Interest in Russia and the desire to know the mysterious Russian soul turned into fatal consequences for a 34-year-old US citizen Catherine Sirow. After a large-scale search, the woman’s body was found with traces of violent death.
Missing person
“The UK investigators are appealing to the residents of Bor and the Nizhny Novgorod region for help in the search for a missing foreign citizen,” the agency said in a statement, ” The investigative bodies of the Russian IC in the Nizhny Novgorod region are continuing to investigate a criminal case initiated on the fact of an unknown disappearance.”a foreign citizen. Currently, the investigation is checking the information that on June 15, 2021, at about 18: 30, the girl left the house 106 on Maxim Gorky Street, Bor, where she permanently lived, after which she got into a vehicle unidentified by the investigation and headed in the direction of D. Rekshino, Borsky district, Nizhny Novgorod Region.
On the evening of June 15, Catherine sent a message to her mother in the United States, saying that she was traveling in a car with a strange man and hoped that she would not be abducted. But, apparently, at this moment, the woman did not feel particularly threatened. However, she did not get in touch again.
The alarm was raised by Katherine’s friends in Nizhny Novgorod, who contacted the security service of the Lobachevsky State University in Nizhny Novgorod, where she studied. The university, through official channels, reported the student missing, after which the police, the Investigative Committee, as well as volunteer detachments joined the search.
The search was conducted in the area where the last signal of the American woman’s phone was recorded. At first, combing the area did not give results, but in the morning of June 19, information came-a woman was found dead in a field with traces of violent death. By this time, law enforcement officers already had information about who could have committed the crime.
After serving in Afghanistan & mdash; University in Nizhny Novgorod
Catherine Sirow was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1987. After graduating from high school, she decided to join the army, joining the US Marine Corps. It is known that Catherine served in North Carolina, and then was on a business trip to the combat zone in Afghanistan.
After leaving the army at the age of 24, she attended the University of California, Davis, where she studied art history and interior design.
After graduating from university, Catherine decided to go to Russia, where she was going to get a law degree. She explained this rather unexpected step by the fact that as a child in America, emigrants from the post-Soviet space often took her for a Russian, saying that she looked very much like a Russian.
Catherine entered the first year of the master’s degree program at the Law Faculty of Nizhny Novgorod University, while simultaneously studying in the Russian language program. Initially, the American woman lived in one of the local families, and then began to rent an apartment.
She had big plans for the future
At the university, they say that they knew Catherine only from the good side, she studied diligently, and was very friendly with teachers and classmates. The American woman said that she liked life in Russia.
Friends of Catherine said that the details of their personal relationships, she did not share. They only knew that some time ago the American woman met with a local young man, but then the couple broke up. However, the former lovers managed to maintain friendly relations.
According to those who knew her, Catherine did not have any feelings of anxiety and gloomy thoughts. She worked as an English teacher in a private school and was going to develop in this direction further.
An examination of the security cameras revealed that on the day of the disappearance, Catherine visited the store. Her behavior was completely natural, and she obviously felt no threat.
In a car with a repeat offender
For the second time, the cameras caught the American woman as she was riding in the passenger seat of a car. The woman was looking out at the street, the passenger window was down, and again, it didn’t look like she was afraid of anything at that moment.
Law enforcement officers were able to quickly identify the driver. It turned out to be a 43-year-old Russian, previously convicted several times, including for robbery and rape.
Soon the operatives were on the threshold of the suspect’s house. At that time, the fate of Catherine was not yet established, and the man, after some hesitation, began to give evidence.
“The suspect is cooperating with the investigation. Currently, investigative actions are being carried out to consolidate the evidence base. In the near future, the issue of charging the person involved in the criminal case and choosing a preventive measure will be resolved, ” the IC reported.
Could the perpetrator have lured Katherine through a dating site?
On June 20, the court decided to send the suspect into custody until August 15. According to the telegram channel Ni Mash, at the trial, the man said that with Catherine on June 15, they really went in his car to the forest. There he raped her, and then decided to kill her: first, he beat her, then stabbed her several times. According to one version, he did this after the American woman promised to report the rapist to the police.
It is not yet clear whether this meeting was completely accidental, or the recidivist lured Catherine on a date. The fact is that the suspect led a fairly active life on the Internet, in particular, on dating sites. In the questionnaires, the man reported that he wanted to meet the “dream girl” for “love and romance, a serious relationship”. He did not write anything about his criminal past, but he claimed thatis an artist, showing pictures of paintings. However, there is no certainty that these paintings were actually painted by the suspect.
Catherine’s profile was also posted on a dating site. It is possible that a certified specialist in the history of art could be interested in paintings painted by a man.
However, unfortunately, the meeting with the recidivist was fatal for the American woman.