Man suspected of 1989 murder of Estonian schoolgirls in Moscow caught

TALLINN – According to Russian media, a man suspected of murdering two Estonian schoolgirls -- Krista Sarap and Eda Eikla -- in the spring of 1989 in Moscow was caught last December, the Estonian daily Postimees writes.

According to Russian channels, Dmitry Zakharov, who has been punished pursuant to criminal procedure on several occasions, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Dec. 21. A DNA test led to the man's capture.

Both 17-year-old girls were found strangled in a Moscow park -- one with her own belt and the other with a rope. The autopsy established that the girls had also been raped before their death. Information about their murder was sought for years.

According to the Telegram channel "112", Zakharov, who was identified using DNA evidence collected from clothes, said during the interrogation that he and his two friends met the Estonian girls near the Rossiya Hotel. Zakharov initially claimed that he had been only a witness. The men promised to take the girls to a restaurant and later take them home.

According to the mediated description, the man claimed that later the group ended up on a dark street, where the girls showed interest in them, but suddenly started screaming about being raped. Zakharov nevertheless confessed to strangling one of the girls, who had threatened him with the police.

According to the channels, Zakharov has previously been punished for robberies and thefts several times and spent nearly 10 years in prison.

At the time, the statute of limitations for a serious offense was 15 years, so the further course of the proceedings is uncertain. However, the issue of whether the limitation period has been exceeded or not will be decided by the court according to Russia's current criminal code.