Elena Samodanova says she has no idea where her ex-husband, Dancing With the Stars professional Gleb Savchenko, and their 15-year-old daughter Olivia are staying in Los Angeles, and she is now asking authorities to help track them down. According to court documents, U.S. authorities are taking steps to locate Savchenko and Olivia after the teen failed to return home to Hong Kong as scheduled.
Per court docs cited by TMZ, Olivia was supposed to return to Hong Kong on July 9, an arrangement Savchenko had agreed to by email. She never went back. Samodanova says Olivia's Hong Kong phone number is no longer active, and she claims Savchenko never gave her his daughter's new number, leaving Instagram as her only way to reach the teenager.
Samodanova says Olivia arrived in Los Angeles on May 29, and the outlet's report notes Savchenko is now seeking temporary custody of Olivia and plans to enroll her in a Los Angeles-area school. Samodanova has asked a California judge to block that enrollment and has filed a request with Hong Kong's Department of Justice to have Olivia returned, according to the same court filings. Hong Kong's Department of Justice has since sent the case to a California district attorney's office, per those documents.
Competing Claims Over Who Is Withholding Whom
The dispute has escalated into dueling accusations. Savchenko has claimed that Samodanova is wrongfully keeping both Olivia and the couple's younger daughter, Zlata, in Hong Kong, according to his own account reported by the outlet. Samodanova, for her part, maintains that Hong Kong is the girls' actual home and says she does not know where Savchenko is right now.
Savchenko has previously said that Olivia herself wants to stay with him, an assertion the outlet notes was reported earlier in the dispute. Neither claim has been resolved by a court, and the underlying question of where the sisters are supposed to live remains contested by both parents.
A Second Legal Track Over Younger Daughter Zlata
The Los Angeles fight over Olivia is playing out alongside a separate, broader legal battle. Savchenko filed an emergency child custody order in Los Angeles in July, alleging Samodanova abducted both daughters and kept them in Hong Kong beyond an agreed one-year period that was supposed to end June 30, 2024, according to Entertainment Tonight. Savchenko has said the move to Hong Kong was originally agreed to as a temporary arrangement tied to Samodanova's work project.
In separate July court filings reported by TMZ, Savchenko said he submitted a petition under the Hague Abduction Convention seeking the return of Zlata, who is 8, alleging Samodanova took her to Moscow without his consent and submitting location pings and messaging screenshots as evidence. Samodanova has publicly denied any abduction, instead accusing Savchenko of what she calls wrongful international retention after he canceled Olivia's June 5 return flight to Hong Kong, according to TMZ.
How The Hague Convention And California Law Apply
Under the Hague Abduction Convention, to which both the United States and Hong Kong are treaty partners, a parent can petition central authorities for the prompt return of a child under 16 who has been wrongfully removed or retained across international borders, according to the U.S. Department of State. The treaty is meant to restore the custody status that existed before the alleged wrongful retention, not to settle who should ultimately have custody.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Child Abduction Unit investigates parental child concealment, enforces family court orders, and coordinates with international law enforcement to locate and recover children, according to 211 LA. California law also offers parents a narrow defense: under Penal Code Section 278.7, a parent who takes a child in good faith to protect them from immediate bodily injury or emotional harm can avoid deprivation charges, but only if they file a confidential report with the district attorney within 10 days and a court custody request within 30 days, per the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
Because both a Los Angeles case and Hong Kong proceedings are unfolding at once, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act requires California courts to pause custody proceedings and communicate with the foreign court to determine which jurisdiction should actually decide the case, according to the Athens Journal of Law. Under the act, foreign countries are generally treated the same as U.S. states for jurisdictional purposes.
A Custody History Rooted In A 2021 Divorce
Savchenko and Samodanova finalized their divorce in October 2021 after 14 years of marriage, having split in November 2020, and initially agreed to 50/50 joint legal and physical custody of Olivia and Zlata, according to OK Magazine. Later that year, Samodanova sought to become primary physical custodian, arguing Savchenko was often unavailable because of his touring schedule as a Dancing With the Stars professional; Savchenko countered at the time that he flew home weekly during tour dates, per the same outlet's reporting.
Financial disclosures from the couple's 2020 divorce filings showed Savchenko earned roughly $406,614 annually from Dancing With the Stars, while Samodanova reported $37,250 in annual income from their co-owned dance studio, according to Us Weekly. Samodanova cited that income gap when originally petitioning for court-ordered support.
Gleb Savchenko and Elena Samodanova are scheduled to appear in a California courtroom for a hearing on August 18. Whether California or Hong Kong ultimately counts as the children's habitual residence under the Hague Convention remains an open legal question, and every abduction allegation made by either parent in these filings remains an unproven claim pending a judicial determination.
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