You're reading: Search for missing American doctor enters eighth day (updated)

Volunteers and family members of a retired American physician spent the seventh day of his unaccounted disappearance on May 21 reviewing additional camera feeds and searching unoccupied buildings in a newly-built residential area opposite from the Kyiv park where he was last seen, according to Greg Sloop’s blog, one of the doctor’s three sons.

They also spoke with “those
who might’ve visited the (Zamkova Hora) park (in the Podil neighborhood),
around the time Dad went missing. They got a chance to talk to some people, and
have others they would like to talk to,” read Greg Sloop’s blog.

Dr. Jay Sloop, 77, of
Washington State, went missing around 7: a.m. on May 14 during a customary
morning walk, video feeds show.

He had been in Kyiv since
May 8 on a medical mission for the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, for whom he
works as a health care director at the church’s regional headquarters in
Spokane, Wash.

According to his grandson,
Jeff Sloop, on the day he went missing, he wore dark-blue trousers, a striped,
light-blue button-up shirt with clip-on suspender, and had on a pair of tennis
shoes.

Police launched a
nationwide search for the former obstetrician as soon as Jeff Sloop filed a
police report on May 15 when he arrived to help search for his grandfather.
Police told the Kyiv Post that migration and customs services have also been
notified.

Police added that they had
not ruled out criminal activity in the physician’s bizarre disappearance.

Between 25 and 30 local and
foreign volunteers from America and the U.S. embassy in Kyiv have thus far thoroughly
searched the Zamkova Hora park area, including three American search and rescue
specialists separately, who flew in with the doctor’s son, Randy Sloop, on May
18.

On May 20, police deployed
eight search and rescue officers in the park, and a German Sheppard cadaver
dog, whose efforts were unsuccessful.

On the morning of May 14,
video footage showed Jay Sloop using an ATM near Zhytniy Rynok, one of the
capital’s oldest markets located near the park. Randy Sloop said he was denied
a withdrawal.

Next, at least five video
feeds showed Jay Sloop walking toward the park’s entrance, but not exiting from
that direction. Police posited that since some of the video recorders operate
on motion sensors, the physician could’ve exited that area.

There were no signs that
Jay Sloop exited on the other side of the park that leads to Andriyivsky
Descent, a popular tourist street where souvenirs are sold.

Randy Sloop said his father
had no known medical conditions.

An undisclosed award is being offered for information leading to Jay
Sloop’s discovery at 093-936-8305 or 093-986-9246. Ukrainian- and
Russian-language speakers can also call the police at 102.

Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].