Suspect in Sexual Assualt Case Found Working On Cruise Ship

A man accused of sexual assault who has been on a most wanted list in California for nearly a decade has been found working on a Carnival cruise ship operating out of the state.

Bulgarian Kaloyan Kaloyanov, 36, was taken into custody last week on the 3,006-passenger Carnival Splendor on suspicion of sexually assaulting a gymnastics student in 2000, when he worked as a gymnastics instructor.

Police in Fremont, Calif., have been searching for Kaloyanov for eight years, and he has been on the department's most wanted list longer than any other person.
Police reports say Kaloyanov abandoned his wife and daughter and fled the country in 2002 after being questioned during the department's initial investigation into a rape case. Kaloyanov admitted to having sexual relations with the 15-year-old female gymnast, but was not arrested at the time, according to the news outlet.

The girl, now 25, told authorities that Kaloyanov sexually assaulted her twice while training for competitions.

A spokesman for Carnival told USA TODAY that while Kaloyanov worked on the Carnival Splendor, he wasn't an employee of the cruise line. As a staffer in the ship's spa, Kaloyanov worked for Steiner, the outside company that runs spas for a number of cruise lines including Carnival.

"He was employed by Steiner, which is responsible for background checks on (its) employees," Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher says. "We are told he worked on several other cruise lines before his Carnival assignment."