Dismembered Body of Missing Russian Woman Found in Suitcase in Belgrade

Residents of Belgrade's Palilula district discovered a suspicious suitcase on Thursday evening, and inside it was the dismembered body of a young woman. According to the Serbian newspaper Telegraf, the victim was a missing Russian national identified as Turkova, whom police had been searching for.

The woman had been out of contact with family and friends for more than a week. The search was launched by St. Petersburg police at the request of her mother, who reached out to forensic investigators in Belgrade.

"Police, called in by local residents who found the suitcase, established that it contained the dismembered body of a young woman," the newspaper reported. Based on a preliminary examination of the remains, investigators suspected the body belonged to the missing Turkova — a theory later confirmed by autopsy.

According to Russia's TASS news agency, Serbian police have questioned several suspects in connection with the murder — citizens of Russia, Serbia and Turkey.

Suspect tried to flee the country. Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that a Turkish national born in 2001 was ultimately detained on suspicion of murder. Police apprehended him at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport as he attempted to leave the country.

Turkova reportedly disappeared on her way to a nightclub in central Belgrade that she frequently visited. She never arrived there on Saturday, July 25. According to the coroner, the killer took her life early Sunday morning, July 26, in a rented apartment in the Borča residential district on the outskirts of the Serbian capital. The perpetrator then dismembered the body, packed it into a suitcase, and carried it to a water canal in Palilula. Several days later, police detained the suspect at Belgrade Airport.

Serbia — traditionally regarded by Russians as a friendly nation — has become a haven for roughly 300,000 Russian citizens since the start of the war in Ukraine, most of them young men seeking to avoid the mobilization announced in September 2022. Entire streets in the Serbian capital are now dominated by Russian expatriates.

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Source: novinky.cz