Russian Model Discovered in ICU Two Weeks After Vanishing

The search for thirty-three-year-old model Angelika Tartanova, who vanished under unexplained circumstances, has ended with her discovery in the intensive care unit of a major Moscow hospital. Doctors were forced to perform a skull-opening procedure after identifying extensive injuries, and before slipping into a weakened state, she managed to tell medical staff that she had been beaten by her boyfriend. Her family believes he is also responsible for abducting and assaulting her.

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ICU

Two Weeks in a Neurosurgical Ward

It emerged that Tartanova had spent two weeks in the neurosurgery department of the N. I. Pirogov City Clinical Hospital with multiple bruises, hematomas, and a severe concussion. Her condition remains critical. She told physicians that her partner struck her repeatedly with such force that she could neither stand nor speak. She also said that another woman had been present in the apartment during the attack.

Traumatic Brain Injury and Emergency Surgery

Doctors diagnosed her with a traumatic brain injury, a severe cerebral contusion, an intracerebral hematoma, and swelling of the brain. On November 23, after managing to call an ambulance herself, Tartanova informed paramedics that she had been beaten in an apartment on Universitetsky Prospekt. Surgeons then performed an urgent trepanation. A source from REN TV noted that "the blows were directed at her head, and she lost consciousness.”

Last Seen With an Older Man

Her sisters raised the alarm on November 28, saying that Tartanova abruptly stopped responding to their messages. Neighbors reported that she was last seen with a man significantly older than she was. According to a close friend, the man showered her with expensive gifts but forbade her from maintaining contact with her relatives. Because of him, she even skipped a planned summer trip to her family. The friend said that, to this man, she was "like a doll.”

A Move to Moscow and a Sudden Break

Before her disappearance, Tartanova left the home she shared with her boyfriend after an argument. Her apartment still contained unpacked suitcases, her phone, and her documents. Relatives noted that someone read her incoming messages during the first two days she was missing.

She had moved from Krasnodar to Moscow several years earlier, hoping to build a professional modeling career after a divorce that left her sixteen-year-old son with his father. For a long time she kept no contact with her former husband or child, only recently resuming modest financial support.

About six months ago, Tartanova met a man named Dmitry, whom she described as a Moscow businessman working in construction. She never introduced him to her family and never showed them a single photograph of him. Her relatives say he took no part in the search for her after she disappeared. Although she has been in the neurosurgical ward for more than two weeks, Dmitry claims he last saw Tartanova only a week ago and refused to share any details of their relationship.