The Department for Emergency Situations of the Mangistau region has denied rumors that the body of an 18-year-old boy who went missing in Aktau was found after a cauldron ritual, reports infohub.kz.
On social media, particularly the Instagram account 112_aktau, a video circulated claiming that a folk healer advised the victim's relatives to take a cauldron, place the mother's hair tips and the boy's clothes in it, and throw it all into the sea to make the body surface. According to the video, the relatives performed the ritual on the morning of July 15, and the body was found the same day.
The regional emergency department stated that such claims mislead people and diminish the work of special services who had been involved in the search for a week. Rescuers emphasized that the relatives did consult folk healers, but none of their suggestions led to finding the boy.
"During the search, the missing person's relatives, relying on suggestions from various herbalists and folk healers, repeatedly asked rescuers to check several locations they indicated. The rescuers understood the family's difficult emotional state and also examined those areas. However, none of those assumptions were confirmed," the department explained.
Rescuers noted that the information about the "cauldron throwing" is false. Search and rescue operations were conducted continuously from July 7 to 15 — daily from morning to evening. They involved rescuers, the Navy, the Border Service of the National Security Committee, volunteers, and other services. Watercraft, echo sounders, drones, special equipment, and Mi-8 helicopters were used. The water area and coastal territory were thoroughly inspected daily.
Earlier it was reported that the 18-year-old boy disappeared in early July while celebrating his birthday with friends on the Caspian Sea coast. A large-scale search was launched. A week later, the young man's body was found 51 kilometers from Aktau — emergency workers discovered it in the water 10 meters from the shoreline.