You're reading: Suspected Karavan killer found dead

Yaroslav Mazurok, the man suspected in this fall’s triple murder at a Kyiv shopping mall, was found dead on Nov. 7 in a Kyiv park, police say. 

The body of the
accused killer, suspected of fatally shooting three security guards at Karavan
mall on Sept. 26, was reportedly discovered by a man walking his dog in the
woods near Dorohozhychi. A passport of a man with the same name and birth year was
found near his body, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Police said
they also found a gun similar to the one used in the mall slaying near the
corpse. The man shot himself in an apparent suicide, police believe.

Police now say
they will conduct DNA tests to confirm the corpse’s identity. However, this may
not end the case. The September triple murders put Ukrainian society,
unaccustomed to gun killings, on edge.

Mazurok’s wife,
Lyudmyla, has always maintained his innocence.

The Sept. 26
triple murder at Karavan happened after Mazurok was allegedly caught on camera
taking a USB flash drive, and then trying to conceal it as he went through
checkout, paying only for groceries. Apprehended and escorted to a back room by
security, the man whom the police later identified as Mazurok pulled out a gun and killed three guards. He seriously
injured a fourth before the gunman fled on foot.

At the time,
the consensus was that it was a tragic case of security guards not taking the
proper precautions in approaching the wrong guy. Wanted posters went up
featuring the fugitive Mazurok. Speculation about his past – whether he was a
criminal, in the military or a boxer – surfaced.

His wife, Lyudmyla
Mazurok, contends that a professional hit man was hired by security companies
to carry out the Karavan murders. She maintains her husband was the fall guy in
a plot to have parliament pass legislation to allow security guards to carry
firearms.

Mazurok’s wife
also disputed news reports that her husband had military training and his
employment record. She has stated in person and through her lawyer, Lawrence
Kuhaleyshvili, to Ukrainian new media that Mazurok worked as an itinerant
plasterer and suffered from arthritis, thus making it difficult for him to
carry a gun. Lyudmyla Mazurok also believed the man in the YouTube video
shown carrying out the murder was not actually her husband. He as 25-30 years
old, while Mazurok was 38.

Lyudmyla Mazurok
conceded that her husband had been missing since Sept. 27, apparently he returned
home following the shootings with the milk and bread he purchased. She woke up and found her husband’s phone on the table, but he was gone.

Graham Phillips is a freelance writer in Kyiv.