Russian Woman Bludgeons Elderly Landlady to Death for Calling Her a Prostitute

Aug. 11, 2014

A woman in the Komi republic has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison for bludgeoning her elderly landlady to death after the latter accused her of being a prostitute.

The convicted, identified as Yelena Panyukova in a statement on the website of the Komi republic's Prosecutor General's Office, denied involvement in the crime, which took place on Sept. 18, 2013.

Prosecutors said that on that day Panyukova killed the elderly woman in whose apartment she was renting a room by hitting her more than 16 times over the head with a hammer.

Online local news portal Komionline.ru cited court documents as saying Panyukova had lost her temper after her landlady called her a prostitute, apparently a frequent accusation in the household.

Panyukova stored the body on the balcony for a week, the prosecutors' statement said, before sewing it inside a mattress that she then dumped in some bushes outside.

The court sentenced Panyukova to nine years and seven months in a penal colony. Panyukova was convicted of fraud in a separate case last November, but was given a suspended sentence.

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