Disappearance of Darya Bulba
Darya Bulba | |
|---|---|
| Ukrainian: Дар'я Бульба | |
 | |
| Born | September 25, 1995 |
| Died | unknown |
| Occupation | model |
Darya Bulba (Ukrainian: Дар'я Бульба) was a Ukrainian model who disappeared on August 6, 2016, in Shanghai, China.[1][2] Her disappearance became the subject of various hoaxes and versions of what had happened. The police put forward different versions of the disappearance, from suicide to kidnapping, but never reached a consensus.[3] Her fate remains unknown.[4][5]
Background
Daria Bulba was born in 1995 in Odesa, Ukraine. She studied at the Odesa College of Hotel Management, majoring in law, and took modeling courses,[6][1] vocal lessons and learned to play guitar.[4] Bulba attended a local modeling school. Since childhood she dreamed of becoming famous as a top model. In 2013, she received the first offer to participate in shoots and started shooting for catalogs. A few years later she went abroad to Italy, Greece, and Turkey.[2][3][7]
Disappearance
On April 7, 2016, Bulba flew to China to work on a contract with the Shanghai-based BYS Model Agency.[1]
On August 6, 2016, Bulba went to meet an unknown man–some sources claim he was an acquaintance of hers–and disappeared.[8][9] Surveillance cameras recorded the girl walking along the promenade, listening to music on headphones and dancing, before rounding the corner into a blind spot and disappearing.[10][11]
The police investigated Bulba's phone and found out that she regularly received calls from unknown numbers. As reported by her friends, a stranger constantly scheduled meetings with the girl in the hotel, but never showed up for them. The network speculates that this was done in order to calculate how long it would take Bulba to get to a certain place.[11]
Investigation
Bulba's relatives appealed to Interpol and local authorities. Her father e-mailed letters asking for help in finding his missing daughter to all central TV channels in Ukraine, but all of them remained unanswered. The Chinese police assumed that Bulba had committed suicide.[1]
As of 2022, the case of Darya Bulba's disappearance remained open.[12]
Influence
Journalists and other concerned people began investigating the case of Bulba's disappearance.[11] On social networks, users recorded "detective" podcasts and videos in which they shared their opinions or conducted their own investigations in an attempt to find the model. None of the proposed versions of the model's disappearance has been confirmed. There are different theories of the disappearance: from kidnapping by criminal gangs and human trafficking, to tragic cases on the water.[8][13]
The local press wrote about the missing woman. One of the newspapers linked her disappearance to the alleged arrest of Hou Jianwen, a well-known rocket and space industry specialist in China, who was accused of espionage. Journalists put forward a theory that the scientist recruited an agent network by means of "sweet traps". They alleged Hou recruited beautiful, young women, suggesting that Bulba may have been one of them.[8]
References
- ^ a b c d Анна, Апалина. "Исчезнувшая модель: история Дарьи Бульбы, пропавшей в Шанхае средь бела дня". www.woman.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ a b "26岁乌克兰模特失踪在上海街头,3年后社交账号却被登录,诡异！". yeeyi.com (in Chinese). Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ a b "Мурашки по коже: эту девушку, пропавшую на глазах у сотен людей, ищут уже 7 лет". www.kinoafisha.info (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ a b "Почти голливудский триллер: странная история пропавшей модели Дарьи Бульбы". novochag.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ "Родственники пропавшей в Шанхае украинки: "Перед исчезновением Даше поступали странные звонки"". kp.ua (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ "消失了：光天化日之下消失在中国的达莉亚·布尔巴的故事". zhuanlan.zhihu.com.
- ^ Глачева, Галина (2023-06-16). "Кто такая Дарья Бульба, исчезнувшая средь бела дня в Шанхае". Леди Mail (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ a b c "Украинская модель пропала в Шанхае при странных обстоятельствах". OBOZREVATEL NEWS (in Russian). 2016-12-27. Archived from the original on 2022-03-05. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ Акимова, Елена. "«Ждал мужчина, который ее обожал»: участницы «Битвы экстрасенсов» — о таинственном исчезновении Дарьи Бульбы | WOMAN". www.woman.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ Акимова, Елена. "Ясновидящая о тайне исчезновения модели Дарьи Бульбы: «Она живет в гареме, у нее уже есть дети» | WOMAN". www.woman.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ a b c Андреева, Лизавета (2025-04-14). "Исчезла как Ковальчук? Пропавшую модель Дарью Бульбу 9 лет ищут в Шанхае". AiF (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ "Жди Меня | Национальная служба взаимного поиска людей". poiskvid.com. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
- ^ Редакция, Старая (2021-08-03). "Не родись красивой: 9 моделей, которых погубила идеальная внешность". sova.today (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-05-02.