SOUTH JORDAN, Utah (KTSU) — Two men have been charged in connection with the disappearance of a 15-year-old South Jordan girl who has been missing since last month.
Alisa Petrov was last seen on the morning of April 21 when she left her American Fork school. Petrov later received a ride to a Utah Transit Authority train station before getting off the train in Provo and asking people for help getting to Las Vegas.
Her parents spoke with FOX 13 News on Tuesday.
Her father, Nikolai Petrov, could barely find words to describe the feelings he's been going through.
“It’s like, super stressful. You don’t know what to do, and then you feel like you can’t actually do anything,” he said. “We have a lot of good times together, and we want to have more of this time in the future."
He also has a message he wants to share with his daughter.
“Alisa, if you see this, please come back because we really want you back," Nikolai 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.”
Nikolai echoed what law enforcement have also said, which is for anyone who sees her to call 911 immediately.
On Tuesday, the South Jordan Police Department announced that multiple charges have been filed against 35-year-old Matthew Nicholas Menard of Miami, Florida, and 37-year-old William Taylor Glines from Texas City, Texas. Charges include Aggravated Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, Enticement of a Minor and Criminal Solicitation.
According to police, both Menard and Glines communicated with Petrov before she disappeared on April 21. Despite the charges, Petrov is still at large with police saying she is "attempting to meet individuals she met online using multiple social media platforms and chat applications."
A search warrant for Menard's phone from last month was unsealed on Monday. It gives some additional information, saying that when detectives first began investigating Petrov's disappearance, they found an iPad hidden in her dresser while searching the home.
With the parents' permission, police searched the contents of the iPad and found that Petrov had been talking to someone named "Matt" (later confirmed to be Menard) via Instagram messages. They discussed plans to meet in Las Vegas.
"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," the warrant states. "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 then contacted Menard, who admitted to having conversations with Petrov and confirmed his Instagram account through which he was allegedly doing so.
The warrant did not state whether he was taken into custody; however, his phone was seized and shipped to the South Jordan Police Department, who applied for a warrant to search his phone on April 30.
Roy detectives placed on leave pending investigation into alleged sex assault:
Earlier this month, South Jordan Police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that identified a Texas man, now identified as Glines, who they believed to have communicated with Petrov before she ran away.
In arrest documents, Glines is accused of having contact with Petrov through social media as early as February 3, and in one conversation, said he was "double checking" that she was 14 or 15 years old. The warrant shows various discussions between the two, with many including explicit sexual language.
Charging documents against Menard show he began communicating with Petrov on or about January 17, and like Glines, also verified that she was 15 years old. He is also accused of using graphic language in his communications.
