The death of rapper Andy Cartwright: the creepy case everyone is talking about
'05.08.2020'
Source: with the BBC
The dismembered body of rapper Andy Cartwright was discovered in St. Petersburg. His widow gave conflicting testimony and was arrested on murder charges. with the BBC.
Less than a year ago, another high-profile case of dismemberment took place in St. Petersburg - Oleg Sokolov, a professor at St. Petersburg State University, killed his partner. What is known about Cartwright's death and what the two cases have in common.
Who is Andy Cartwright
The rapper's real name is Alexander Yushko. At the time of his death, he was 29 years old. He was born and raised in Ukraine, but gained relative fame after moving to St. Petersburg. He did not have Russian citizenship.
Since 2013, he began to participate in the rap battles popular at that time on the St. Petersburg site Versus. Of his rivals, the rapper ATL later became the most famous.
Battle video with the participation of the deceased:
Yushko also recorded several studio albums.
What happened
On the morning of Thursday, July 30, the media reported that the day before, the police found the dismembered body of Yushko in an apartment on Nevsky Prospekt. It lay there for several days.
According to media reports, the lawyer of the rapper's wife contacted the police. He allegedly stated that, according to her, her husband died of an overdose four days ago, she wanted to hide the body, so she dismembered him, but could not figure out what to do next.
The woman allegedly claimed that she wanted to hide the body, because she did not want “inglorious death” for her husband and decided that it would be better if he “just disappear”.
Surrounded by the deceased, they said that he was not addicted to drugs.
Interfax then, referring to an informed source, clarified that the wife of the deceased is Marina Kohal and she is 36 years old. Biomaterials, a hammer, a knife, a cutting board, a hacksaw for metal, a plastic basin and a pillowcase were seized from the apartment, the agency wrote.
The next day, the Investigative Committee (ICR) reported that Kohal had been detained. She was charged with murder.
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According to the investigation, the spouses had a conflict - and the woman killed her husband in an unidentified way. To hide the traces of the crime, she dismembered the body and planned to destroy it, the ICR said.
The standard Russian term for the temporary detention of suspects is 48 hours. But the court granted the defense's request and extended it to 72 hours to give lawyers time to collect documents on the identity of the accused.
Therefore, the meeting at which the decision on the preventive measure was taken took place only on Monday, August 3. The Smolninsky District Court of St. Petersburg granted the request of the investigation and put Kohal under arrest until at least September 30.
What is known about Kohal
The widow of the deceased has a philological education and in the 2000s worked in the press service of the Barnaul Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The university gave her a positive response.
After moving to St. Petersburg, she became interested in esotericism and astrology.
Kohal happened to give a forecast for the year to viewers of the city channel "78". Under the pseudonym Marina Zorina, she led the video blog “Your personal motivation”. In November, she recorded ten minutes of discourse on "When you know your husband's mistress by sight."
The Investigative Committee has released a video of an investigative experiment involving Kohal. There, however, there is no sound, and her face is hidden.
What the defendant says
Kohal, who initially announced her innocence in the murder, continues to insist on this. On August 1, her lawyer Irina Skurtu announced that the woman did not plead guilty to the murder.
“We believe that the accusation is not substantiated at all, since it is not yet clear the cause of death and whether there was a crime in general,” she said.
The lawyer clarified that the results of the examination of Cartwright's remains will be ready in one to two months.
She added that there are no traces of violence on Kohal's body, which could indicate a quarrel between the spouses.
What the victim side says
The deceased has a mother and a small child with Kohal. The representative of the children's ombudsman of St. Petersburg said that while the child was sent to a distant relative who lives in St. Petersburg.
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The rapper's mother, according to local media reports, lives in Ukraine and cannot come to Russia due to the current restrictions associated with the pandemic.
At the court session, where the issue of Kohal's arrest was being decided, the side of the victims stated that the rapper's wife had been active in his social networks for several days after his death.
“Why did the accused blog on behalf of Aleksandr Yushko, when he was dead, dismembered and blogged ... If she wanted, as she claims, that he disappeared, to preserve a bright memory of him?” - RIA Novosti quoted the representative of the victims.
Also, the side of the victims asked to attach to the case the correspondence between Cartwright and his friend Nadezhda Romanenko.
“We examined the mobile phone of witness Romanenko, where there is correspondence indicating that there was a relationship between the victim and witness Romanenko, and that the accused knew about this, and that she herself sent messages from the victim's account. Please attach to the case materials, ”RIA Novosti quoted the representative of the victims.
Who is Nadezhda Romanenko
Nadezhda Romanenko, a 25-year-old native of Bashkiria, is the main witness for the prosecution. Victims' lawyer Anton Kobit calls her Cartwright's sweetheart.
“Now rumors are circulating in the media that Nadezhda was only a fan, admirer, mistress of the deceased. This is not true. The girl was Alexander's lover, they had a long relationship, he loved her, they thought to stay together. The widow claims that there was an idyll in the family, this is not true, "said Kobit.
Kobit's lawyer claims that the rapper planned to divorce his wife and marry Romanenko.
In the media, their relationship is described somewhat differently.
“Her social media is unambiguous about idolatry. The girl can be considered a fan of rapper Cartwright, but hardly more. The last time Nadezhda met Andy was on March 20. Correspondence was also carried out later, ”wrote the Fontanka newspaper.
What does the historian Sokolov have to do with it
Now in St. Petersburg there is a trial of the historian Oleg Sokolov. He became widely known in the fall of 2019, when a drunken man tried to drown the dismembered remains of his former student and lover Anastasia Yeshchenko in the river.
One of Sokolov's lawyers is Sergei Lukyanov.
Now this same specialist has taken up the defense of Kohal, in whose case also a murder with dismemberment appears.
After the news of Andy Cartwright's death appeared, his acquaintances began raising funds to help his mother and child. The account numbers for money transfers were published by the former organizer and host of Versus Battle Alexander Timartsev, better known as the Restaurateur.
In addition, he said that several tracks of the deceased may come out posthumously. How exactly they come out will be determined by the relatives.
