Investigators told the terrible details of the high-profile case of 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 death of the model could have been planned, the reason for everything – the double life of her husband.
Unique footage of the investigative experiment in the high-profile case of the massacre of “Miss Kuzbass – 2010” Ksenia Popova. The footage shows her husband and alleged perpetrator of the crime Alexander Popov. Presumably, he first killed his wife, and then for almost six months he deceived her relatives and friends. He led 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.
“In what part of the room did this all take place?” the investigators ask.
“Right here,” the man points out.
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.
“She grabbed a knife after lengthy conversations and began to threaten me,” says Popov. “The knife was like this at first. Then like this. She threatened me first. Then she started waving. grabbed like this.”
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.
“At first he grabbed it like this. Then, to knock it out (knife), – the man shows. – Here she starts to back away. Back, back. here I am like this.”
The knife hits the neck. These terrible details do not seem to touch Popov. There is zero emotion on his face, not a drop of tremor in his voice.
“After that, according to your testimony, you hid the corpse?” the investigators continue.
“Yes. Section. Then I took construction bags in the back room, scotch tape, a checkered bag. And put it in that corner,” the man continues to say. “I took the corpse here, put it on one shoulder. where. I left the entrance, turned left and put me in the back seat of the car. After that, I sat and did not move for two hours. I did not know what to do. “
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.
“Defendant, what signs did you use to find this place?” the investigator asks.
“On this dark tree“, – answers the suspect in the murder of his own 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. Rare footage – a 19-year-old girl shares her emotions about the last photo shoot.
“We worked with top-quality professionals, with makeup artists. I peeped with one eye: the photos will be just superb, I’m sure,” the girl says on them.
In 2010, then a student of the Technical University, Ksenia Sapozhkova, won the regional beauty contest “Miss Kuzbass – 2010”.
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. Indeed, he was so slightly relaxed, driving an expensive car. And after some point of work, he had such an official ambition. He had such an area of major,” Novokuznetsk journalist Rostislav agrees with this assessment. 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 long been conflicts in the family.
“Such men play a role for some time, and then some event occurs, after which they lose control. Judging by the way Ksenia looked in some frames on social networks, I saw that she looked tortured, dejected, oppressed. For sure there was not everything in order, “- suggests” Miss Kuzbass – 2011 “Sofya Lapitskaya.
During the interrogation by the investigator, Popov portrayed grief. He pouted his already plump lips, then wiped invisible tears with his palm and tried in every possible way to create the image of a respectable family man.
“I repent,” says Popov. “I lived by this man, loved this man, and still cannot understand and accept all this.”
Popov hid the absence of Xenia for almost half a year. He maintained accounts on social networks on her behalf, published for her a photo from the “imaginary vacation” 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 correspond on Instagram on behalf of Popova?” the investigators asked.
“Yes, I just didn’t know what to do next. And I didn’t want to believe that she was no more. I portrayed an illusion for myself, and for others. Because I didn’t accept this situation for myself and didn’t know what to say to my relatives and relatives,” the former husband of the beauty queen from Kuzbass justifies.
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 Moscow in Chelyabinsk. After that, it was established that Popov was giving us false testimony, – Alexander Doronin, investigator for particularly important cases of the Main Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the city of Moscow, explained. “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 therefore decided to eliminate the current one. According to our information, the first wife of the accused now lives in a high-rise building on the outskirts of the Russian 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.
“Lord, my God, I’m afraid,” says a neighbor. “I only saw a woman with a dog.”
Investigators say that during the six months that Alexander deceived others and covered his tracks, important evidence was lost.
“Popov with his wife and child lived in a rented apartment. At present, the housing has already been sold and was owned by another person. And this person made a major overhaul in the apartment. This really made it difficult to search for traces of a crime committed,” notes the investigator for especially important Affairs Alexander Doronin.
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 wife, a model, and later concealed the crime. He was sentenced to 8 years.
Another sensational drama is the murder of model Yulia Prokopyeva in Yekaterinburg. Her husband, photographer Dmitry Loshagin, also dealt with her. The court sentenced him to ten years in prison. We showed footage of Alexander Popov’s interrogation to a profiler, an expert on lies. And here is what he concluded:
“I have a clear belief that in this video he is inventing that everything happened by accident.”
“Everything happened by chance?” – ask the suspect.
“Yes, absolutely by accident.”
“This is the moment. First, the voice gets lost. It 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,” the profiler notes.
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 in Siberia. For 15 years.