Suspect in Pasha murder case confesses
A man detained on suspicion of abducting and murdering 9-year-old Pavel has confessed. He pointed out the location where he drowned the boy's body.
Apr 20, 2026 0
Police are searching a water body in Leningrad Oblast for the body of a murdered 9-year-old boy.
Source:
On February 2, criminal investigation officers detained the alleged abductor in Pskov Oblast and brought him to St. Petersburg. The suspect, 38-year-old Maxim Zhilkin, during interrogation confessed to murdering 9-year-old Pasha and said that he drowned his body in one of the water bodies. Currently, an investigative-operational group with the detained man«s participation has gone to the location he indicated in Lomonosovsky District of Leningrad Oblast to verify his testimony and search for the body.
«Criminal investigation officers from the St. Petersburg Main Department detained the suspect in the child»s abduction. During interrogation, he confessed to the deed. According to him, the 9-year-old boy was drowned in one of the local water bodies. Now police and emergency services are conducting search operations, examining the adjacent area. All circumstances of the incident are being established,« a source reported.
According to preliminary data, the boy disappeared on January 30 around 16:00. The child left the Lenta hypermarket on Tallinn Highway and headed to a fast-food restaurant, where he often washed car windows. After a conversation with a driver whom Pasha knew, he got into the car and disappeared.
During the search, which involved over 200 volunteers, it was possible to track the suspect«s car movement to the village of Yalgelevo, where he arrived at 16:45 on the same day, but already without the child. Later, a woman in a Renault Logan car brought the boy to this place and left him.
Chronology of further events:
- On the evening of January 31, searches were conducted at the suspect«s house in Yalgelevo and at his ex-wife»s place.
- On February 2, Zhilkin was found in Pskov Oblast. According to operatives, he periodically turned on his phone for a few seconds, possibly to track news, which made it difficult to pinpoint his location.
- The detention occurred when he went outside. In the rented apartment of the detained man, numerous empty vodka bottles were found.
As it became known, operatives studied the detained man«s correspondence. From it, it follows that he might have known the boy. In the last conversation, Pasha allegedly demanded a reward, threatening to reveal some information.
The suspect is 38 years old. He was born in Luhansk Oblast, lived near Rostov-on-Don, and then moved to St. Petersburg. At the end of 2025, he registered in Leningrad Oblast as an individual entrepreneur. Previously, he had not been held criminally liable for crimes against minors.
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