The remains of a Ukrainian rapper and dad of one who was dismembered and disembowelled by his wife before being stored in a freezer have finally been buried in his home country.
Alexander Yushko’s body parts were found sprinkled with salt, packed into bags and stored in a freezer in his Saint Petersburg apartment by his wife, who, despite admitting the act, is still not in custody, as she claims he was already dead when she decided to hide his body.
His funeral took place in the city of Bila Tserkva in the Ukrainian region of Kyiv Oblast on Wednesday, 29th December, almost one and a half years after his death aged 30.
The mutilated body of the rapper, who performed under the name Andy Cartwright, was found in his apartment in Russia’s second city on 29th July, 2020.
The police suspect that he was not only cut up but also murdered by his wife Marina Kukhal after she found out he was planning to divorce her and move in with his lover.
They believe she was assisted by a female relative, who helped her to cut the body into 15 parts with a saw.
Investigators found that the victim’s stomach, pancreas, oesophagus, gall bladder, intestines, adrenal glands, urinary bladder and prostate gland were all missing.
They believed the organs were disposed of to make it more difficult for them to ascertain the cause of death.
According to the investigators, the fact that the blood had been drained so fully from the remaining body parts suggests the rapper was still alive when the women started to chop him up.
Marks found in the victim’s chin area and on his right palm led the investigators to believe his wife had injected him with insulin shortly before his death.
Coroners found he had low glucose levels, suggesting he had been in a hypoglycaemic coma. It was also confirmed that he did not suffer from diabetes.
The wife told the police her husband had died of an overdose and that she dismembered his body to try to cover up the cause of death, which she considered shameful.
She claimed that if his fans and loved ones, including their child, knew he had died of an overdose, his legacy would be tarnished.
However, investigators failed to find drugs in either the rapper’s body or his apartment, and no medical conditions that may have led to his early death were discovered.
His friends told reporters he had alcohol problems, but that he did not use illegal substances.
Investigators later learned that the rapper wanted to divorce his wife and move in with his lover named Nadezhda.
They believe this was the motive for the crime, which they say took place when the couple’s child, aged two and a half, was also in the apartment.
Investigators seized a knife, a hammer, a hacksaw, a basin and a cutting board from the crime scene as part of the investigation, the findings of which are expected to be reported at the end of this month (January).
The wife was taken in for questioning, but she was later released without charge due to a lack of hard evidence at the time that the rapper had, indeed, been murdered.
A psychological examination ruled she was sane, and she faces 15 years in prison if sufficient evidence is gathered to prove her guilt when the final report is released.
She was released from custody and placed under house arrest in October, and the arrest period expires on 30th January this year (2022).
Yushko had moved to Saint Petersburg in the early 2000s. His first solo album, ‘The Magic of Murky Waters’, was released in 2012.
He became well known after he participated in the rap battle show ‘Versus Battle’.
