A manhunt was under way Monday for a suspect in the murder of three family members in a village in the Urals republic of Udmurtia, local police said in a statement.
The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Nikolai Mikheyev, allegedly butchered an 86-year-old woman, a 61-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man with a knife, TASS reported, citing Alexander Pervukhin, the republic's interior minister.
The killing took place in the village of Udmurtskoye Gondyrevo on Friday evening, according to police.
“The bodies were found in their house with multiple knife wounds,” police said in the statement.
No possible motive was given for the crime, though Pervukhin said the suspect knew the family.
The mother of the suspect killed herself after police carried out searches in her apartment, Pervukhin said, while denying that police had pressured Mikheyev's family, Interfax news agency reported.
Mikheyev is believed to be hiding in the neighboring republic of Tatarstan after his car was found abandoned there, according to the police statement.