Mother Bought Children Chocolate Before Killing Them, CCTV Footage Reveals

A woman, who was charged with homicide, bought chocolates for her kids before killing them, a new CCTV footage revealed Monday. The perpetrator was identified as 27-year-old Elena Karimova from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

The victims, four-year-old Khadizha and two-year-old Suleiman, were strangulated and later torched by their mother. The incident took place on Apr. 25, 2018. Karimova was detained by investigating officers the same month and would face trial in 2019.

According to the CCTV footage obtained from a fuel filling station, the woman bought a chocolate bar and later refilled the car.

Releasing the footage, the committee investigating the crime, said, "CCTV cameras at a filling station recorded on the day of the murder as a 27-year-old resident of Nizhny Novgorod filled the tank of a rented car, and also bought lighter fuel, and for children, who were in the car, the last chocolate bar of their lives."

She had told a court in April, she committed the murders as it became difficult for her to raise the children, following a divorce from her husband.

"I'm very sorry for what happened. I do not even know how I could go about this," Karimova said. "I lived with my husband, and then we divorced and it became difficult to raise children."

She later rejected her statement but police refused to accept her claim. According to the officials, Karimova first choked the kids and later drove near a woodland and torched the corpses. Fearing the smoke would alert local residents, she doused the flame and put the burnt bodies in the car and drove home. The next day, she dumped the bodies at an abandoned warehouse and set the facility on fire. The bodies were later retrieved by firefighters.

"The fireman initially thought that the charred corpse belonged to a dog," a local resident, Evgeny Katyshev, said, "But when he came up closer, he realized these was the bodies of two children. They were in unnatural poses, and rumors spread that they had been transported in a suitcase," Mirror Online reported.

Katyshev said it was difficult for the officials to determine the gender of the mutilated bodies. Karimova was arrested after some people noticed the rented car near the scene, leading to a police interrogation and subsequent confession.

Meanwhile, Karimova’s family doubted the investigation. Discarding the results, her mother, Natalia Testenkova, said, "We do not believe this."

"She is the most loving mother. How could she kill her kids? We do not know what has happened, but we do not believe these are her kids that were found," she said.

A few weeks before killing her children, Karimova wrote on her daughter's birthday card, "You are my soul, my dearest little one, my long-awaited daughter…The one I live for. You are my copy."