Suspect in child abduction in St. Petersburg detained

Nine-year-old Pavel went missing on January 30 in St. Petersburg. He was last seen near the Lenta hypermarket on Tallinskoye Highway, where, according to the investigation, the abduction took place.

The criminal investigation department identified the suspect — 38-year-old Andrei Zhilkin. His details were entered into operational databases to track his movements.

Zhilkin was born in Luhansk Oblast, lived near Rostov, and moved to St. Petersburg in 2010. He is registered as an individual entrepreneur in the Vsevolozhsky District of Leningrad Oblast. The suspect has no criminal record, except for an administrative penalty for disobeying police in 2020.

Late in the evening on January 31, investigators conducted searches at Zhilkin«s house in the village of Yalgelevo, Lomonosovsky District, as well as at his ex-wife»s residence. Acquaintances of the suspect were interrogated.

On February 2, Zhilkin was detained in one of the neighboring regions outside Leningrad Oblast. Hundreds of police officers participated in the operation.

Pavel left home on Krasnoselskoye Highway on the afternoon of January 30 and did not return. His mother contacted the police after several hours of independent searches.

More than 200 volunteers from the organization Liza Alert participated in the search, setting up a headquarters near the hypermarket. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under the article on murder.

Pavel«s family is large; he has two brothers and two sisters. His mother is registered with the juvenile affairs department. According to police information, the children often came to Lenta in search of food.

Police reconstructed the chronology of events. On January 30 at 16:00, Pavel exited Lenta and headed to the restaurant Vkusno — i Tochka. There, he got into a Toyota Fortuner, which began moving at 16:15.

The car arrived in the village of Yalgelevo at 16:45. Surveillance cameras recorded that at 19:00, a Renault Logan drove up to the house, from which a woman with a child exited. Zhilkin left at 20:00, returned at midnight with the same woman, and on the morning of January 31, she left by taxi.

At 10:00, Zhilkin left in the Toyota, returned at 15:00 in a washed car. At 16:00, he drove off in the Renault and headed to a neighboring region, where his tracks were lost.

From February 1, three criminal investigation groups from St. Petersburg worked in the neighboring region. After the suspect«s detention, hopes of finding Pavel alive are, according to available information, minimal.

In St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, the case of the disappearance of 6-year-old Pavel Kostyunin, who went missing in 2011 in Otradnoye, Kirovsky District, remains unsolved.