‘I killed her to prove my own greatness’ A 16-year-old St. Petersburg blogger and his accomplice are in custody after murdering a seventh-grader in the woods

The St. Petersburg authorities have arrested two teenagers suspected of murdering a 13-year-old girl. On May 3, the Investigative Committee reported having taken them into custody. According to the news media, the suspects are a 16-year-old named Ilya T. and his 15-year-old friend Anfisa R.

According to the news outlet Fontanka, the 13-year-old victim, Vasilisa, was killed on April 30 near the village of Pargolovo, not far from St. Petersburg. Her body was discovered in a pit, dug deep in the local woods. The detectives found a bloodstained hammer and Vasilisa’s shattered smartphone nearby. The suspects reportedly messaged the victim’s mother from her phone, telling her: “I love you but I’m tired and want a different life. I’m not coming back.”

The detectives are saying that the two suspects had no particular motive apart from “self-assertion.” Ilya and Anfisa appear to have lured Vasilisa into the woods, where they had already dug a pit. According to some media reports, the older teens told the girl they wanted to “interview” her. Anfisa recorded the killing on video, while Ilya struck Vasilisa several times on the head with the hammer, and then strangled her to make sure she was dead. Afterwards, the accomplices buried the body.

Vasilisa’s mother called the police when her daughter didn’t come home on Sunday night. The search started on Monday, May 1. The detectives found Ilya among the missing girl’s contacts and then tracked down his personal Telegram channel, where he confessed the murder in a post, writing: “I killed her with several hammer blows to the head, and then strangled her to make sure she died. I did it to prove to myself my own greatness, my ability to do terrible deeds.” Ilya also wrote that he was going to commit suicide, but later he changed his mind.

The Telegram news channel 112 writes that Ilya was detained after telling his parents about the murder. The couple had been on vacation in the Crimea at the time, and his father called the police after speaking with Ilya. The suspect was arrested on May 2. He confessed the murder to the police and led the detectives to the place in the woods where he and Anfisa had hidden the body. Anfisa was arrested next. She claims she didn’t know the planned murder was going to be anything more than make-believe.