The examination of the criminal case into the fact of the rape and murder of eight-year-old Vika Teplyakova has ended in Sakhalin. The verdict of the defendants will be delivered by the Sakhalin Regional Court on Thursday, July 22.
What is the story of the rape and murder of a schoolgirl?
On July 6, 2020, eight-year-old Vika Teplyakova left her home in Novo-Aleksandrovsk. She was heading towards Dolinsk, where her friends lived. According to some media, the girl left home because of a family quarrel.
A car with a married couple pulled up next to Vika: a 49-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman. The couple offered to drive the girl to Dolinsk. However, instead, they took their victim to the forest, raped and strangled her.
In addition, the suspect Kristina Dvornikova said that her husband Igor was the initiator of the incident. According to her, at the time of the crime, the man, who was allegedly drunk, got his wife out of the car and threatened to murder her if she did not shut up. Dvornikova claims that she did not participate in the massacre of the child.
Dvornikov himself initially denied his guilt and claimed that he took the girl in a car that day, but he had it brought to the right place. After finding the evidence, the man pleaded guilty and indicated where he hid the body.
How did we learn of the girl's death?
The girl's body was found a week later on the bank of the river in the Kholmsky district. Law enforcement and over 500 volunteers were looking for her.
Police were able to obtain initial information on the incident thanks to motorists who provided recordings from VCRs. Thanks to the images received, it became clear that the missing child boarded a minibus with a married couple.
What punishment threatens the suspects?
Igor Dvornikov is on trial under six articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. For kidnapping, lewd acts, rape and murder of a child, he faces life imprisonment. His wife can be sentenced to 17 years in prison for inciting and covering up a crime.
It is known that the man has already been charged with the murder of two other people in 2001: a citizen of the PRC and an unknown woman. In 2018, he was also charged with the rape of another minor.