Two teenage girls aged 15 and 16 have been detained in Russia's Moscow Region after a 12-year-old boy was lured to an abandoned building and killed in a pre-planned attack, according to local law enforcement.
The body of the sixth-grade schoolboy was discovered on August 27 on the grounds of a former vocational school, one day after he went missing after leaving home for an evening walk.
Investigators believe the two suspects had been planning the fatal assault since August 20 and may have been preparing further attacks against other targets.
Speaking to the 112 Telegram channel, the boy's mother, Anzhela, said her 12-year-old son had gone to a shop to buy sneakers and helped his father repair a car on August 26 before heading out for the evening. She noted that he had previously informed a friend that he had a meeting scheduled.
Anzhela said she contacted her son by telephone at 18:30 on the evening of his disappearance, asking him to visit his grandmother before returning home by 21:30. When the agreed time passed, the boy stopped answering calls from his family.
Details of the attack
Law enforcement authorities said the 15-year-old and 16-year-old girls invited the child to meet them at the abandoned facility under the pretext of drinking beer together.
To avoid detection by police, the suspects left their mobile phones at home so their movements could not be tracked by signal data. They brought gloves and knives with them to the site.
Following the killing, the girls discarded the weapon in a trash bin. Police officers later recovered the knife and identified traces of the victim's blood on the footwear of both suspects.
During detention, one of the schoolgirls made a full confession to investigators. Anzhela said one of the suspects allegedly suffered from mental health issues and had frequently been seen carrying a knife.
Regional background
The Moscow Region, officially known as Moscow Oblast and locally referred to as Podmoskovye, is the federal subject surrounding the city of Moscow. Vocational schools, historically known across Russia as PTUs, were specialized secondary technical training colleges established during the Soviet era, many of which now stand abandoned across the region.
Security structures and judicial authorities are continuing to examine the circumstances surrounding the killing as investigators assess whether the suspects were planning additional violent acts.
