The 22-year-old son of a businesswoman who was the widow of a mayor of the Moscow region town of Roshal has confessed to killing his mother and sister during a dispute in the family's home over the weekend, investigators say.
The 43-year-old woman, who owned a chain of gas stations in the region, and her 12-year-old daughter were earlier reported to have been killed during a home invasion on Saturday night in the small town.
The son said he came home around 4 a.m. Saturday morning and found his mother dead and sister in critical condition. But a spokesman for the Investigative Committee said Sunday that the son confessed to the killings during questioning, Interfax reported.
The son often argued with his mother, and this time he grabbed a hammer and "hit his mother several times in the head," the investigator said. "The little girl ran into the room when she heard the woman's screams … and he got her with the hammer too."
Authorities had initially attributed the killing to a robbery or a settling of scores by business competitors, Russian media reported. The woman was the widow of the town's former mayor, Sergei Syusyukin, reports said.
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