A 31-year-old lawyer who moved his family into the apartment of an elderly woman who mysteriously vanished in 2012 has now confessed to killing her, Russian investigators say.
The lawyer met the 72-year-old when she was seeking legal assistance to get back 10,000 rubles ($300) she had lent to an acquaintance, investigators in the city of Miass, on the southern edge of Russia's Ural Mountains, said in a statement Wednesday.
The lawyer even represented the woman in court. But later on, knowing that she didn't have any close relatives, his greed got the better of him and he decided to kill her to take her home, according to investigators.
Although the opportunistic lawyer was the primary suspect in the woman's disappearance, the case moved slowly until just recently, when the man broke down during questioning and confessed, eventually leading investigators to where he hid the body in a forest, the statement said.
The lawyer, whose name has not been disclosed, now must prepare for the trial of his career, as he faces more than a decade in prison on murder charges.
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