KRASNODAR, November 26 (RIA Novosti) – Police have detained a man suspected of murdering his ex-wife and three of her family members in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, the local Investigative Committee said Tuesday.
The suspect, Yevgeny Marushko, 39, was detained Monday, after living rough for more than a week after he had been put on a federal wanted list. The detention came following a tip-off from a local citizen. Police had offered a 100,000 ruble ($3,000) reward for information that led to the arrest of the suspect.
Investigators said Marushko attacked his 36-year-old ex-wife, her daughters, and her son-in-law with a knife in the village of Starominskaya on November 16. The woman, as well as her 19-year-old daughter and her 23-year-old husband, died on the spot from stab wounds.
The woman’s younger daughter, 12, was seriously injured and hospitalized, but later died from her wounds. The older daughter’s newborn baby girl, who was also in the house, was left alive and untouched, investigators said.
“The suspect has confessed to the murder,” investigators said in a statement.
The man, who faces life in jail if convicted, committed the murders because of “personal hostility,” investigators said.