By Roman Zakaluzny
Post Staff Writer
Two Kyiv residents were starved to death, then hacked up and buried in a local backyard, according to reports from the Kyiv prosecutor�s office and the Magnolia-TV.com Web site.
The victims were apparently starved to death by the murderers, who had later hoped to sell the flat without leaving evidence of a violent murder. The bodies were found buried on private property in Russanovsky Gardens in Kyiv�s Dniprovsky region, according to Magnolia-TV.com.
Two suspects are in custody, while three more are still on the loose, reportedly in Kyiv.
The dead are a 52-year-old unemployed Kyivan woman and an unidentified man of �up to 45 years� of age.
The Kyiv Prosecutor�s Office, which took over the case from the Dniprovsky region police, has remained tightlipped about the case.
�We are still looking for the [three remaining] culprits,� said Prosecutor Volodymyr Vuzyr on Feb. 23. �We�re pretty certain as to who they are, but because this is still an open investigation... we can�t release any details on this case.�
Vuzyr refused to give any specifics about the case, including the names of the two people already in custody or those of the two victims. He did say, however, that the victims were not married to each other.
Vuzyr also refused to divulge any clues as to the motives of the killers. Vuzyr said that the three suspects still wanted in connection with the slayings are in Kyiv, but that releasing any sort of evidence would hurt the chances of arresting them.
According to MagnoliaTV, a Kyivan with a house in the Dniprovsky region was approached by three young men of �dubious� occupation last September. The three asked the owner of the house to hold a middle-aged �alcoholic� male in his basement, not to let him leave, and to withhold food and water.
The three allegedly told the owner that they wanted to kill him to sell his flat, but did not want traces of a murder at the apartment to point to a violent cuase of death.
In exchange, the three promised the owner a share of the proceeds from the sale of the dead man�s flat.
Two weeks later, the three allegedly brought another person to join the man already in the owner�s basement. This time, it was the 52-year-old woman, who was �obese� and �probably� an alcoholic, according to sources at Magnolia.
In about a month, the victims were dead from thirst or starvation.
�They didn�t even get water,� said Vuzyr.
The owner of the basement then contacted the three men who arrived and allegedly dug a hole in the owner�s yard, to bury the bodies.
While the man was easily carried up the stairs and buried, the woman was too large to be lifted out with ease. Her legs were then sawed off to move her more quickly.
A man and a woman, alleged to be the owners of the house where the victims were kept and buried, are in police custody.
The man is to be charged with kidnapping and detaining the victims, a sentence which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail.