All news

Sverdlovsk region investigators don't confirm reports on remains of infants

Previously it was reported that a couple murdered five newborns and buried in their back yard
ITAR-TASS/Alexander Alpatkin
ITAR-TASS/Alexander Alpatkin

YEKATERINBURG, November 7 (Itar-Tass) - Investigators in the Sverdlovsk region did not confirm the reports on Thursday that remains of five infants had been found in a backyard in the town of Berezovsky.

The regional department of the Investigative Committee acknowledged an infant murder probe though. "The Investigative Committee department for the Sverdlovsk region is continuing the investigation into a criminal case opened in May 1997 over the murder of an infant," the SK said in a press release.

"Earlier, prosecutors suspended the probe because of the failure to identify the suspect, but the search continued as police analyzed the available information about the suspects that could be involved in the newborn's death. In the long run, police zeroed in on a local resident, aged 56," it said.

An inspection of the scene found bone fragments supposedly belonging to a newborn. "The remains were sent for DNA tests. Further information cannot be disclosed because of investigative secret, an SK official said, adding that the report alleging the finding of remains of five infants "does not correspond to reality."

On Thursday morning, regional police spokesman Valery Gorelykh told Tass human remains, probably belonging to five infants, had been found on a land plot. Supposedly, they were buried in 1982, 1986, 1992, 1994 and 1997.

"My press release noted that those might have been remains of five newborns and that police were questioning an infanticide case suspect in this connection," Gorelykh said.