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Woman's Body Found Scalped in a Moscow Park

A guard standing at an entrance to the park near a sign reading ?€?Vehicle entry to the park is prohibited.?€? Vladimir Filonov

Police are searching for a killer after the badly mutilated body of an unidentified young woman was found Sunday near Bitsevsky Park in southwest Moscow.

On Sunday evening police received information about the discovery of the body in a ravine on Ulitsa Rokotova close to the park, RIA Novosti reported Monday.

The victim, 20 to 25 years of age, had been scalped before being put in a cardboard box, which was then wrapped in sellotape, an unidentified police official said.

Police are now searching for a man whose name was found written on a note in the woman's pocket.

This is the second time in recent weeks that a body has been discovered in the park. On Aug. 29 the body of a young woman with multiple wounds was discovered in a wooded area near Balaklavsky Prospekt, which skirts the north of the park.

Serial killer Alexander Pichushkin used the park as his stomping ground for many years, which has given it a dark reputation among Muscovites. In 2007 he was found guilty of committing 48 murders, but Pichushkin, nicknamed the Bitsevsky Maniac, said he had killed 62 people.

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