Russian Woman Admits She Dismembered Mother, Sister in Mexican Border City

MEXICO CITY – A 19-year-old Russian woman confessed that she murdered her mother and 12-year-old sister, whose dismembered bodies were found at their house in Tijuana, a border city in northwest Mexico, media reports said.

Anastasia Lechtchenko Masney, who was the prime suspect in the murder case, was found and arrested in Sinaloa, another northwestern state.

The teenager confessed that she beheaded and dismembered the bodies, removing the heart from one body and the eyes from the other.

The suspect told investigators she flushed the body parts down the toilet because she believed her mother and sister were witches.

The dismembered bodies of Yulya Masney Safonchik, a 42-year-old Russian-born Mexican citizen, and her daughter, Valeria Lechtchenko Masney, were found last week inside a house in Tijuana, located near San Diego, California, the Baja California Attorney General’s Office said.

Anastasia Lechtchenko Masney lived at the house with her mother and sister, but she was not home when AG’s office agents went to the property.

Investigators launched a search for the teenager, the AG’s office said.

The suspect often disappeared from home and was reported missing several times to authorities by relatives who feared that people traffickers had abducted her.

Authorities, however, determined that she had left of her own will and had drug problems.