[An Nahar] The body of a kidnapped Russian lawmaker has been found in a cement-filled barrel in a cellar outside Moscow, investigators said Monday."What do you make of it, Holmes?"
"I suspect foul play, Inspector!"
"The body of Mikhail Pakhomov, a lawmaker from Lipetsk city council, has been found in one of the cellars of a private garage in a metal barrel filled with cement," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
"Investigators have gathered enough evidence to establish the violent nature of Pakhomov's death," it said.
Normally when a body's found in a 55-gallon drum of concrete you suspect he died a violent death.
Pakhomov, 37, disappeared on February 12 in the central Russian city of Lipetsk, and investigators immediately opened a probe into murder.
The interior ministry said Monday that police had detained 11 people on suspicion of committing the crime including the suspected mastermind, whom it described as a 40-year-old Muscovite.
"So, Professor Moriarty! We meet again!"
Before the discovery of the body, the Investigative Committee had announced Sunday it was charging the former deputy minister of housing services for the Moscow region, Yevgeny Kharitonov, with ordering Pakhomov's kidnapping. Investigators have not disclosed the motive for the apparent contract killing.
"But why do you want him bumped off, Professor Moriarty?"
"So he's dead!"