Kostya

On the 27th of August 1972, a large group comprising a number of Russian Immigrant families from around the Dandenong area went on a picnic day trip to the Toorongo Falls area near Noojee, Victoria.

The excited Kostya Mezentseff, aged 5, was walking along the track leading either toward or back from the campsite where his mother and other families were gathered, when he went missing.

The newspapers reported the coverage of his disappearance and the resulting search, which despite turning up helpful evidence (a jumper, a footprint) did not recover Kostya or any sign of his body.

The effect that this had on my family, although this was before my time, has been catastrophic. My Grandmother, my Baba, who has had to go through the most horrendous ordeal that no parent should have to go through, still has a framed photograph of her son on the mantle and keeps him in her prayers always.

I've set up this website as a way of collaborating the information I am collecting in the pursuit of the truth (or as close as you can get to the truth) for the purposes of my Grandmother's memoirs. I also have a hope, as desperate as it may seem, that information may come forward to help solve the mystery of what happened and bring some peace and closure to the family. I can be contacted via the 'Contact Me' page above.

Police abandon

search for boy

								MELBOURNE, Sun-

								day. - Police aban-

								doned today their search

								for Costa Mezentseff, 5

								years, missing on Mt

								Toorongo since August

								27 when he ran away

								from a family picnic on

								the Toorongo River,

								near Noojee.

								The only positive clue

								found since was his jumper.

								Up to 250 searchers have

								combed the rugged moun-

								tain for two weeks.

								The Red Cross and St

								John Ambulance Brigade

								have treated more than

								300 casualties during the

								search. Complaints ranged

								from leech bites to broken

								bones.

								Senior Sergeant Bill

								Brand, officer in charge of

								the police search-and-res-

								cue squad, returned dis-

heartened with his men to

Melbourne today.

								"It has gone beyond the

								hope stage but we still

								want to know what's hap-

								pened", he said.

								
								Fix this text"It's the first 
								search since

								1957 in which we have not

								had a result.

								'"The search was the

								hardest, longest, and most

								difficult I have been on".

								The search is believed to

								have cost more than

								$50,000.