News

Moscow Police Announce the Arrest of a Suspect in the Bitsa Park Killings, Later Named as Alexander Pichushkin

Prosecutors said only that he was suspected of killing a woman near the park. He was a supermarket worker, caught through a metro ticket found on his last victim.

Published

Illustration of two police officers and a patrol car on a path at the edge of a Moscow forest park beside apartment blocks. Not an actual scene from the case.

For months, Moscow police had hunted the "Bitsa maniac," at least twice detaining the wrong man. On June 18, 2006, they announced that they had a suspect in custody.

Law enforcement officials said a special operation by Moscow police had caught a man suspected in the killings in Bitsa Park, in southern Moscow, where most of the victims had been of pension age. A court quickly authorized his arrest at the request of the Moscow prosecutor's office. Prosecutors said he was suspected of killing a woman near the park and that it was too early to link him to any other crimes. Officials declined to name him, and a law enforcement source said he had begun giving evidence. Police had searched the park with a helicopter and mounted officers. Earlier in 2006, officers had shot a man with a knife they mistook for the killer, and in March they suspected another man.

The suspect was Alexander Pichushkin, a supermarket worker. Police caught him after finding a metro ticket in the pocket of his last victim, Marina Moskalyova, 36. He denied involvement until investigators produced metro surveillance footage showing him walking with her. In a televised confession after his arrest, he said, "I never would have stopped, never." He was charged with 49 murders and three attempted murders, and his jury trial opened in Moscow in September 2007.

RIA Novosti described the suspect as sought for 10 killings in the park since 2000, while Komsomolskaya Pravda said 16 bodies had been found there since October 2005.

Sources

Related News

In the Archive