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It was perhaps one of the more grisly crimes ever associated with the Orthodox holiday of Epiphany, in which believers plunge into icy water to wash away their sins.
On Jan. 18, emergency workers in the Saratov region were cutting a hole in a frozen section of the Volga for believers to jump through when they found the severed head of an unidentified woman floating under the ice.
The workers discovered the head in a plastic bag along with a brick clearly meant to keep evidence of the crime underwater.
There was no accompanying body anywhere in sight.
Following the announcement of the murder investigation last month, regional prosecutors sent a photograph of the murdered woman's severed head to The Moscow Times. (NOTE: MINORS AND THOSE WHO DO NOT WISH TO VIEW GRAPHIC CONTENT ARE RESOLUTELY ADVISED NOT TO CLICK ON THIS HYPERLINK.)
Less than one month after releasing the photograph, prosecutors say they have cracked the case. Investigators on Monday established the identity of the victim, a 52-year-old resident of Saratov's Frunzensky district, the Saratov Regional Prosecutor's Office said in a statement Tuesday.
Prosecutors said the victim, identified only as "K.," rented a room to the man suspected of killing her, a 47-year-old identified by prosecutors only as "Ts."
No motive was indicated in the statement issued by prosecutors, though it said the suspect had been detained and told investigators the circumstances of the crime and how he proceeded to "hide evidence" of the murder.
According to the web site Regions.ru, however, the crime appears to be another example of a drunken argument between friends that turns deadly, commonly referred to in police jargon as a bytovukha.
The suspect told investigators he had been drinking alcohol together with the woman when they began quarreling, Regions.ru said. He grabbed a knife, stabbed the woman to death and then asked a friend to help him dismember the body and dispose of the parts.
They tossed the body in a trash container, the head in the Volga, Regions.ru reported, citing regional prosecutors.
It was unclear Tuesday evening if the suspect had been formally charged with the murder.
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