MELBOURNE, Florida — A 49-year-old mom of three went to run errands in 2014 and never came back, Florida authorities said.
Investigators believed it was possible she had left the country, but a sonar team said it has now found the body of Yekaterina “Katya” Belaya in her minivan submerged in water less than two miles from her home.
A spokesperson for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office told McClatchy News that dental records confirmed the remains belonged to Belaya.
Belaya’s family reported her missing after they last saw her Sept. 28, 2014, leaving their Melbourne home to go to a store, according to law enforcement and family.
Deputies at the time tracked down the area where her cell phone last pinged, but they couldn’t find Belaya or her minivan, authorities said. Sonar technology and cell phone tracking was less advanced 10 years ago, the spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said, so the case went cold.
One of her daughters, Sasha Belaya, told WOFL that her mom put her daughters “above anything else in her life” and that it wasn’t normal for her to disappear like that.
In August 2024, Sunshine State Sonar reached out to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office for information on the case. The crews said they searched 32 bodies of water, then on Dec. 20, they found Belaya’s upside down minivan 24 feet deep in a retention pond.
Authorities hauled her vehicle out of the pond and confirmed it belonged to Belaya. Her remains found inside were later identified. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office is investigating further but told McClatchy News there were no immediate signs pointing to how Belaya died.
Another one of her daughters, Sonya Belaya, described her mom as a “beautiful and complicated” woman.
Belaya’s family shared that she emigrated from Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and had degrees in geology and environmental science.
“She spent most of her years in the United States raising three kids, scraping for the middle class American dream alongside my dad,” Sonya Belaya posted on the 10-year anniversary of her mom’s disappearance. “After years of bitter warfare with my dad and her own mental decline, she went out for a drive in her 2004 white Honda Odyssey and was never to be found again.”
As investigators learned of Katya Belaya’s family conflict and battle with depression, they said one possibility was that she left everything behind of her own accord.
Her daughters said they were in shock when they learned their mother’s body had been found.
“I remember expecting a call and finding her or her showing up,” Sasha Belaya told WOFL.
Brevard County is on Florida’s Space Coast, about a 50-mile drive southeast from Orlando.
By OLIVIA LLOYD/The Miami Herald
