Local SONAR group finds van in lake and then solves decade-old missing person case

Yekaterina ‘Katya’ Belaya was last seen at her home in Melbourne, Florida on September 28, 2014

Yekaterina ‘Katya’ Belaya (left) vanished 10 years ago. A Sonar group say they have found her remains inside a submerged minivan (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office/Sunshine State Sonar )

More than a decade after a Florida woman vanished, a local sonar group say they have found her remains inside a minivan in a lake.

Yekaterina “Katya” Belaya was last seen on the evening of September 28, 2014, at her home on Rock Springs Drive in Melbourne, Florida.

That night, the mother-of-three, who was also a science professor at Eastern Florida State College, told her daughters that she was going to the store and left in her white 2003 Honda Odyssey minivan.

But Belaya never made it to the store, according to investigators. She never returned home to her family and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

Katya Belaya was last seen Sept. 28, 2014. Now, a sonar group say they have found her remains (The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office)

After years of no answers, Sunshine State Sonar took on the case in August 2024, and worked closely with Belaya’s family and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit.

Mike Sullivan with Sunshine State Sonar told Fox35 they learned key information that helped in their search.

Then after canvassing 32 bodies of water and locating two other submerged vehicles, they finally found what they were looking for.

“We received additional information on that case that was not posted online — cellphone ping data from that evening — and that is ultimately what led us to that particular area where we located that vehicle,” Sullivan explained.

On December 20, the group announced that they had located Belaya’s minivan in a retention pond less than two miles from where she once lived.

The minivan was upside down, submerged 24 feet under water. Human remains believed to be Belaya were inside the vehicle.

It’s unclear how the van ended up in the water, but an investigation is ongoing.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to local news outlets that a van with remains inside were found in the pond.

According to Fox35, the remains were analyzed and a DNA test confirmed they belong to Belaya.