UOC cleric fears security forces will hush up murder of Kyiv volunteer

Alexey Kuchapin, a well-known volunteer, director of the House of Mercy. Photo: page of the cleric of the UOC Zacharias Kerstiuk on Facebook

On July 23, 2020, the cleric of the Kyiv Eparchy of the UOC, Archpriest Zacharias Kerstiuk, a friend and associate of the deceased volunteer and director of the House of Mercy Alexey Kuchapin, fears that the security forces will cover up the murder of his mate.

At 12:06, he wrote on his FB page that the police had not yet explained why the information about Kuchapin's trip to Dnipro disappeared from the BlaBlaCar website, as well as where the deceased had been staying for five days from the moment of his disappearance until he visited the apartment, “which he rented for the dispossessed people who were freed from slavery”.

The priest drew public attention to a strange discrepancy: his friend was a believer and a successful person, a happy husband and father, but when he left for Dnipro on homeless affairs, he suddenly quit all secret chats where volunteers discussed their concerns, switched off and threw away his phone ...

Archpriest Zacharias said that the volunteers came to the apartment in which his colleague died. Near the house, behind the trash cans, they found the sofa that used to be in this apartment. According to the clergyman, the sofa was all bloodied, blood even dripped from it.

“The volunteers learned from the residents of the house that the police came here late in the evening on July 20 and did not tell anyone about it. The police took the body out of the apartment at about 2 am already on July 21, and some people took out the sofa at about 3 am. Also, the apartment had been completely washed and cleaned and now looks like a surgery room,” said the cleric of the UOC.

He added that the apartment was not sealed; the keys were simply returned to the owner, who was very scared and said that the volunteers would not be able to protect him, since they could not protect the deceased.

Archpriest Zacharias stressed that the police are hiding the body of the deceased under various pretexts – first, they sent Kuchapin's relatives to the forensic expert with a certificate, they refused to show the body in the morgue without an investigator, but the connection with the latter was lost and he showed up only at the end of the day.

At 19:51, Archpriest Zacharias wrote on his FB page that neither a lawyer, nor relatives, nor experts, nor international human rights activists were allowed to see the body. An acquaintance of the volunteers from the head office told them that "the body is already cut." During the day, they also appointed another investigator in this case, while experts, invited by the deceased's associates to deal with the case, believe that the police are deliberately waiting for the body to begin to decompose to let therefore all traces of a possible murder disappear.

“The person who saw the body clarified that it was all cut up and sewn up, both from the inside and outside, right down to the bones, but the investigator believes that in this way they checked whether the bones were broken and whether there were violent traces inside. Actually, the body is already so mutilated that it is almost impossible to understand how Alexey was killed,” said Archpriest Zacharias.

The press service of the National Police of Ukraine published its report on the progress of the investigation, in which they told about the note and white pills found at the place of death of the volunteer, as well as that they had an important witness in the case. The police also assured that the sofa found by the friends of the deceased was not bloody but stained with traces of body decomposition.

“The police also mentioned the sofa we had found (they recognized it!), saying that these are traces of decomposition of the body. However, any medical student will tell you that the body does not bleed from decomposition, completely different things are released there except for blood, which is still fresh on the sofa, which is spattered all over the sofa, as if there had been a struggle on it, ”Archpriest Zacharias commented on the police statement. “It is also true one cannot throw such evidence like waste until there are results of examinations. Moreover, they didn't even seal the apartment but swept and cleaned up everything there.

The friend of the deceased is worried that the security forces will completely hush up the case and then "quietly kill" all his associates. Earlier, he reported threats against volunteers and posted a selection of videos on his FB page that show how the police are putting pressure on his associates.

On July 22, security officials reported that they had found the body of the missing volunteer Alexey Kuchapin.

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