THE severed legs of a PhD student murdered by her professor lover have been found floating in the St Petersburg river, say police sources. Russian military historian Oleg Sokolov, 63, has confessed to stabbing and dismembering Anastasia Yeschenko, 24. The Napoleon expert – now remanded in custody – said the couple were due to marry […]
THE severed legs of a PhD student murdered by her professor lover have been found floating in the St Petersburg river, say police sources.
Russian military historian Oleg Sokolov, 63, has confessed to stabbing and dismembering Anastasia Yeschenko, 24.
The Napoleon expert – now remanded in custody – said the couple were due to marry next year but he killed her and wrecked his own life “in several seconds” of madness.
Last month it emerged, the professor killed Annastasia as he hosted a party in his luxury apartment.
After he fatally shot her, he locked her body in the spare room and carried on entertaining.
A decapitated head with a saw covered in blood was later found at Sokolov’s flat in St Petersburg.
Anastasia’s legs were found nine weeks after she went missing inside a plastic bag in the Moika River close to the Yusupov’s Palace, where infamous ‘mad monk’ Grigory Rasputin was killed, police said.
The discovery comes seven weeks after video showed the professor allegedly throwing body parts into the river which flows next to the palace.
Sokolov has publicly urged the Russian courts to use the full force of the law against him in his upcoming trial.
Writing in newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, he said: “I understand that I committed a horrific thing and deserve the strictest penalty possible.”
His academic career and achievements including the French Legion of Honour was “crossed out in a few seconds” when he shot his student lover, he admitted.
“I don’t care what is said about me. It doesn’t matter,” he said.
“I killed her and myself too.
“I do not exist.
“My cherished memory of Anastasia is the most important thing for me now.
“We were supposed to get married and were planning the wedding.
“In over five years (dating) I had not raised my hand to her. Even scandals between us were rare.”
He faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
The victim’s father Oleg Eschenko said he expected to exhume his daughter’s body so that her legs could be interred with the rest of her remains after full forensic analysis was completed.
Her parents have dismissed Sokolov’s lawyer’s claim that the professor from St Petersburg State University has apologised to them over the Anastasia’s death.
“Sokolov has not apologised personally,” he said, but instead had given seven separate excuses why he killed her including that there was a full moon.
“I asked [her to leave him], but she loved that person,” said the father.
“And if you love someone, it is in vain to try to talk them off.”
