A businessman is suspected of having killed a fortune-teller who allegedly caused his marriage to fall apart, investigators in the Moscow region said Tuesday.
The body of a 61-year-old woman was discovered with multiple stab wounds near Moscow on June 8. A 32-year-old businessman from the town of Mytishchi, located to the northeast of Moscow, has been detained on suspicion of killing her.
In March, the man's family allegedly engaged the services of the fortune-teller to help them with problems they were having with their business. The psychic claimed there was a hex on his family and offered to break it but demanded compensation for her services in the form of jewelry and expensive household appliances, including a $3,000 vacuum cleaner.
The woman was killed a month after the businessman's wife started receiving threatening phone calls from the fortune-teller alleging that her husband wanted to leave her and run their business on his own, investigators found. The couple separated, but the clairvoyant continued to make harassing phone calls, and threatened to cast a spell on them unless they paid her.
The suspect said he killed the fortune-teller in a "fit of rage brought on by her interfering in his family life" during an argument with her, but said he could not remember exactly what had happened. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
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