Family of Moscow sectarians commit group suicide

The bodies have been decaying in one of Moscow apartment blocks for two years

Four skeletonized bodies were found in a Moscow apartment block Tuesday, spokespeople for Moscow law-enforcement agencies said. The bodies of two elderly people, a man and a woman, born in 1912 and 1914 respectively, their daughter and granddaughter, born in 1942 and 1971, have been locked in their apartment for two years. The police received a complaint from the public utilities administration of the residential area, where the Moscow family lived. The officials said that the family was not paying any bills for a very long period of time.

Investigators believe that the four Muscovites probably died as a result of a sectarian ritual, RIA Novosti reports. “Preliminary conclusions of forensic expertise say that the deceased people were members of a yet-unidentified sect. They could die from poisoning when they were conducting a ritual,” a source from the Moscow police department said.

”Forensic experts found two bottles filled with dark substance in the apartment. The bottles have been sent for chemical examination,” the source said. The final conclusions regarding the death of the Moscow family will be made after all examinations and analyses are completed, Newsru  said.