A young woman reported missing 13 months ago may have been killed by an older man who knew her family. Alisha Apostoloff-Boyarin, from Ashton-under-Lyne, disappeared aged 24 on February 2 last year.
She was last seen eight days earlier, in a gold Volkswagen Passat, being driven through Derbyshire. With the belief Alisha has come to serious harm, Greater Manchester Police escalated its investigation to a murder probe last year.
Now, the Manchester Evening News can reveal how a 60-year-old man living more than 120 miles away from Tameside came to be the sole suspect in the case. The man is believed to have made contact with Alisha through a friend of a friend.
An Ashton native himself, the man was known to members of Alisha's family. It's believed he spoke to Alisha using social media and text messages, before arranging to pick her up from Ashton.
On January 14 last year, Alisha was seen travelling in the VW Passat, heading north to Bishop Auckland in County Durham. The man had moved to Bishop Auckland, but police say he also had accommodation in Derbyshire.
On January 22, 2022, Alisha was again seen travelling in the VW Passat, in the Glossop and Chapel-en-le-Frith area of Derbyshire. She has not been seen or heard from since.
In the year since her disappearance, police have carried out extensive searches for Alisha in both County Durham and Derbyshire. They have also searched Ashton, where the suspect told police he had dropped Alisha off safely following their travels.
GMP believes Alisha came to harm after being taken to Derbyshire on January 22. It's believed she may have been killed and her body left abandoned, potentially in Derbyshire woodland or farmland.
The man, aged 59 at the time, was arrested on suspicion of murder last March and released under investigation. A second man was arrested later in March, aged 50 at the time, on suspicion of assisting an offender.
He has since been released with no further action taken. While police haven't ruled out the possibility of another person causing harm to Alisha, GMP says there is nothing to suggest anyone else is involved.
DCI Andrew Naismith, senior investigating officer, told the M.E.N. that detectives have 'grave concerns for Alisha' as they continue efforts to piece together where she is and what has happened to her. He said: "We want to keep Alisha in people’s memories and we want to recover Alisha for her family.
"If not, we want to try and bring some sort of closure and peace to the family, and hopefully some sort of justice for the family." Detectives are continuing to appeal for any information that could help with the investigation.
This could include sightings of the VW Passat in Derbyshire around January 22 last year, CCTV and dashcam footage, or social media interactions with Alisha from January 2022. Call 101 or use GMP’s Major Incident Portal to upload footage and information.
Alternatively, call GMPs Major Incident team on 0161 856 6777. Information can also be passed on to the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
READ NEXT:
