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A court has recognized the evidence collected by the Buryatia Office of the Investigative Committee sufficient to convict Konstantin Shekhovtsov, 33, of crimes under Part 4, item “b” of Article 131 of the RF penal Code (rape), Part 4, tem “b” of Article 132 (sexual abuse) and Part 2, items “c” and “j” of Article 105 (murder of a minor).

The investigators and court have revealed that on the evening of 6 June 2015, drunk Shekhovtsov met a 5-year-old girl in Voskhod, a gardening non-commercial society in Zaigrayevo District, Buryatia. He decided to rape her and to do that he asked the girl to come with him and the girl agreed. The culprit took her to an abandoned water tower on the bank of the Uda river. He beat her and sexually abused. The girl fainted of shock. Fearing that the crime might be discovered, the man killed her, covered the body with trash and fled the scene.

The investigators and police officers were working almost 24 hours a day for a month to solve the crime. They questioned over a hundred witnesses, ran dozens of forensic inquiries and tests. The man’s DNA was found on the body so they had to cross match DNA samples of all local residents. They obtained the samples from over 1,500 citizens and sent them for DNA tests to the neighboring region. At first they got the results that saliva of one of local men had been found on a dirty pillow found on the crime scene. However, it turned out that the man had thrown away the pillow with other trash into the abandoned water tower. His statement was confirmed by other witnesses, so it was obvious that he was not the man they were looking for. Later, even before other test results came in, the investigators managed to track down the culprit. One of local women gave evidence that she had seen Shekhovtsov on the evening of the murder not with the girl, but with his small son. However, the investigators continued looking into the version and found out that that day the boy had been at home and just could not have been with his father outside, while at the same time the girl had shortcut hair. Moreover, the woman who testified had been drunk that night and could have taken the girl for the boy. After the investigators had found out all that, their conclusions were confirmed when the experts found that Shekhovtsov’s DNA matched the one found on the crime scene. The man was detained and told about the rape and murder in detail, though later he denied the guilt. But the investigators had enough evidence against him. Despite a huge number of inquiries and tests, the preliminary investigation took only 6 months.

The court has sentenced Shekhovtsov to life in prison.

During the probe the investigators also found out that the girl had lived with her mother, who had abused alcohol and was not interested in raising her child. She had not feed the girl in proper way, had not wash her and left her unattended. The conditions the girl had lived in had been reported to the guardianship authorities of Zaigrayevo District. According to the law, under such conditions the child had had to be confiscated from the family and get proper rehabilitation. However, no measures had been taken. As a result, the girl had been always alone on the streets unattended by any adults which had contributed to the crime.

The investigators filed requests with the administration of Zaigrayevo District and the Ministry of Social Protection of Buryatia and opened a criminal negligence investigation the chief specialist of the local guardianship authority, which once having been solved was referred to court, which fined her.