Suspect Describes Murder of 9-Year-Old Pasha

Nine-year-old Pavel went missing on January 30 after getting into a car in the parking lot of a hypermarket on Tallinn Highway in Leningrad Oblast.

The suspect, a 38-year-old man, was detained on February 2 in Pskov. He had a computer with him, on which child pornography materials were later found.

During the interrogation, the detainee confessed to the murder and told investigators how it all happened. He offered the boy an intimate service for money, but the boy, initially agreeing, then refused and demanded payment for silence.

Angered, the 120-kilogram (265 lb) man struck Pasha. After several blows, the child lost consciousness and, apparently, died.

Then the suspect took the body to the village of Yalgelevo in the Lomonosovsky District, tied it to iron pipes, and threw it into an unfreezing spring.

The investigative team, along with the detainee, went to the indicated location to search for the body. In the village of Yalgelevo, an operational headquarters of the volunteer detachment «LizaAlert» (a Russian volunteer search group) has been deployed, where dozens of people are participating in the search.

According to operatives, the suspect«s correspondence indicates that he might have known the boy earlier. In the last messages, Pasha threatened to reveal some information if he didn»t receive a reward.

The disappearance occurred around 16:00 on January 30. Pavel came out of the store «Lenta» and headed to the restaurant «Vkusno — i tochka», where he often washed car windows for money. That day, he got into the car of a driver he knew, after which he was no longer seen.