Murdered in silence

Police ignored rape allegations and death threats reported by her mother. Now this 12-year-old girl has been found dead outside Krasnoyarsk.

On June 1, a 12-year-old girl was found murdered in the Siberian town of Nizhnyaya Koya, Krasnoyarsk Krai. She had gone missing two days earlier, after leaving home to go to the playground. Her body, which was found in an abandoned water tank, showed signs of violence.

That same day, investigators arrested their first suspect — a 25-year-old local resident, who made self-incriminating statements. He was charged with the murder of a minor, as well as rape, and sexual assault. On the basis of a genetic analysis of biological traces found on the deceased girl’s clothing, another local resident was arrested: a 19-year-old man who admitted partial guilt. Both men were jailed.

One of the detainees claimed that a 14-year-old boy was involved in the crime, as well. Investigators said that he had “come to the attention of law enforcement agencies” previously, and that he “had no home address.”

The teenager, who was also arrested, was previously linked to a crime committed against the same underage girl, but he was not old enough to be prosecuted at the time, reports the news outlet Taiga.Info, citing a source in law enforcement. The source did not specify the crime in question. However, Taiga.Info noted that a criminal case was brought against the girl’s mother after she tried to deal with the teenager herself.

The Krasnoyarsk Krai Prosecutor’s Office established that in 2019, the girl’s family appealed to the Investigative Committee with allegations of rape, but investigators refused to open a case. Following the examination carried out after the murder, a case was launched.

In addition, the police had previously refused to launch a criminal case in response to death threats that the girl received in February 2020. This decision was overturned at the request of the prosecutor’s office, and the case materials were sent to the Interior Ministry for additional examination.

The regional Interior Ministry department told Mediazonathat the police carried out all the necessary procedures following the previous appeals from the mother of the deceased girl. As such, at the end of 2019, a minor suspected of raping the child was put under preventative supervision. However, police were unable to confirm that the aforementioned teenager (who was born in 2005) had threatened the girl with murder, the Interior Ministry’s press service noted.

Story by Alexander Baklanov

Translation by Eilish Hart