Bulgaria Marks Grim Anniversary of Sisters Double Murder
Crime | January 31, 2012, Tuesday // 11:27| viewsSisters Rositsa (18) and Kristina (15) Belneyski went missing in January 2006, before it was discovered they fell victims of a brutal murder. Photo by DarikNews
Bulgaria marks Tuesday a grim anniversary – 6 years since the gruesome murder of two teenage sisters Rositsa (18) and Kristina (15) Belneyski.
The two went missing in January 2006, after leaving a night club in the town of Pazardzhik. Their mutilated bodies were found on January 31 2006, at the site "Gramadite" near the town of Peshtera.
The sisters were declared missing on January 27, after the parents alerted the police. They have been last seen alive at midnight on January 28th, when they were caught by a bank security camera in the city of Pazardzhik. Over 120 volunteers took part in the search until a shepherd found their bodies.
The first police lead was that they have become victims of pimps, who forced them into prostitution.
Six years later, the only suspect had been sentences to life without parole.
At the end of November 2011, the Appellate Court in Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv confirmed the June 2011 life without parole sentence for Lazar Kolev from the Court in the city of Pazardzhik.
The grounds for the latest rule say that Kolev murdered in January 2006 the two teen sisters in an extremely cruel way and with premeditation in order to cover up for other crimes – rape and sodomy.
The magistrates stress the charges have been proven beyond reasonable doubt and rejected all defense motives for the appeal. The magistrates have examined testimony from 50 witnesses, 40 expert reports, including some prepared abroad.
They fully accepted the DNA analysis, showing that biological material, identical to Kolev's, had been found under the nails of the victims and that it has been categorically proven that the nails belonged precisely to the two sisters. The later has been confirmed by two Bulgarian coroner reports and one prepared in Austria by top-notch experts.
The Court also very carefully examined witness testimony from a cellmate of Kolev, who says the defendant had told him in detail how he met the girls and what he had done to them and decided that the testimony fully coincides with other presented evidence.
The Court further discarded an expert report listing the cause of death as a traffic incident while the rapes had been staged as a cover up because another report had proven the injuries were inflicted by kicks and sharp objects. The rapes have also been proven by collected evidence.
The rule is now appealed with the Supreme Court of Cassations.
"Every January I feel terrible; it has been the same in the last six years. And several days before the date they were found I start seeing them in my dreams. I hope the Supreme Court will reaffirm the verdict," mother Fani Belneyska is quoted saying.
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