Suspect in Child's Murder Arrested in Pskov After Chase
As part of the criminal case, investigators examined the correspondence of the detained suspect, who is accused of abducting and murdering 9-year-old Pavel from St. Petersburg. The correspondence data suggests a possible prior acquaintance between the suspect and the child. In the last communication, according to the materials, the boy threatened to reveal certain information if he was not paid. His trail ended after meeting the alleged perpetrator in the parking lot of a hypermarket on Tallinskoye Highway on January 30. These circumstances became known on February 2.
The preliminary version of the investigation states that on January 30 around 16:00, Pavel left the «Lenta» store on Tallinskoye Highway and headed to the nearby fast-food restaurant «Vkusno — i Tochka». On the adjacent parking lot, he sometimes washed car windows for money. According to eyewitnesses, after a brief conversation with one of the drivers, the child got into a car, which then drove away. From that moment on, no one saw Pavel again, and even after the suspect«s detention on February 2, the boy»s whereabouts remain unknown.
St. Petersburg police managed to reconstruct a detailed picture of the events leading up to the disappearance. More than 200 volunteers participated in the search efforts. The Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case on the fact of murder. A special group was formed to coordinate the actions of the city police, Rosgvardiya (the National Guard of Russia), and technical monitoring services.
How the Chase for the Suspect in Pavel«s Abduction Unfolded
The movements of the SUV in which Pavel got in were tracked to the village of Yalgelevo in the Lomonosovsky District. The car arrived there by 16:45 on January 30, but the boy was no longer in it. However, cameras recorded the movement of the «Toyota» not along its entire route from «Lenta» to the village. Police identified a house on Krasnoselskaya Street in Yalgelevo where the driver lived. Surveillance cameras showed that at 19:00, a «Renault Logan» drove up to this house, from which a woman with a child of approximately 9 years old emerged. The woman soon left, and the driver himself only left the house at 20:00. At midnight, he returned with the same companion, and at 7 a.m. on January 31, she left by taxi. By 10:00 a.m., the driver left in his «Toyota» and returned at 15:00 in the already washed car. At 16:00, he left again, but this time in the «Renault».
Late in the evening on January 31, investigators conducted a search at his house in Yalgelevo, as well as at his ex-wife«s place. Acquaintances and other contacts of the suspect were interrogated. However, operational information led the investigation to Pskov, where three criminal investigation groups were sent from St. Petersburg. Local officers also joined the operation. The suspect made sporadic contact, turning on his phone for only a few seconds, likely to check the news. Operatives intercepting the signal could not immediately determine the exact location, but they gradually narrowed down the search area.
On February 2, the man was detained on a street in Pskov. The child was not found with him. In the apartment he was renting, only scattered empty vodka bottles were found, which, judging by the condition of the detained man in handcuffs, he had managed to drink. Now the suspect is being transported to St. Petersburg.
The alleged perpetrator is 38 years old. He was born in the Luhansk Oblast, lived near Rostov until 2010, then moved to St. Petersburg, where he married and had a child, but later divorced. At the end of 2025, he registered as an individual entrepreneur in the Leningrad Oblast. Financially, he was not in need and often changed cars. There is no data indicating his previous involvement in unlawful actions against minors. He is registered in the Vsevolozhsky District.
