Detectives searching for more victims in child luring case

Spokane County sheriff’s detectives are hoping to identify additional victims of a man arrested Friday for child luring and kidnapping. Konstantin A. Sergienko, 38, is suspected of luring two Spokane Valley teenage girls and a developmentally disabled young woman over the past two months, and of kidnapping a teenager with sexual motivation on Sept. 12, 2013. He was re-arrested on the kidnapping charge late Friday afternoon, after prosecutor Patrick Johnson told a judge there was insufficient evidence to keep Sergienko in jail on the child luring charges. A Spokane teenager reported last September that a man approached her speaking Russian after she got off the bus at Francis and Crestline. After several minutes of conversation, she attempted to leave, and reported the man said, “My car’s over there, we can go make babies” before attempting to pull her to the car. She punched him in the face and ran away, and the man followed her in his car, an older light maroon SUV. Sergienko was identified as a possible suspect in this incident last week, and the victim selected his photo from a lineup of six images. He was described as being about 5’8” and chubby, with patchy grey hair, glasses and a heavy Russian accent. Detectives are hoping additional victims will come forward. “We think there’s victims out there who may not understand they were victims or are afraid to come forward,” said Major Crimes Lt. Steve Barbieri. Sheriff’s Office spokesman Deputy Mark Gregory said the office wasn’t sure whether the child luring charges would be re-filed. “I’m sure that we’re going to be looking at that,” he said.