Murderer conscience-stricken 40 years on

A dirty and drunk bum one day appeared at a police precincts in Tatarstan, one of republics included in Russia as an administrative district. “I want to relieve a burden in my heart, to confess to a murder,” he mumbled. He told the amazed police officers that 40 years ago he and his pal had committed a murder of an occasional passer-by. Allegedly, they had tried to rob him, but he had offered resistance, so they had stabbed him. Mr. Moiseyev – the bum called himself so – underwent a check for mental sanity and proved sane. Then investigators started searches. They had to look through heaps of files in the archives, because the victim’s name was unknown. The exact date of the crime was missing, either - just “late-1950s – early 1960s.” Still, the needed file was finally found. Luckily, the case was documented very carefully and at length. The victim – Mr. Nurgaleyev – had died in hospital from a lung wound, but he managed to give evidence before that. In particular, he said that the assailants were two in number, aged about 25 or so. The investigation went a wrong way then. Several suspects had been detained (luckily, they all had subsequently been released). Eventually, the case had been shelved. Now that the case was miraculously resumed, the investigators managed to spot the accomplice. When operatives came to arrest him in Saint Petersburg where he had been living, he was not even surprised. Vadim, as he called himself, had made a successful military career having risen to a high rank. During the interrogation, he recalled everything to the smallest detail. In particular, that after the assaults the pals had gone to a discotheque in a local park to unwind. The investigation is coming to a close by now, and the accused will stand trial - the statute of limitation does not apply for such grave crimes.

YULIA ANDREYEVA VECHERNYAYA KAZAN NEWSPAPER