Lynch mob attacks police van after local man murders nine-year-old girl in Russian city

On the evening of October 10, police in Saratov located the body of a murdered nine-year-old girl named Liza Kiselyova, who went missing on her way to school, the previous morning. Her remains were discovered in a garage in the city’s Kirovsky District. Several hundred volunteers from the local community and the “Liza Alert” organization had mobilized to find the missing girl.

Police soon arrested a suspect in the killing: a local man named Mikhail Tuvatin, born in 1984 and previously convicted of rape and theft.

Late on October 10, as police officers investigated the scene of the crime, local residents gathered for an unscheduled protest. Several hundred people surrounded a police van that they believed was transporting Tuvatin. Chanting, “Open up!” the crowd demanded that police hand over the suspect for summary justice. It turned out that Tuvatin was not in the vehicle, and officers ultimately used tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to the Telegram channel Baza.

The crowd then started marching toward a nearby police station where the murder suspect was likely being jailed. The protesters blocked the street, demanding that the police disclose all the details of their investigation. By the morning, the locals dispersed and returned home.

On the morning of October 11, state investigators released footage of Tuvatin’s interrogation, where he says he took possession of an old, abandoned garage several months ago, and changed the lock. On the day of the murder, he says Liza Kiselyova walked by the garage and asked if it was his. Tuvatin says he worried that the garage might belong to the girl’s family, so he pulled her inside and strangled her to death.

Story by Alexander Filimonov

Translation by Kevin Rothrock