Moscow police said Wednesday they had made an arrest in the headline-grabbing murder of a Russian Instagram star, according to a statement released by the Russian Ministry of Interior (MVD).
“As a result of operational search activities, the police officers at the Moscow Directorate of the MVD of Russia in Moscow established the location and arrested the suspect in the murder of a female social media personality in the apartment of a residential building on Pyryeva Street,” Irina Volk, the official spokesperson for the MVD, said. “He has now been brought in for questioning.”
Russian law enforcement statements did not name the victim, but Russian state television channel Rossiya 24 and multiple Russian news outlets identified the her as Yekaterina Semochkina, who used the online pseudonym Yekaterina Karaglanova and who was best known for the Instagram handle @katti_loves_life.
According to the Investigative Committee, Russia’s top law-enforcement body, the body of the woman was discovered Saturday in a suitcase in a residential apartment building on Pyryeva Street. During the examination of the body, stab and cut wounds were found in the chest area.
A landlord said that the relatives could not reach the victim and asked to check the apartment, the Investigative Committee said.
The motive for the crime remains unclear. According to a report on state television channel Vesti’s “Dezhurnaya Chast” (“Dispatcher”), a crime television program that features official information from Russian law enforcement, Semochkina was planning to celebrate her birthday in Amsterdam and had already packed the suitcase in which her body was eventually found.
According to her Instagram profile, Semochkina was a dermatologist who was widely travelled. Her Instagram account — which has 92,000 followers — featured glamour shots of her visiting resorts and exotic vacation spots.
Her final post on Instagram featured a photo of her holding a glass of wine and posing poolside.
“Hi, Moscow!” It read. “That was the end of our short, but very fun trip to Corfu. It was very opportune for a few days to escape from the torrential rains and cold to the Ionian Sea.
Generally, to be honest, I do not like a long rest. I travel often, but in each country I spend no more than 3-5 days. The longest trip in my life was to Israel with my family when I was 14 years old.”
The post was flooded with expressions of condolence from Russia and around the world.
