarmerie, and dozens of volunteers continued efforts to locate the child and 40-year-old Asen Simeonov, who is suspected of abducting her from her mother's home.
Search teams initially planned to resume operations around 10 p.m. on Tuesday, but their plans changed after new reports suggested the pair had been seen near Provadiya. Shortly after 8 p.m., volunteers and law enforcement redirected their efforts toward the village of Barzitsa, where several witnesses claimed to have spotted a man and a young girl in nearby fields.
Throughout the evening, authorities received multiple tips, with the latest reports placing the pair in the area around Barzitsa. Police officers, gendarmerie units, and volunteers equipped with drones searched fields and difficult terrain between Barzitsa, Bozveliysko, and Tsarevtsi well past midnight. Despite hours of intensive operations, no confirmed trace of the missing girl or the wanted man was found.
Investigators say the search is now concentrated around the villages of Yunak and Barzitsa, approximately 30 kilometers from Konstantinovo, where the two are believed to have headed after the alleged abduction. The challenging landscape has complicated the operation, forcing teams to rely on drones and thermal imaging equipment during nighttime searches. Officers also attempted to seal off parts of the area in hopes of preventing an escape, but the effort has not yet produced results.
