A Russian soccer player murdered a woman after phone scammers tricked him into robbing her — and tricked her daughter into letting him in.

A Moscow woman was killed last week by a man allegedly manipulated by phone scammers into believing he was carrying out a police operation

On the evening of March 13, a woman was murdered in her apartment in the Russian capital. Her body was found the following day. State investigators reported that a safe in the apartment had been forced open and that the victim’s teenage daughter had unwittingly let the killer in, having been told by phone scammers that he was a law enforcement officer.

A suspect was detained not long after: a man born in 2005 in Kislovodsk, later identified by Telegram channels as Daniil Sekach. On March 15, the Russian Investigative Committee released a video showing officers escorting him with his hands pinned behind his back, as well as footage of his interrogation. In it, he describes how scammers instructed him to break open the safe and kill its owner.

According to investigators, the scammers had first contacted Sekach more than a month before the attack. Posing as law enforcement, they told him that if didn’t obey their instructions, he would face criminal prosecution himself.

On March 13, Sekach arrived at the apartment building carrying an angle grinder, a crowbar, a sledgehammer, and other tools. The victim’s 16-year-old daughter was home alone and had also been contacted by the scammers, who, again posing as police, persuaded her to open the door to their “agent.” Once inside, Sekach began working on the safe and sent the girl downstairs to meet her mother at the building’s entrance and tell her that an intelligence officer was working in the apartment.

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Soon after, the girl’s mother came upstairs and tried to stop the intruder. After demanding the safe’s code, Sekach beat her and stabbed her at least twice. She died at the scene. Sekach eventually forced the safe open and took more than $2,000 along with other valuables — then, on the scammers’ instructions, threw everything out the open window. He remained in the apartment afterward, holding the daughter there until the following day, when the scammers finally told him to let her go and leave.

Telegram channels identified the victim as 48-year-old Yekaterina Chuchupalo. Her husband was on a work trip in the Middle East at the time. The couple have two daughters; the younger one was the girl targeted by the scammers. According to various Telegram outlets, Yekaterina had previously worked in real estate and later founded her own academy teaching “neural networks and online work.” She also collected coins from the reign of Catherine II.

Sekach, 20, is a professional soccer player who had told teammates he was heading to Moscow to deal with university issues. He has been charged with murder, has confessed, and expressed remorse. Prosecutors are expected to request pretrial detention.