Russia shocked by a horrifying mass murder
The first victims of the mass murder in Russia’s Southern Krasnodar region were laid to rest on Monday. Investigators have yet to determine who killed the 12, including four children, and why.
The slaughter happened on the 4th of November, when the entire country was celebrating the Day of National Unity. Twelve bodies were found on Friday morning in Kushchevskaya village in an uptown two-story house belonging to a local farmer. Police report eight adults and two children died of multiple stab wounds, from three to ten each; one minor died of smoke inhalation and another – of suffocation. Investigators report the perpetrators tried to hide the horrible crime by setting the house on fire. According to authorities, they moved the bodies to the second floor and doused them with petrol. But the flames did not reach them. According to the Russian daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the neighbors describe the Ametovs, – Serever and Galina, – as kind and hospitable people. They say they moved to Kushchevskaya village ten years ago, bought a big house on the outskirts, on Green street, and since then their home was always full of guests. Neighbors say the family was never in conflict with anybody in the village. They were rich, but did not show it, and treated with equal respect poor and wealthy. That evening, as usual, the Ametov home was full. The investigators believe the people in the house were going to celebrate the holiday because there was a lot of food and drinks on the table. Serever and Galina’s daughter-in-law, Elena, with her 9-month old daughter Amira, had been visiting them. Natalya Kasyanova who lived across the street was also there with her 14-year old son Pavel. Natalya was rather close to Galina and Serever, and often spent evenings with them. Six other family friends came from neighboring Rostov-on-Don. Vladimir Mironenko was with his wife Marina, two daughters – 5 year old Irina and Alena, and Marina’s parents – the elderly Viktor and Lidia Ignatenko. All of them were killed. “It seems to me they didn’t disturb anybody,” pensioner Anatoly Sidorenko, who is living in the village of Kushchevskaya, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta. “I remember Galina was very friendly and affable; I didn’t see the husband too much, he was always busy on his land, working. Five days ago I saw their daughter-in-law with a pram.”Serever and Galina's son had recently married. He was not at home when both his wife and little daughter were killed. The neighbors remember on that evening they did not notice anything suspicious and everything was calm and quiet, as usual. In a statement by the Investigative Committee of Russia’s General Prosecutor’s office, the crime is described as being of “particular brutality”. Owing to the gravity of the crime the case had been handed to the top investigative body for the region of the Caucasus and southern Russia, the statement says. The general prosecutor, Yury Chaika, has placed the extraordinary case under his personal control. The Krasnodar regional governor, Aleksandr Tkachev, has claimed that “resolving this crime is a matter of honour for the Kuban police”, his press-secretary said. But so far, the motives remain a mystery.
Maria Finoshina, RT
