YEKATERINBURG, September 11 (Itar-Tass) - A criminal charge has been brought against famous photographer in the Urals region Dmitry Loshagin who was accused of murdering his wife -a popular model, Yulia Prokopyeva-Loshagina, Senior assistant to the chief of the Investigative Committee for the Sverdlovsk region Aleksander Shulga told Itar-Tass.
The investigation claims that Loshagin hit his wife during a quarrel in their apartment overnight to August 23 when the man was heavily drunk. The woman, who received heavy injures in the incident, died on the spot. Her husband took the body away from the house and burnt the body in a forest, the investigation claims.
The man pleaded not guilty and refused to testify, the Investigative Committee representative said.
The woman's body, which was heavily burnt, was found in a forest near a highway on August 24. The identity of the woman was established early in September after scrupulous forensic tests.
Her husband, who booked an air ticket after his wife’s death, was arrested. The victim's husband gave conflicting explanations to the relatives of the victim as regards the circumstances of her death, the source said.
According to the evidence the investigation received after locating the suspect's telephone calls put through by telephone operators at the moment when the victim died, the suspect had been staying exactly in the same area where the body was found later, the SK representative told Tass.
The investigators suggested questioning the suspect on a lie detector, but he refused, he said.
More proof of the suspect's involvement in the murder was found during police search in the apartment, including the victim's driver's license, her mobile telephone and foreign travel passport which she had always had with her.