Rescuers in Kazakhstan's Mangystau region have refuted a social media claim that the body of 18-year-old Azamat Duisekhanov was found thanks to advice from a folk healer. The regional emergency department (DChS) stated that the story is a myth, and such posts undermine the efforts of dozens of people who searched for the missing teenager for over a week, reports infohub.kz.
Azamat Duisekhanov went missing on July 7. On his birthday, he was relaxing with friends on the coast near the O'Mir resort hotel, about 48 kilometers from Aktau. A large-scale search and rescue operation began that day and continued until July 15, lasting eight days. Every day from morning till evening, the waters were scoured by personnel from the emergency department, the Navy, the Border Service of the National Security Committee (KNB), volunteers, and other agencies. Boats, echo sounders, drones, specialized equipment, and Mi-8 helicopters were used. On July 15, the boy's body was found approximately 51 kilometers from Aktau, just ten meters from the shore.
After the search ended, a video appeared on social media claiming the body was found thanks to a healer's advice. The video alleged that relatives threw a cauldron into the sea containing a lock of the mother's hair and the boy's clothes, after which the body surfaced. In response to the viral video, the emergency department said that during the search, Azamat's relatives did consult folk healers and shamans hoping for any help. They then repeatedly asked rescuers to check the locations suggested by the healers.
The department emphasized that its staff understood the family's distress and inspected all the indicated areas, but none of the claims were confirmed. "The information spread on social media that the body was found by 'throwing a cauldron' is false and diminishes the many days of dedicated work by all the rescuers and other service personnel involved in the search operation," the agency stressed. Rescuers urged Kazakhstanis to trust only official information and reminded that spreading false information could lead to legal responsibility.
Earlier, a female healer was tried in Aktobe for defrauding 136 people, convincing them to take out bank loans totaling 579.8 million tenge. The court sentenced the woman to 6 years and 8 months in prison with a 2-year suspension.