A court in Kharkiv has sentenced a man who killed, dismembered and tried to burn his own wife last year to 15 years in prison. The story of Maria Kholodnaya, a choreographer at the Kharkiv Academic Theatre of Musical Comedy, has hit the country, and the circumstances of her murder are similar to the scenario of a horror film.
The crime took place on 17 February 2024 in Kharkov. About the disappearance of Maria Kholodnaya was reported by her mother. The woman stopped answering calls, and wrote “rather strange” in messengers.
Law enforcers found out that the choreographer and her husband are going to divorce, decided to live separately.
A few days before the disappearance, the husband came to his wife with a suitcase, allegedly to pick up personal belongings.
Out of jealousy, he suspected his wife of cheating, so he periodically stalked her.
Lyudmila Kurynskova, the mother of the deceased Maria Kholodnaya, told Suspilna that she expected a life sentence for her daughter’s husband. She also wanted material compensation from him.
“They asked for six million in moral compensation, and the Bocarius Institute proved that there is this moral claim, there were witnesses, witnesses were questioned. It was long, hard. They said: six million, but here we see that only legal fees, that’s it. I also do not agree, my child, my only child, my love, was taken away…,” Kurynskova told Suspilny.
Subsequently, there is still a court hearing on the custody of the fourteen-year-old son of the murdered and convicted. Now lives with his mother Maria Kholodnaya.