LONDON, January 10 (Itar-Tass) – Russia’s embassy in London has confirmed the murder of a Russian girl, Anastasia Voikina, in the British capital.
“Officers of the consular department are maintaining contacts with the British authorities and with Anastasia’s relatives,” a Russian diplomat told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. In his words, the consular department is taking efforts to help the girl’s relatives come to London.
On Wednesday, the British police arrested a suspect, a 27-year-old man of the Portuguese origin, Filipe Lopes, who was a boyfriend of Voikina, 23. The man is kept at a police station in London’s southern suburb.
Relatives have been failing to reach the girl since their last conversation on December 30. Before that day, she spoke to them over the phone every day.
Voikina’s dead body with traces of death through violence was found at her boyfriend’s apartment in Streatham (South London) overnight to Monday. The girl was staying there after she came to London at the end of 2012. The forensic examination revealed that the girl had been beaten up and died of head and neck injuries.
The police named Lopes a prime suspect. Late on January 6, he was caught by a video surveillance camera near London’s central Piccadilly Circus. Later, there were no traces of him. Investigators did not rule out that the man might have tried to leave Great Britain. APBs were sent out to sea ports and airports. The man was finally detained in London’s Bromley.
According to earlier reports, some two weeks before Anastasia was found dead neighbors called the police after aid they had heard a female screaming. Police officers spoke to someone from Lopes’ apartment and left.
The Russian girl got acquainted with Lopes last summer when she was on a sightseeing tour in London. A love affair sprang up between them. Several weeks ago, Voikina came to London and has been staying at Lopes’. He Internet notes of late December showed no signs of worry from her part.