A 22-year-old video game enthusiast has been arrested for slashing the throat of his childhood nanny because he wanted to "see how a person dies after being murdered in real life."

The curiosity arose while playing computer games where the main characters shoot and kill people, the man, whose name has not been revealed, told investigators in the Volga River city of Cheboksary.

On the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 29, the suspect, who worked as a security guard, came to the 83-year-old woman's apartment and asked for a drink of water, the Investigative Committee said Friday in a statement.

The woman, who had taken care of the man while he was a child, obliged. But as soon as she let him inside, the man brandished a kitchen knife and stabbed her in the neck, investigators said.

The woman died at the scene. The suspect took her keys, exited the apartment and locked the door behind him, investigators said.

The victim's body was discovered eight days later by her sister, who had become worried when she visited the apartment and no one came to the door. She called for help, and Emergency Situations Ministry officials pried open the door. The woman's body was lying on the floor in the entranceway.

A search led police to the suspect, who "did not deny his participation in the murder" and promptly confessed to being motivated by a curiosity derived from video games, prosecutors said.

An investigation is still under way. If convicted of first-degree murder, the man faces up to 15 years in prison, the statement said. He was previously convicted three times for fraud but never served time.