Murder victim identified by breast implants: Russian actor arrested after sex worker's limbless torso found in river
Police solved the murder of a transsexual prostitute who was chopped up after being stabbed in Russia by tracing the serial number of her breast implants to an Irish company.
The limbless torso of a woman was found by a 17-year-old holiday maker as he swam in the River Mga, in the Leningrad region in June.
The human remains appeared to be male but they had female breasts.
The police's forensic team quickly established that these were implants and that they had the serial number 3253426 TSX 359.
This led them to being traced to the Dublin-based company Allergan. The company is the maker of Botox, but it also manufactures products for medical aesthetics.
The discovery meant that the victim was identified as Dzamshud Khatamzhonov, 23, also known as Tamara, and originally from Uzbekistan, after a Russian hospital was identified as having done the surgery implant.
Dzamshud Khatamzhonov, 23,known as Tamara, of Uzbekistan, who vanished in January
Investigators examine the scene at the River Mga where the limbless torso was found
The police managed to establish from the victim's friends that the sex worker's last client was was actor Yury Yanovsky, 52.
Khatamzhonov vanished after meeting the actor, who produced Shchelchok in 2013, in a hotel in January of this year.
Dzamshud Khatamzhonov, 23, left, was identified after police forensic experts, right, examined her breast implants
As police sought to quiz the actor in August he fell from a fifth floor window in St Petersburg and broke his spine, reports say.
This week, he had recovered sufficiently for officers to detain him, said reports.
Actor Yury Yanovsky who has confessed to stabbing and chopping up the sex worker
The actor and film producer, Yury Yanovsky, faces ten years in prison if convicted of murder
Yanovsky told interrogators that he had had a number of meetings with the victim who he knew as Tamara.
He claimed he feared he would be poisoned and robbed. He confessed to stabbing Khatamzhonov then using a saw to dismember the body.
He dumped the severed parts of the corpse in the River Mga, said the Russian Investigative Committee.
Footage from REN TV showed the river where the body was dumped, and a court hearing.
Yanovsky has an earlier conviction for illegal possession of weapons and it is claimed that the actor has links to criminal gangs in St Petersburg.
He faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted of murder.