A court in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region has ordered a 36-year-old man from the town of Nazarovo and his 41-year-old mistress held in pretrial detention, accused of murdering his wife and hiding her body under leaves in a nearby courtyard, regional investigators told the news outlet Lenta.ru.
The case is being handled by the regional office of the Investigative Committee of Russia, the federal agency responsible for investigating serious crimes, including murder, across the country.
How the killing happened
According to investigators, on the evening of August 14 the man and his mistress went to the section of a dormitory where his wife lived to sort out a dispute. The confrontation turned violent, and the man began beating his wife's head against a metal bathtub.
Fearing the woman would go to the police, the mistress held the victim's legs down while the man strangled her with a rope, investigators said. The pair then wrapped the woman's body in a blanket, carried it to a neighbouring courtyard and covered it with leaves.
Victim appeared on Russian TV show
Citing the outlet Baza, Lenta.ru reported that the victim had previously appeared on Muzhskoye/Zhenskoye (Male/Female), a Russian daytime television programme in which participants seek help resolving personal and family disputes. In the episode, a friend accused the woman of drinking and beating the couple's children and tried to have her stripped of parental rights, while other participants on the show attempted to reconcile the husband and wife and urged them to consider the future of their three children together.
The couple's eldest child is now living with a grandmother, while the other two are in a regional centre for families and children, according to the report.
In a separate case mentioned by Lenta.ru, a court in Ufa earlier sentenced a foreign national to six years in prison for attempting to kill his wife.
