Missing Russian boy meets tragic end

Hopes that missing Russian boy Maxim Vorobyev would be found alive were crushed when his heartbroken foster family identified his watch and key found on a corpse recovered from the sea yesterday morning.

Police sources said investigators were not considering foul play or suicide in the death of the 16-year-old, who had gone missing on February 25.

The body was spotted bobbing up and down in the sea on the Valletta side of the Grand Harbour by a resident, who alerted the police at around 6.45 a.m. It was later retrieved by army divers.

Officially, the police would only say that a badly decomposed body was recovered from the sea near the fish market, pending the result of autopsy to be carried out today.

But Maxim's devastated family have resigned themselves that the corpse is that of their loved one - a Russian orphan who was fostered by Valletta residents Grace and Albert Pace and reunited in Malta with his long lost brother and sister, also fostered here.

According to a family member, the police took a Casio watch and a key attached to a distinctive keychain - of a red footprint - for the family to identify, destroying the hope they had been clinging to for Maxim's safe return.

Police sources said the key fit in the lock of the Paces' home, adding that the body was also wearing the clothes Maxim was last seen in. The sources said the state of decomposition indicated that the body could have been at sea ever since the time the boy went missing.

Just last Friday, Mrs Pace sobbed as she told The Times how she would hug her son tightly when he was found.

Over the past few days the family, together with friends and relatives, had scoured the island for the boy. Posters of the gentle-looking teenager were posted in various places, urging anyone who caught a glimpse of him to call in.

But yesterday the block of flats in St Ursula Street where Maxim lived for the past seven years was shrouded in sorrow as the grim realisation of what had happened started to sink in. Family sources said Maxim's brother and sister, Artem and Alessia, who were being fostered by Mrs Pace's sister, Carmen Spiteri, were stricken with grief.

"Alessia can barely stand up while Artem and Albert (Maxim's foster father) are constantly clinging to each other sobbing their hearts out," she said.

Arrangements are already being made to ensure Maxim can be buried in Malta. Given that he is not adopted, a formal request needs to be made to the director of the Russian orphanage where Maxim had been cared for before coming to Malta, said Irina Malikova, the director of the International Charity Society, which had been instrumental in bringing the boy over.

His sister Alessia, now 17, was the first of the trio of siblings to be brought to Malta and fostered by Mrs Spiteri.

Mrs Pace had recounted how the girl used to badger her to bring Maxim to Malta, crying with joy at the airport when her brother finally landed. Sometime later the Spiteris also fostered Artem, reuniting the three siblings who had been separated in different orphanages.

The teenager went missing almost two weeks ago when he left the house to run an errand for his foster mother. She had asked Maxim to take some jelly to her brother's shop in Republic Street so he could take it to hospital for Mrs Pace's uncle, who passed away some days after.

But Maxim never made it to the jewellery shop and had not been seen since. He had left his mobile phone behind him, something that seemed odd to the Paces' daughter Pauline. The phone was full of photos of Barbadian singer Rihanna, on whom Maxim had a teenage crush - Pauline believed he would surely have taken it with him had he planned to leave.

Maxim was also in the middle of cooking dinner for his mother when he rushed out on the errand, reinforcing the family's belief that he never intended to leave and not return.

Just that morning, Maxim was over the moon when his foster mother promised to have an internet connection installed at home.

"He was so happy that day, coming next to me in the morning for a chat and planting a big kiss on my cheek when I said we would get internet," she had said.