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The Jewish Autonomous Region Office of the Investigative Committee has finished the investigation against a 41-year-old resident of the city of Khabarovsk. He is charged with crimes under Part 2, item “e” of Article 126 (abduction of a minor), Part 2 of Article 330 (arbitrariness committed with the use of violence), Part 1 of Article 30, Part 2, items “c” and “j” of Article 105 of the RF Penal Code (plotting the murder of a minor aggravated by abduction committed to conceal another crime, but not completed because of independent circumstances).

Investigators have established that on 21 January 2016, the intoxicated accused was driving to Amur Region on the Amur federal route connecting to the town of Chita. Driving along Partizanskaya Street in the settlement of Volochayevka-1, Smidovichi District, Jewish Autonomous Region, he saw a girl walking along the road. He stopped, grabbed the girl and seated her on the back seat. He took her cellphone and continued driving in Jewish Autonomous Region and Amur Region.

When he realized the gravity of his crime, he took some steps to conceal it, but failed as was detained by the Amur Region police.

For the time of preliminary investigation the accused was placed in custody. Despite the fact that the accused pleaded guilty, one of the main problems the investigators had to face was determining his mental state. The man was evaluated and found sane, that is capable of appreciating the wrongfulness of his acts. This and other evidence allowed the investigators to classify his actions as deliberate. In addition they had to protect the girl against too much attention and organize her rehabilitation. To do that, she was sent to a social rehabilitation facility where she got necessary aid. Dozens of witnesses were questioned and 15 forensic inquiries run. Requests were filed to eliminate the reasons and conditions that made the crime possible.

It should be noted that the investigators have made a criminological description of the crime and sent it to other regions of Russia to see if the accused was involved in other similar crimes.

During the three-day search for the girl, the investigative operations were carried out in three regions at the same time. The investigators used latest forensic equipment: IAVs, nonlinear locators, hidden camera detectors, expert light sources, a software-hardware complex for analyzing digital information, which helped to find necessary evidence. An operations headquarters was set up in the school in the settlement of Volochayevka-1 to coordinate the search carried out by active volunteers and ordinary people. The crimes were solved on fresh track thanks to intensive work of the investigators and criminalists, police operatives, search dog handlers, employees of the Emergency Ministry’s Offices for Jewish Autonomous, Amur Regions and Khabarovsk Territory.

The investigators now have enough evidence so the criminal case has been sent for the indictment to be signed and will then be referred to court.