This week, metropolitan investigators told the terrible details of a high-profile case about the murder of “Miss Kuzbass – 2010” Ksenia Popova. The model was allegedly dealt with by her husband, the former vice-mayor of Novokuznetsk. Now he is under arrest and claims that the crime happened by accident. The correspondent of the program “Vesti. Duty” conducted her own investigation and found out that the death of the model could have been planned and the reason for everything was the double life of her husband. The report contains previously unknown details of the resonant story.
An investigative experiment was conducted in the high-profile case of the massacre of “Miss Kuzbass – 2010” Ksenia Popova. It was attended by her husband and alleged perpetrator of the crime, Alexander Popov. Presumably, he first killed his wife, and then for almost half a year he deceived her relatives and friends: he conducted social networks and correspondence on her behalf and assured that Ksenia went on a trip to Africa. On the operational video, Popov is in a black jacket and hat, his hands are handcuffed. He leads the police and investigators to the family bedroom, where the murder was committed.
Judging by the footage, Popov is extremely calm. He describes in detail the details of the conflict with his wife. According to him, the quarrel broke out due to the fact that the couple had a trip to Turkey, where Ksenia planned to celebrate her 30th birthday. Like, on the day of the murder, she said that she would go to celebrate with a friend in the Emirates. And when Alexander expressed dissatisfaction, she allegedly attacked him with a kitchen knife. He tried to fight back with a pillow.
Alexander’s words are questionable. The kitchen knife in the bedroom somehow doesn’t fit with the accident the defendant insists on. According to media reports, Popov inflicted several wounds on Ksenia. However, he himself assures that he did not want to kill his wife. Allegedly, Xenia stumbled, they fell to the floor, and he accidentally plunged a knife into her.
These terrible details do not seem to touch Popov: on his face – zero emotion in the voice – not a drop of trembling.
After that, according to Popov, he undressed the victim, packed it and took it outside, put it in the back seat of the car. “After that, I sat and didn’t move for two hours. I didn’t know what to do,” the man admits.
Popov assures that he wanted to call an ambulance and the police, but for some reason he hid the body in bags and took the forest out. He tells investigators that he was frightened and acted as if in a fog. But he remembered well the place where he buried his murdered wife.
Alexander and Ksenia moved to Moscow a few years ago. Before that, they lived in Novokuznetsk. Ksenia is a recognized beauty in Kuzbass, participated in several modeling competitions. Here is a 19-year-old girl shares her emotions about the last photo shoot.
In 2010, Ksenia Sapozhkova, then a student at a technical university, won the Miss Kuzbass 2010 regional beauty contest.
Then there were the world’s best podiums. Ksenia worked abroad for several years. But in the end, she returned to her hometown to graduate from high school. The girl got an internship at the administration of the Central District of Novokuznetsk. At that time it was headed by Alexander Popov.
He rather early sat down in the official’s chair. And, they say, not without the help of his father, a well-known businessman in the city. At the age of 24, Alexander headed the department for issuing municipal grants, then headed the administration of the Central District of the city. But he was fired soon after. Then for some time he headed the school catering plant, but he did not stay in this position either.
“Many people say that he gave the impression of a major. Well, indeed, he was so slightly relaxed, driving an expensive car. And after some point in his work, he had such an official ambition. He had such an area of major,” recalls Novokuznetsk journalist Rostislav Bardokin .
At the time of meeting Ksenia, Alexander was married and raised two children. But that didn’t stop him. Popov’s friends say that his parents did not accept Xenia and did not communicate with her. The newlyweds moved to Moscow, Popov took a senior position in a large company, and Ksenia devoted herself to raising her five-year-old daughter. One of their acquaintances, also a model in the past, Sofya Lapitskaya, believes that there have been conflicts in the family for a long time.
“Girls often live not with their minds, but with their emotions. She could see in him some qualities with which he, perhaps, tried to splurge. Such men play a role for some time, and then some event occurs, after what they lose control. Judging by the way Ksenia looked on some frames in social networks, I saw that she looked tortured, dejected, oppressed. Surely there was not everything in order, “Sofya Lapitskaya shares her assumptions,” Miss Kuzbass – 2011 “.
During the interrogation by the investigator, Popov portrayed grief. Now he pouted his already plump lips, then he wiped invisible tears with his palm. And in every possible way he tried to create the image of a respectable family man.
“I repent. I lived by this person, loved this person and still cannot understand and accept all this,” the man said during interrogation.
Popov hid Ksenia’s absence for almost half a year: he maintained accounts on social networks on her behalf, published photos from her “imaginary vacation” for her, and corresponded with relatives. All this time, Alexander lived an ordinary life: he went to work, met with friends. And just a few kilometers from the house was the body of his murdered wife. After Xenia’s relatives sounded the alarm, it became difficult to hide the loss. Popov turned to the South African embassy for help. Allegedly, the wife went on vacation and disappeared. Diplomats referred him to the police.
– Did you carry out correspondence on Instagram on behalf of Popova? the investigator asks.
Yeah, I just didn’t know how to proceed. And I myself did not want to believe that she was no more. He portrayed an illusion for himself, and for others. Because he did not accept this situation for himself and did not know what to say to his relatives and friends, – the accused answers.
Popov’s imagination drew more and more new pictures: either Ksenia was on vacation in the Emirates, then for some reason she left to work as an animator on a cruise ship in Africa, then she fell ill and ended up in a covid hospital. The investigators listened to all these stupid versions and found out that Ksenia did not leave the country, and her husband always had her phone.
“A billing was made, which showed that a few days after Ksenia allegedly crossed the border of the Russian Federation, Popov and Popova’s phones are with the same operator outside of Moscow, in the city of Chelyabinsk. After which it was established that Popov was giving us false testimony , – says Alexander Doronin, investigator for especially important cases of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the city of Moscow. – He took his daughter to his parents in Novokuznetsk, they went to meet him. And Chelyabinsk was the meeting point. “
It seems that after the murder of his wife, Alexander led a double life. According to some reports, he moved his first wife and children from Novokuznetsk to Moscow and settled them in a new apartment. It is possible that Popov just wanted to restore relations with the former and decided to eliminate the current one. According to journalists, the first wife of the accused now lives in a high-rise building on the outskirts of the capital. The house is new, not all tenants have moved into the apartments yet. Neighbors remember seeing the woman on the playground and are horrified to learn the details of the family drama.
Investigators say that during the six months that Alexander deceived others and covered his tracks, important evidence was lost.
“Initially, at the time of the crime, Popov lived with his wife and child in a rented apartment. Currently, the housing has already been sold and was owned by another person. And this person made a major overhaul in the apartment. Indeed, this made it difficult to search for traces of the crime,” – Alexander Doronin, investigator for especially important cases of the Main Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the city of Moscow, notes.
This is not the first story where a fairy tale turns into a terrible true story about beauty and the beast. Last spring in the Urals, Dmitry Zhuravlev killed his model wifeand later covered up the crime. He was sentenced to eight years. Another sensational drama is the murder of model Yulia Prokopyeva in Yekaterinburg. With her too dealt with husband, photographer Dmitry Loshagin. The court sentenced him to ten years in prison. Yulia’s mother, Svetlana Ryabova, is now closely following the case of Ksenia Popova and assures that these crimes have a lot in common.
“The stories are almost identical. In both cases, the murderous husbands hid the murder for a long time and led a quiet life. In the case of Yulia, it was several weeks, in the case of Ksenia, six months. The story, of course, is terrible. I think that everything here still depends and from the fact that such beauties hid that they became victims of domestic violence, and simply endured bullying,” Svetlana Ryabova shares her thoughts.
Correspondents showed footage of the interrogation of Alexander Popov to a profiler – an expert on lies. And here is the conclusion he made.
“I have a clear belief that in this video he invents that everything happened by accident.
Did everything happen by chance?
Yes, absolutely by accident.
Here is this moment. First, the voice is lost. He cannot deceive us. This is such a non-verbal reaction, the ligaments stand up like a stake, it’s hard to tell a lie. This question was unexpected. He thought over the testimony, and this is also evident from his gestures,” profiler, sign language expert Ilya Anishchenko gives his opinion.
Relatives of the murdered Xenia refuse to communicate with journalists and interrupt telephone conversations. Apparently, the funeral of the model will be held in Novokuznetsk in the near future.
Now the investigators have to establish what it was: a planned crime or still a fatal accident. Popov, accused of killing his wife, sent to jail. Perhaps in the near future he will also go on a trip, but not to Africa, where he sent his dead wife in his false dreams, but to his historical homeland – to Siberia, for 15 years.