Little girl kidnapped from kindergarten and brutally murdered in Russia

Three-year-old girl Vika Vylegzhanina was kidnapped on August 14 from her kindergarten. Soon afterwards, the girl was found dead. The terrible tragedy took place in the city of Tomsk.

The girl's body, wrapped in a blanket, was found behind garages, in an abandoned cellar. A week ago, an unknown man took the girl away from the kindergarten. Thousands of local residents, as well as volunteers from Moscow and Novosibirsk - students, bikers, taxi drivers, light aviation enthusiasts, priests - were involved in the search for the missing girl.

"Since the beginning of the search, more than four thousand people were involved. There were many volunteers and various organizations participating in the operation. Bikers, off-road enthusiasts, athletes, taxi services - no one was indifferent to the little girl's disappearance," representative for the local police department, Nikolai Savotin told VTomske website.

Children's Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov, who was following the search for the missing girl in Tomsk, said that those guilty of the child's death should be held accountable for the crime. "The terrible tragedy, unbearable grief, monstrous loss has happened... Little Vika was found dead ... A beast took to the streets of Tomsk, and the beast must be caught! The nonhuman must pay the remainder of his life for this wickedness!" Astakhov wrote on Instagram.

Tomsk Region Governor Sergei Zhvachkin expressed his deepest condolences to the parents and relatives of Vika (Victoria) Vylegzhanina. "Our common goal is to find out who committed this heinous crime," the governor said.

Tomsk Mayor Ivan Klein promised to tighten security measures in kindergartens. "This is an outrageous incident that occurred in Tomsk. But this should not be a cause for our parents to be concerned. The authorities face the task to provide all conditions so that children remain protected," the mayor said. All 73 kindergartens of the city of Tomsk will be inspected for security reasons, the mayor added.

Meanwhile, the alleged murderer of the three-year-old girl, who was kidnapped from a kindergarten in Tomsk and found dead five days later, was found hanged, the head of the Investigation Department in the Tomsk region, Vladimir Litvinenko, told reporters on August 26.

"The person, who committed violent sexual acts against the child, was established. This is a local resident, who lived in the vicinity of the crime scene, and had been previously convicted of rape. This man, in the morning of August 22, committed suicide by hanging himself on the outskirts of Tomsk," the official said, Interfax reports.

The official specified that the body of the 37-year-old man was found incidentally, by passers-by. Before committing suicide, the man wrote on a window of his car: "Sorry." "According to preliminary information received, there is a reason to believe that he had deviations on sexual grounds," said Litvinenko.

The official also said that the offender was actively following the news on the Internet after he had killed the child, RIA Novosti reports.

According to investigators, the perpetrator's genotype had been established prior to his suicide. The man was one of the prime suspects during the investigation. "He was convicted in 1999 for the rape of an adult woman, but was released on parole in 2001. As far as I know, there were no other questions to him,"  said the head of the Investigative Committee in the Tomsk region.

A representative of investigation assured that the man's guilt was fully established owing to DNA tests. It was also said that the items, in which the child's body was packed, had been taken from the suspect's apartment. The fact that the suspect committed suicide complicates further investigation, said Litvinenko.

The cause of the girl's death, according to preliminary data, was suffocation. Death occurred "within a short period of time" after the abduction. By the time when hundreds of volunteers joined the search, the child was already dead, said Litvinenko.

Vika (Victoria) Vylegzhanina was kidnapped from kindergarten on August 14. The search for the girl continued for five days, more than four thousand people took part in the operation to find the girl. Vika's body, wrapped in a blanket, was found on August 19 in an abandoned cellar on the northern outskirts of the city. Forensic examination showed that the child had been raped.