Despite the arrest of two men in connection with the disappearance of a 15-year-old Utah girl, the girl remains missing.
Alisa Petrov was last seen on April 21, after leaving her school, taking a train to Provo, and asking strangers for help getting to Las Vegas, according to KSTU.
“It’s like, super stressful. You don’t know what to do, and then you feel like you can’t actually do anything,” father Nikolai Petrov said. “We have a lot of good times together, and we want to have more of this time in the future.”
Petrov had a message for his daughter.
“Alisa, if you see this, please come back because we really want you back,” he said. “We love you. We love you a lot. We will love you no matter what happened. We still want you home. You won’t get in trouble for running away. You just want to have you back in our family, so that we are all together.”
Search Continues for 15-year-old Alisa Petrov
Last seen April 21 in South Jordan, UT.Police believe she may be trying to meet people she met online. https://t.co/miKEn7qjai
— National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (@NCMEC) May 13, 2025
South Jordan police have charged Matthew Nicholas Menard, 35, of Miami, Florida, and William Taylor Glines, 37, of Texas City, Texas, on charges that include aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, enticement of a minor, and criminal solicitation.
Police said Petrov was communicating with Menard before she disappeared.
Will more people be charged in Petrov’s disappearance?
“Matt tells the victim he will fly to Las Vegas for a business trip later in May, and she can lay low until he gets there,” a search warrant said. “They then planned to fly to Los Angeles, CA together for several days, before ultimately going back to Miami, FL where Matt lives.”
The warrant said Miami police contacted Menard, who admitted communicating with Petrov.
A tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent authorities to Glines, who police allege had conversations online of a sexual nature with Petrov after confirming she was underage. Police allege Menard also knew Petrov was 15 in his communication with her.
Petrov’s father said parents need to be aggressive in monitoring their children’s online communication.
“There should probably be some understanding that it’s not a privacy issue but a safety issue instead because there are a lot of really weird people online who may take advantage of kids being curious and naive,” he said, according to KTVX.
The missing girl is about 5’3″ tall and weighs about 122 pounds. She was last seen wearing a grey Harvard University shirt, a black hoodie, and baggy jeans.
Police said that there was no evidence the girl was in Texas City, where Glines lives, according to KPRC-TV.
“It was a nightmare. We have no contact with Alisa, which is very upsetting. She’s not using her social media that she was really attached to, and that’s a big concern for us,” Olga Petrov, her mother, said.
Her father had a message for Alisa.
“Please come back, and whoever is holding her, they should probably just let her go because this is just really wrong. This is not right,” Nikolai Petrov said.
The FBI office in Salt Lake City is involved in the search for the missing girl.
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