More than a year after her Jeep and camper trailer turned up abandoned in the rural San Diego County community of Potrero, a Ukrainian woman who vanished during a cross-country road trip has been located alive — in a Mexican state under a strict U.S. government warning against travel. Ganna Kovrizhnykh, who was 38 when she went missing, is now believed to be staying in Sinaloa, Mexico, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators with the sheriff's office contacted and verified Kovrizhnykh's identity on August 7, closing out a case that had stretched on for more than a year, as reported by Fox 5 San Diego. Kovrizhnykh had been driving through San Diego County on a cross-country road trip when she was last heard from by family members on July 5, 2025. A friend reported her missing a week later, on July 12, 2025.
The case first drew attention after Kovrizhnykh's mother received a chilling message the same week she vanished. On July 5, 2025, her mother got a photograph of a handwritten note along with GPS coordinates pointing to Potrero, instructing her to take control of Kovrizhnykh's personal assets, according to a report from UNILAD. The note fueled fears of foul play or a crisis, especially once her vehicle was found abandoned days later.
A Jeep, a Camper Trailer, and a Bible Video
San Diego County Sheriff's deputies located Kovrizhnykh's Jeep Grand Cherokee and camper trailer abandoned along the 25000 block of Potrero Park Drive on July 12, 2025, the same UNILAD report states — meaning the vehicle likely sat there for close to a week before it was officially discovered. Around the same time, Kovrizhnykh, who reportedly went by the online alias “Angel Volnaya,” posted a Facebook video of herself reading from the Bible the day before the note and coordinates reached her mother, per the same account.
Before her trip west, Kovrizhnykh had lived in Hallandale Beach, Florida, and kept business registration records in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, according to KNSD. Friends and acquaintances in Florida were reportedly among the first to raise concerns after losing routine contact with her. San Diego County Crime Stoppers offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to her discovery during the initial search, and the case was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System under case profile MP149556 in August 2025 to allow law enforcement agencies across jurisdictions to track any leads.
Sheriff's Cold Case Team Confirms Voluntary Border Crossing
The sheriff's office's Homicide Detail Missing Persons and Cold Case Team oversaw the investigation for more than a year before finally making direct contact with Kovrizhnykh. Investigators reported that she likely voluntarily crossed into Mexico, per the sheriff's office, walking across the U.S.-Mexico border into Baja California before eventually traveling south to Sinaloa. Potrero itself is an unincorporated, rural community located roughly seven miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border near the Tecate Port of Entry, terrain that has made the area a frequent setting for border-crossing cases.
Where Kovrizhnykh ended up raises its own concerns. The U.S. Department of State maintains a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for Sinaloa due to severe risks of violent crime and cartel kidnapping — the government's highest travel warning category. Because Kovrizhnykh is a Ukrainian citizen, San Diego County Sheriff's officials notified the Ukrainian Embassy of her location after confirming her identity, a step required when foreign nationals are located during an active investigation.
What Remains Unexplained
Hoodline first covered the escalating search for Kovrizhnykh, when investigators were still weighing the possibility that she had crossed into Mexico. Now that theory has been confirmed, but key questions remain open. Why she left her Jeep, camper trailer, and personal belongings behind in Potrero without telling her family, and what drew her specifically to Sinaloa despite the federal travel warning covering the state, have not been explained. Law enforcement has verified that Kovrizhnykh is safe and has closed the missing persons case, but the motives behind her disappearance and her choice of destination remain unresolved.
