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Anatolii Ishchenko, 30, has been found dead. The Ukrainian refugee was missing since Jan. 22.<\/p>\n
Burchak said she was notified a body was found late Saturday. She said she confirmed with Winnipeg police that it was Ishchenko, identified by his tattoos as well as height and age. Police haven\u2019t released any information publicly.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, a Winnipeg Police Service spokesman said the department had no information to share, but Ishchenko\u2019s family has been notified, his cousin confirmed.<\/p>\n
Dennis Mashevsky, Ishchenko\u2019s maternal cousin, lives in California. He travelled to Winnipeg for what was supposed to be the start of the second stage of the volunteer ground search on Sunday. Instead, Mashevsky faced the reality of the tragic discovery and expressed gratitude for the closure it brought the family.<\/p>\n
His cousin was hard-working and family-oriented, Mashevsky said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had little-brother energy. He was a playful, sweet guy. He was shy and likeable, he left a good impression. And he was given a heavy load to bear. I think if there was a security guard, somebody to just stop him from leaving the hospital on the coldest day of winter, I mean, we could have prevented his,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wish somebody maybe could have stopped him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around 10:30 a.m. on the morning he was last seen alive, Ishchenko was taken by ambulance to the Victoria Hospital, but he left the hospital at about noon without being seen by a doctor. He\u2019d been having panic attacks and had lost his job days earlier. It was a frigid winter day, with temperatures dropping below -30 C. It felt more like -48 C that day, Burchak said.<\/p>\n
She said Ishchenko contacted a clinic to make a mental-health appointment the day after he lost his job.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was trying to reach for help. It\u2019s not that he was kind of sitting and doing nothing. He was a person of action,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cWe could have saved him if we knew that this was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ishchenko was among thousands of Ukrainan refugees who arrived in Canada in 2022; he came to Winnipeg alone, without family members here. He had worked in information technology in Ukraine. After he met Burchak in February 2025, he asked for business advice. When he was missing and volunteers went to his apartment, they found written notes that showed Ishchenko had taken her advice to heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt touched me so much, because he really listened to what I was telling him,\u201d she said, describing him as smart and \u201ca good guy.\u201d Though she\u2019d only met Ishchenko a couple of times, Burchak organized a search-and-rescue mission when he went missing, gathering more than 100 volunteers.<\/p>\n
The first large-scale ground search took place on April 3 in St. Vital, as snow melt created more visibility.<\/p>\n