A retired policeman in St.
Petersburg confessed to killing a journalist more than two decades ago, the Fontanka news outlet reported Monday, as law enforcement searched for the victims body in a forest.Fontanka correspondent Maxim Maksimov was investigating corruption in St.
Petersburg law enforcement agencies when he disappeared in June 2004.
His reporting had led him to cops colonel Mikhail Smirnov, then the deputy head of the corruption department in the regional customs authority.Smirnov, long believed of involvement in multiple murders, was arrested in June on different charges of killing a businessman and confessed last Wednesday to killing Maksimov, according to Fontanka.Journalist Maksim Maksimov.spbsj.ruLaw enforcement authorities arecombing a forest northwest of St.
Petersburg for Maksimovs stays, according to media reports, however considerable modifications to the terrain over the previous 20 years have actually complicated the search.Fontanka reported that a partner of Smirnov enticed Maksimov to a house under the pretense of working together on a story, where Smirnov and 3 accomplices strangled him.
They then buried the reporters body.Smirnov supposedly murdered Maksimov after stopping working to discourage him from pursuing reports of suspected corruption.After confession to other murders, the retired law enforcement officer asked to be sent to the cutting edge in Ukraine to have his rap sheet expunged in exchange for military service.
It was not right away clear whether authorities would grant his request.