In June 2020, a murder took place in Velikiye Luki, which shocked all residents of the region. A local woman stabbed her child’s father to death for eating eggs bought for her daughter. With the “beloved”, the great-lured woman dealt with in cold blood. Despite the fact that after the first stabbing, he tried to make peace with her. Be that as it may, the phrase “murder for food” sounds more than horrifying. This could very well have happened in the Middle Ages, but in the 21st century …
To understand the true causes of the conflict and to restore the chronology of the history of “MK in Pskov” helped Stanislav Kozhevnikov, Head of the Investigation Department for Velikie Luki of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Pskov Region.
Matriarchy
With Igor Margarita [ред. здесь и далее имена героев изменены из этических соображений] I met in 2014. The relationship between them began immediately. She was then 40. By this time, Margarita, the acquaintances say, managed to be married, to give birth to a child. But family happiness did not work out – the couple separated. And then Igor. She is 6 years younger, sociable, caring. Margarita, acquaintances say, herself did not notice how she became attached to him. They began to live together. We settled in a dorm room on Malyshev Street in Velikiye Luki.
In 2016, their common daughter was born. When the baby grew up, both her and the child from Margarita’s first marriage, her grandmother began to invite her to visit more and more often. In her apartment, the Velikochanka herself admits, the children liked it. As a result, they began to spend most of their time there.
Margarita and Igor, left alone, began to quarrel more often.
The instigator of scandals, says the couple’s neighbor in the hostel, was almost always Margarita. The acquaintance of the great-lured woman assures: the one, as long as she remembers her, was a strong woman, and also impulsive and hot-tempered, loved to find fault with trifles. Igor, on the other hand, was a calm and quiet person, he tried to give in to his partner and always went first to make peace.
However, Margarita, as it turns out later, are the reasons for their quarrels “trifles”Did not count. The woman was outraged that Igor did not work, preferring alcoholic feasts with friends to work. The main earner in the family, Margarita’s friends assure, was she. She earned money for food and clothes, communal apartments and booze by washing floors in the Velikie Luki shopping center “Pervomayskiy”.
So several years passed, quarrels multiplied, resentments accumulated. All this ultimately led to a tragedy.
Eggs of Discord
In 2020, for a long weekend announced throughout the country in honor of the Day of Russia, Margarita was waiting for her daughters to visit. By their arrival on June 11, I cleaned the room, bought a dozen fresh eggs in the store, intending to feed the children whom I had not seen for a long time. This purchase, as it turned out later, launched a series of tragic consequences.
“On the night of June 12, the convict waited until 2.30 for her roommate. When he never showed up, she thought that he was drinking somewhere with friends again, got angry and decided to go for a walk herself, “- restores the chronology of events Stanislav Kozhevnikov, head of SO for Velikie Luki of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Pskov Region.
Margarita, according to her, went to the “Lair” cafe, near him she met acquaintances and her best friend. The Velikoluchanka decided to join this company. We ordered snacks, alcohol, went out into the fresh air … Alcoholic gatherings not far from the cafe lasted until 7 o’clock in the morning. At the beginning of the eighth, Margarita returned to the hostel. The first thing that caught her eye was an empty egg carton she had bought the day before for her daughters. This was the impetus for another scandal.
According to the couple’s neighbor, on the morning of June 12, she heard female screams from the room behind the wall. Margarita accused her roommate of having eaten eggs bought for the children, then accused him of sitting on her neck and not working, finally stated that she was tired of pulling the whole family alone and demanded Igor to find a permanent job. He timidly protested, assuring that he did not touch any eggs, and then could not stand it and also switched to screaming.
Margarita recalls: this behavior of the roommate spurred her on. She wanted to put this “bum” in his place, teach him a lesson, hurt him. After a moment, the woman grabbed a kitchen knife, began to swing it, and then, when the father of her child was within reach, she stuck the knife twice in his stomach.
Dormitory stabbing
The wounded, bloodied Igor ran out into the hallway of the hostel, hoping that Margarita would calm down and the conflict would disappear. But the angry woman followed him. As the neighbors recall, who looked out into the corridor at the noise, Margarita was furious at that moment. She continued to call Igor a bum and aggressively brandish her weapon. He first tried to calm her down, and then made a fatal mistake.
“According to neighbors, he began to tell her that she herself is no better, as she walks at night and returns home drunk. Obviously these words were the last straw. The convict was very angry with her roommate, she wanted to harm the latter and did not think about the consequences of her actions. As a result, the woman thrust a knife into his chest from the left side, ”says Stanislav Kozhevnikov, head of the SO for Velikie Luki of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Pskov region.
Everything that happened next, Margarita’s neighbor still recalls as a bad dream: Igor grabbed his hand at the place where the mother of his child had thrust a knife a moment before. Blood ran down the shirt. Vital organs were affected. The man took a few steps and collapsed to the floor. After that there were attempts by a neighbor to bring him to his senses, a call to the ambulance and the police, hospitalization, people in uniform … They did not manage to save him. At about 8 o’clock in the morning, he died in the ambulance car from profuse blood loss.
Margarita did not try to run away and hide. According to the recollections of law enforcement officers, she dropped the knife, then sat down on a bedside table in the common corridor and began to mutter: “Lord, I killed him“. The aggressive woman was detained immediately.
Mitigating circumstance
Margarita was charged with murder. Investigators have studied her identity. It turned out that the woman was not registered with either a psychiatrist or a narcologist, she was characterized positively at work and had not been previously convicted. She was only brought to administrative responsibility: for retail sale of alcohol to teenagers and violation of traffic rules.
Positive characteristics, admission of one’s own guilt and sincere remorse, however, did not save the aggressive woman from punishment. Mitigating circumstances were a confession, active assistance to the investigation in solving the crime and the presence of a young child – the very daughter for whom the eggs were bought. The verdict for the Veliko Luchanka was announced in February 2021. The court sentenced the woman to 7 years in a general regime colony.
The eggs eaten by the roommate for the main character of this story were the last straw that overflowed the cup of patience. Yes, he did not work, yes, he drank … But be that as it may, no one is free to dispose of someone else’s life. And in general, in this whole situation, we are most sorry for the children – they will grow up without maternal attention. They will be brought up and raised to their feet by their grandmother.