Two years ago, a difficult and lengthy investigation of the crime was going on in the city of Novosibirsk. On August 28, 2015, Karina Zalesova, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl, was killed. Suspicion immediately fell on her friend and peer, who turned out to be the son of a famous oligarch.
How did the crime happen?
At two o’clock in the afternoon, Karina Zalesova and her father were at a roll call at a school with a chemical and biological bias, where the girl had recently moved to. Before this event, she spoke on the phone and after this call informed her parents that she would go for a walk in the evening, but she would definitely return home by six. Karina's dad and mother wanted to spend the day with her daughter and were not determined to let her go. However, they still succumbed to the girl and allowed her to go for a walk. During the investigation, it was possible to find out what her friend, Mark Konkov, called Karina that day.
He urged her to come to his parents' cottage. Recently, the girl had a difficult relationship with this young man, between them often there was a misunderstanding and conflicts. But still she agreed to fulfill his request. When Karina came to Mark's country house, there, apart from him, was only the nanny, who was watching over Konkov’s little brother. Mark told Zalesova that he was inviting her to celebrate her sixteenth birthday. However, for Karina, and for her friend, this holiday ended in failure. Mark inflicted twenty-five stab wounds on the girl, one of which was fatal.
According to Mark's parents, when they arrived at the crime scene, they miraculously saved the teenager - he made a suicide attempt.
Characteristics of the offender
Konkov Mark Igorevich - the son of a famous businessman, director of eleven construction companies, Igor Konkov. Mark's mother, Natalya, is a psychotherapist. The media also mentioned the name of the uncle of the teenager, Alexander, a political scientist who taught at the largest universities in Moscow and headed the unit of the Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Federation. Mark was a student of school number 162 in Novosibirsk.
During the trial in the criminal case of the murder, his family gave him only good characteristics. However, teachers spoke about the teenager ambiguously. They claimed that Mark had repeatedly exerted physical violence against his peers. One of Konkov's friends said that he sometimes expressed thoughts of suicide or murder. But a friend did not take Mark's words to heart and believed that this was only a manifestation of irritation, and not an obsessive desire that could be realized. Some acquaintances claimed that weird behaviors in a teenager could be caused by drug use.
Relations between Konkov and Zalesova
Karina Zalesova was, one might say, an exemplary child. She studied at the top five and was going to enter a medical university and, possibly, after a while to go on an internship to Japan. After the successful completion of the GIA, the girl went to school with an in-depth study of biology and chemistry. Karina first met Mark Konkov at the birthday of their mutual friend.
Relatives of Zalesova claim that at the beginning of the relationship, the teenager made a pleasant impression on them and the girl. He seemed to them a well-read, polite, intelligent, interesting person. But after some time, quarrels began between the young people. Karina began to receive threats from Mark. She often cried, felt anxious.
Zalesova’s parents wanted to talk with Konkova’s relatives, but she reassured them and asked them not to. She also assured them that she would stop all communication with Mark. There is speculation that the young man killed the girl out of jealousy. But Mark Konkov himself said in the courtroom that he simply had the desire to take her life.
Criminal trial
The young man was detained at the crime scene. Mark Konkov was brought to court on August 29. Investigative officers insisted on arresting the teenager, but the judge did not agree with their decision. As a result, Mark was placed under house arrest. On September 9, the court decision was changed. Konkov was kept in a pre-trial detention center for several months.
They released him only at the end of December 2016. Mark was sent to the clinic for a psychiatric examination. Since this measure was unsuccessful, the teenager was transferred to the center for forensic psychiatric examination, but even there his examination was unsuccessful. Then, after the third hospitalization, doctors admitted that Mark had schizophrenic disorder.
In the spring of 2016, the investigation found that the teenager had committed a crime with particular cruelty. The movable and immovable property of the Konkov family was seized.
A criminal trial was held on June 27, and many people arrived at the premises where it was held. They sincerely empathized with Karina's relatives and expressed a desire to be present in the courtroom. Bailiffs claim that some activists openly insulted Mark and his family.
Konkova’s lawyer I. Nokhrina claimed that the teenager hadn’t planned a crime and didn’t show any particular cruelty. Igor, Mark's father, insisted that his son did not want to kill Karina at all. It was a double suicide.
Murder or suicide?
There was an assumption that Karina was the victim of double suicide. A lawyer representing Mark and his family argues that the girl herself could ask the teenager to take her life. Konkova’s father says that his son expressed thoughts of suicide and could blackmail Karina into a cottage, scare her with statements that she would commit suicide if she did not come. However, this version was almost immediately considered unlikely. The proof that there was no double suicide was numerous injuries on the body and face of Karina. This means that she tried to defend herself.
It also turned out that the offender called from the victim’s phone to his friend and told how he mocked her sophisticatedly. The court also took into account the threats addressed to the girl. In the messages that the teenager sent Zalesova, he wrote that he wanted to kill her.
Given the above circumstances, we can conclude that Konkov Mark Igorevich is a murderer who must be punished for his crime.
Sentencing
During the trial, the teenager admitted his deed. Many were afraid that the killer would not be subjected to severe punishment due to the high social status of his father. Some believed that since Mark’s mother is a psychotherapist, thanks to her connections, the teenager is recognized as insane, will be placed in a psychiatric clinic, and after some time they will be released. Public anxiety led to the fact that in several cities of the Russian Federation rallies were held in defense of the interests of the Zalesov family and their demands for the imposition of a fair punishment for a criminal.
The court passed the following sentence to Mark Konkov: imprisonment for 9 years. In addition, the offender was sent for forced observation and therapy by a psychiatrist in a colony, where he needed to serve a term. Also, the Mark's family was required to pay non-pecuniary damage to Karina's relatives. The criminal case caused a wide public outcry; he was even dedicated to a separate issue of the television program “Live”.
Mark Konkov was imprisoned, despite the fact that his father is a rich and influential man. This terrible incident proves that justice still exists in this world. And everyone, regardless of ties and financial situation, must certainly bear responsibility for their actions.