Granddaughter suspected in disappearance of former Russian mayor and wife after allegedly posing as her grandfather in text messages

Authorities in Russia’s Samara are investigating the disappearance and likely murder of the city’s former mayor, Viktor Tarkhov, and his wife. The couple’s granddaughter has been arrested as a suspect after reportedly impersonating her grandfather in text messages and selling her grandparents’ belongings. Here’s what we know about this unusual missing persons case.

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case on charges of double homicide over the disappearance of former Samara Mayor Viktor Tarkhov, 77, and his wife, Natalia.

According to investigators, a friend of Tarkhov reported him missing on January 31. Police have determined that Tarkhov and his wife were last heard from in late December 2024. Their whereabouts remain unknown, the regional prosecutor’s office said.

Russian state media reports that the case was launched on February 3. The following day, investigators arrested Tarkhov’s granddaughter, Ekaterina Belskaya, who is reportedly 29 or 30 years old. The Investigative Committee stated that she’s under investigation for possible involvement in the crime. Belskaya has refused to testify.

The Telegram channel Baza reports that it was Tarkhov’s former deputy mayor, Alexander Kuznetsov, who first alerted police to his disappearance. Kuznetsov had tried to call Tarkhov to wish him a happy New Year and birthday (January 3), but Tarkhov didn’t answer and instead responded via text. Investigators later determined that Belskaya had been sending messages impersonating her grandfather, claiming he had traveled to Moscow on family business and that all communication should go through her. She also allegedly told people that her grandmother had suffered a stroke and that her grandfather had taken her to Moscow in an ambulance.

A separate account, reported by Kommersant and the Telegram channels Shot and Mash, holds that Belskaya became a suspect after investigators discovered she had been selling her grandparents’ assets using a forged power of attorney. RTVI reports that she attempted to sell Tarkhov’s collection of icons and cars. A search of her apartment turned up documents and phones belonging to Tarkhov and his wife.

Surveillance footage reviewed by investigators shows that Viktor Tarkhov and his wife entered their apartment on Vilonovskaya Street in early January and never left, Baza reports. Meanwhile, from January 4 to 8, Belskaya was seen taking black bags out of the apartment, according to Mash, which cited video evidence examined by authorities. The Investigative Committee also found that Belskaya had obtained plastic barrels.

Russian state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti report that Tarkhov and his wife were shot, while the Telegram channel Shot says investigators are also considering poisoning as a possibility. RTVI sources claim the couple was beaten to death and that their bodies were “preserved in barrels” for a month. However, Kuznetsov dismissed reports that they had been “stuffed into barrels or shot” as false.

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According to RIA Novosti, investigators are in the process of examining the apartment building where the couple was allegedly killed. According to Baza, no blood or signs of a struggle were found inside, though Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that authorities discovered “evidence indicating a crime.” REN TV claims that body parts belonging to the victims were found in Belskaya’s apartment.

Several sources, including Komsomolskaya Pravda, REN TV, and Mash, allege that Tarkhov and his wife were dismembered. A Komsomolskaya Pravda source claims Belskaya “placed the body parts in bags and barrels, then took them in a taxi and dumped them in dumpsters across the city.”

There are conflicting reports about Tarkhov’s whereabouts prior to his disappearance. Some sources say he had been living abroad, while others claim he had remained in Samara and rarely left his home. In August 2022, local media reported that Tarkhov had moved to Norway to recover from COVID-19. His daughter, Lyudmila, also said this at the time. In December 2022, Lyudmila was sentenced to seven years in prison for extorting Samara lawmaker Alexander Mileev. TASS reports that shortly before his alleged murder, Tarkhov returned to Russia from Finland. However, Kuznetsov told TASS that Tarkhov rarely left home due to lingering effects from COVID-19: “He didn’t go outside, he couldn’t drive — his wife drove him everywhere.” Speaking to Baza, Kuznetsov also dismissed claims that Tarkhov had traveled to Finland, saying, “He didn’t go anywhere.”

Russian media reports that Belskaya struggled with drug addiction. Kommersant writes that her grandmother, Natalia Tarkhova, controlled her finances for this reason. According to Shot, Belskaya’s mother, Lyudmila Tarkhova, petitioned a court in 2020 to have her declared legally incapacitated. Belskaya has a six-year-old son who, according to Shot and Mash, has been placed in an orphanage. The boy’s father reportedly lives in Israel.

Viktor Tarkhov served as Samara’s mayor from 2006 to 2010.