Search and rescue crews scoured an area of Dartmouth yesterday, looking for missing cab driver Sergei Kostin.
He’s been missing since Saturday when he was called to Gaston Road to pick up a fare.
A burnt-out car found in the woods behind a vacant building in North Preston earlier this week is likely Kostin’s, said Const. Jeff Carr with the Halifax Regional Police.
“We strongly suspect it’s his vehicle, but we haven’t confirmed 100 per cent yet,” Carr said yesterday.
Halifax Regional Search and Rescue teams scoured the area off of Mount Edward Road near the Howard W. Conrad Memorial Ball Field on foot and with a helicopter yesterday morning.
Carr said it appeared Kostin’s cab was in that area for a short time after he picked up the fare on Gaston Road.
But the search was called off at around 2:30 p.m.
“The information that led us there, that led us to believe the car may have stopped there for a short time is now in doubt,” Carr said.
Tony Rodgers, a spokesman with Halifax Regional Search and Rescue, said they’re ready to go back out once they’re given another location to search.
“If they come back to us and say we have further information or more information then we’ll definitely go out if they ask us,” he said.
Kostin’s co-workers at Bob’s Taxi, where Kostin has worked for more than 10 years, are anxiously waiting for news.
Kim Demont, a manager at Bob’s Taxi, said Kostin has a wife and two children living in his native Ukraine.
“It’s a pretty risky business for a driver so it’s stressful not knowing where he is. It’s just not his character to disappear,” she said.
The murder of cab driver Ken Purcell is still fresh in many minds. He was stabbed to death on Christmas Day, 2005.
