Mother Demands Answers After Son Dies in Fall

On 3 July, an 18-year-old man fell from a window in a rented apartment on Geodezicheskaya Street. He died in hospital four days later, yet his mother still does not know how the investigation into his death is progressing, or whether a case has even been opened. Seeking answers, she appealed to the head of Russia«s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin.

A terrifying night

In the early hours of 3 July, Yevgenia, a resident of Novosibirsk, was woken by a phone call from the police: she was told to come and collect her 17-year-old son Pyotr (a minor, name changed). At first, she assumed her son and his friends had been detained for walking the streets at night, possibly after drinking. An annoying situation, but one any mother of a 17-year-old might expect. It quickly became clear, however, that Pyotr had not just been out with a bottle of beer — he had witnessed a strange and truly horrific tragedy.

«Pyotr went to see friends; they walked around first, then went to someone»s place. He asked, «Can I stay overnight?» I said yes. ... When they called at half past midnight, I assumed they«d been drinking. ... I arrived to pick him up, and [my son and his friend] started telling me that [their third friend] Ilya had fallen out of the window. They were sitting in the kitchen listening to music on Ilya»s phone, and he had gone into the room. Just a few minutes passed, and my son says: «I heard a crash. I jumped up and ran into the room. I see the window is open. I look out and I see Ilya lying under the window,»« Yevgenia said.

Pyotr called an ambulance and the police, and he and his friend were immediately taken to the station. Not because anyone suspected anything, but because he and the third boy, Misha (a minor, name also changed), were drunk minors.

The man who fell from the window had recently turned 18. His name was Ilya Safronov, and he studied at the same college as Pyotr and Misha. Physically — just a boy like his friends; legally — an adult. So the police did not call his mother, and it fell to Yevgenia to do so.

«When I realised what had happened, I found Anastasia»s number and called her. She was still half-asleep, I was in shock — this was the first time in my life something like this had happened — and I just didn«t know how to tell someone what had happened. She asked what happened, where, which hospital they»d taken him to, and I didn«t know anything. We tried calling hospitals but couldn»t get through,« Yevgenia said.

Doubts

The apartment on Geodezicheskaya had been rented recently by the parents of Pyotr«s friends. Misha and Ilya were classmates at college, studying to be pastry chefs. Both were independent and sensible young men. Ilya»s mother, Anastasia Vataman, had been prepared for the idea that the teenagers might throw a party during the holidays — when else would an 18-year-old act up, if not then.

Moreover, Ilya had channelled his teenage desire to stand out in entirely socially acceptable ways: he studied well, took part in competitions, and played guitar in a rock band that was doing quite well — he and his bandmates had already been invited to perform in bars, and their songs were on the Yandex.Music streaming service.

Anastasia was prepared for her son to try alcohol or throw a couple of loud all-night parties now that he was independent. She was not prepared for what happened.

«Until 8 a.m. I didn»t even know whether my child was alive or dead, what had happened, and only in the morning did I learn where he was. I got to the hospital, and the doctor said they had performed a craniotomy on both sides [and listed the injuries], and from the hospital we went to the apartment: Ilya had been brought to the hospital without his passport, and they needed his documents. ... We were accompanied by the district police officer, an investigator, and a forensic expert,« Anastasia said.

She did and still does acknowledge that what happened to her son could well have been an accident. But in the rented apartment Ilya shared with his 17-year-old classmate, she noticed something that seemed strange. Although the boys had been drinking on the night of 3 July, seemingly without moderation, she saw no trace of a party. Her son«s phone was indeed in the kitchen, and his backpack, according to Anastasia, was in Misha»s room.

«After that, I went to the spot where he fell, to see where the windows were and so on. And I saw there»s a shop under my son«s window. If he had fallen [from his window], he would have been found right on the staircase [leading to the shop»s entrance], and the canopy over the entrance would have had some damage or dents,« the woman listed the new oddities. »Then we spoke to the shopping centre administrator and asked for the footage from their cameras. [It turned out] the cameras had not been requested. ... Time was literally running out — the footage would be overwritten.«

Naturally, the footage did not show how the young man fell from the window: the cameras were aimed much lower. But the woman was troubled that her son appeared to fall as if between the windows. Combined with the spotless apartment where teenage students had been drinking the night before, this also struck Anastasia as suspicious.

Then, on 7 July, Ilya died without regaining consciousness.

«The doctor hinted that the body would only be released to the forensic examiner because this was a criminal death. I asked why he thought that, what pointed to it, but he brushed off my questions. ... The only thing I was told was that it was definitely not suicide,» the woman said.

Anastasia hoped her son«s death would trigger a real investigation, but the proceedings continued at a slow pace. She would have been happy to hear a clear, definitive answer that her son»s death was an accident — if it were based on the results of a thorough, careful examination of all the circumstances of his death. But she saw no such examination.

«Now I»m afraid that maybe he was hit on the head and thrown out. I«ve consulted many people, and I hired a lawyer ... and she says the video shows he was already unconscious as he fell. You can»t get injuries like that from [a low] floor — that«s just physics,» Anastasia said.

NGS contacted the Investigative Committee«s regional directorate for the Novosibirsk region to learn details of the proceedings. According to the response to our inquiry, a criminal case has been opened over Ilya»s death. But investigators declined to provide any further details:

«The investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Novosibirsk region are handling a criminal case into the death of an 18-year-old resident of the region. In accordance with the requirements [of the law], the data of the preliminary investigation are not subject to disclosure. Such data may be made public only with the investigator»s permission and only to the extent deemed permissible, provided that such disclosure does not contradict the interests of the preliminary investigation and does not violate the rights and legitimate interests of the participants in the proceedings,« the committee said in response.

Ilya was buried; his friends attended the ceremony. The mother of the deceased young man and Pyotr«s mother (the NGS journalist wrote to Misha»s mother about an interview request but received no reply) describe the funeral identically: many friends came, everyone was in shock, and everyone cried.

Anastasia herself struggled to hold back tears during the conversation with the journalist. Unclear about how the investigation was being conducted (or whether it was being conducted at all in Novosibirsk), she turned to Alexander Bastrykin«s online reception office (a copy of the submission confirmation is in the editorial office»s possession).

She has not yet received a reply.

In 2020, Novosibirsk saw one of the strangest and most baffling incidents ever reported in the media. A man fell from a window of a high-rise building on Yasny Bereg. At first it looked like a drunken accident, but investigators concluded it was murder. They accused the victim«s friend, but failed to prove his guilt: the case was riddled with so many oddities and inconsistencies that the defendant was ultimately acquitted — three times.