Pavel Tifitulin. Photo: St. Petersburg Police
The body of a young boy has been found in a pond in the Lomonosov district of Russia’s Leningrad region, which surrounds St. Petersburg, after a suspect in custody confessed to his murder, the Russian Investigative Committee announced on Tuesday.
Search volunteers told local media outlet 47 News that the remains of 9-year-old Pavel Tifitulin had been found in a pond near a waterfall, and a video shared by REN TV showed distressed bystanders calling attention to a backpack and clothing that could be seen frozen in the ice.
On Monday, the Investigative Committee reported that a suspect had been detained in connection with Tifitulin’s disappearance after the boy was seen getting into a car with an unknown man on Friday.
Pyotr Zhilkin. Photo: Social media
The suspect, who was subsequently named by multiple media outlets as 38-year old St. Petersburg resident Pyotr Zhilkin, was charged with murder, according to state-owned news agency TASS, which also reported that he had pleaded guilty to the charge on Tuesday.
A construction worker originally from eastern Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk region, Zhilkin is married with children, and after confessing to the boy’s murder during his interrogation, said that he had intended to turn himself in to the authorities earlier.
According to Russian news outlet Ostorozhno Novosti, child sexual abuse material was discovered on the suspect’s laptop, which allegedly led Tifitulin to attempt to blackmail Zhilkin, who offered to pay him for sexual acts and his silence.
Despite apparently initially agreeing to the deal and getting into Zhilkin’s car, Tifitulin subsequently changed his mind and was later killed by Zhilkin, who punched him several times before dumping his body into a pond.
