A manhunt is underway in Russia for a teacher and former soldier who fought in Ukraine, accused of killing his girlfriend's mother and his one-year-old son, whose body was found in a freezer.
Dmitry Nakaryakov, 40, is also accused of killing Alla Pidzhakova, 58, the mother of his girlfriend, before going on the run. His partner Anastasia Kycheva, 32, escaped the attack by jumping barefoot out of a ground-floor flat window in Solnechny Gorod, St Petersburg, in her dressing gown to get help. Injured and covered in blood, she found a passerby and asked for help before telling them: "He killed my child."
Search and sighting
Nakaryakov was caught on camera buying alcohol in a shop in the village of Druznaya Gorka, Leningrad region. A major search is underway for him, with locals saying they are scared to go outside until he is caught.
The Russian soldier allegedly accused his girlfriend of infidelity and claimed the young boy, Sasha, was not his. A note left in the flat where the toddler was found in the fridge-freezer accused Anastasia of cheating on him.
Background and wider context
Nakaryakov and his partner taught in the same school before he went to war to "prove to himself that he was worth something". Putin has hailed fighters who return to civilian life as the "new elite" in Russia.
Russian soldiers returning from Ukraine have been linked to the deaths of at least 500 people, according to a study published by Vyorstka at the end of last year. Another 465 people survived serious injuries at the hands of returning servicemen. Researchers warned that the real toll may be substantially higher because many crimes never reach court or are excluded from published records.
