A noted Russian historian at St. Petersburg State University who confessed to killing and dismembering his student and girlfriend has been taken to the crime scene as part of an investigation into the grisly murder.
Surrounded by about a dozen police officers and investigators, Oleg Sokolov was brought on November 15 to his apartment in St. Petersburg, where his alleged victim's head had been found.
Dressed in a bullet-proof vest and a bullet-proof helmet, Sokolov was also taken to the bank of the nearby Moika River where he had thrown other parts of 24-year-old Anastasia Yeshchenko’s body.
Sokolov's lawyer, Aleksandr Pochuyev, who was by his client's side during the trip, told reporters that Sokolov's defense had requested such strong security measures as the helmet and vest.
"In order to avoid a possible [attack], the defense requested unprecedented safety measures. The Investigative Committee undertook the measures to exclude possible threats; all nearby streets were blocked and a bullet-proof vest and a helmet were put on Sokolov," Pochuyev said.
The door to Oleg Sokolov's apartment in St. Petersburg
The 63-year-old historian, who was once awarded France’s Legion of Honor for his research into military leader Napoleon Bonaparte, was detained on November 9 after being pulled out of the Moika River with a backpack containing the severed body parts of a young woman.
Investigators later found the woman's head in his apartment.
On November 11, Sokolov admitted in court that he had killed and dismembered his former student and lover, who was a 24-year-old postgraduate student.
The court has ordered that Sokolov be held in pretrial detention for two months while the investigation is carried out.