Russian police arrest suspected grave robber.
- 13 years ago
This is no ordinary game of dress up.
Russian police have arrested a man known as the "cemetery collector" suspected of digging up corpses, dressing the remains in clothing and displaying them in his flat.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) POLICE SPOKESWOMAN SVETLANA KOVILINA:
"In the flat of a 45-year-old inhabitant of Nizhny Novgorod, police found 28 human-sized dolls which he had prepared himself, using clothes which were stolen from the graves in cemeteries and also mummified fragments of human bodies."
Police in the Russian town, 400 kilometres from Moscow, described the arrested man as an historian and an expert in the study of place names.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) POLICE SPOKESWOMAN SVETLANA KOVILINA:
"As well as the dolls, police confiscated from his flat a large number of clothes, stolen from cemeteries, and the signs from graves, photos of the cemeteries and scientific literature connected with this field. The man himself is widely known in certain scientific circles as a historical specialist of cemeteries."
Local media cited friends as saying they had never seen the dolls, and that their friend was a learned, if eccentric, man.
Nick Rowlands, Reuters.
Russian police have arrested a man known as the "cemetery collector" suspected of digging up corpses, dressing the remains in clothing and displaying them in his flat.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) POLICE SPOKESWOMAN SVETLANA KOVILINA:
"In the flat of a 45-year-old inhabitant of Nizhny Novgorod, police found 28 human-sized dolls which he had prepared himself, using clothes which were stolen from the graves in cemeteries and also mummified fragments of human bodies."
Police in the Russian town, 400 kilometres from Moscow, described the arrested man as an historian and an expert in the study of place names.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) POLICE SPOKESWOMAN SVETLANA KOVILINA:
"As well as the dolls, police confiscated from his flat a large number of clothes, stolen from cemeteries, and the signs from graves, photos of the cemeteries and scientific literature connected with this field. The man himself is widely known in certain scientific circles as a historical specialist of cemeteries."
Local media cited friends as saying they had never seen the dolls, and that their friend was a learned, if eccentric, man.
Nick Rowlands, Reuters.