25-Year-Old Disappearance Case Of Businessman Solved In Minsk

The remains were found in the woods.

The Investigative Committee said that near Minsk they found the remains of a businessman who disappeared 25 years ago. Details were announced by the press service of the department.

According to investigators, on December 31, 1997, a 40-year-old businessman from Minsk left his house to meet his partner and disappeared. It was established that in the summer of 1996 the men started a business, for the development of which he borrowed money at interest. In the autumn of 1997, the deadline for repaying a loan of 60 thousand dollars to one of his friends was just approaching, but they were unable to repay it due to existing difficulties.

It is reported that there was no news from the missing businessman for several days, but on January 3, 1998, he began calling his friends and relatives, asking to borrow 53 thousand dollars. He did not answer the question about his whereabouts, adding that he would tell everything later. After January 10, the man stopped communicating, and his wife contacted the police.

The Investigative Committee noticed that in February 1998, two acquaintances to whom the businessman owed a large sum received parcels with explosive devices. Law enforcement officers seized and cleared the parcels. A fingerprint was found on one of them on the inside, but it was not possible to establish who exactly it belonged to.

“Suspicion fell on the missing businessman, since he had a tense relationship with the recipients of the explosive parcels due to a large debt that the man did not repay,” the report says.

It is noted that they were looking for the missing person both in Belarus and abroad. However, in 2023, investigators received information from specialists about a match between a handprint found in 1998 and a fingerprint from a resident of the Homel region. It was known that he and his accomplice were part of a criminal gang in the 90s that also operated in Minsk. In addition, the involvement of 4 more people, including a business partner, in the disappearance of the Minsk businessman was established.

The department said that the scenario for the meeting with the companion was developed in advance. The whole point is that the partner was not satisfied with endless debts. For this reason, he decided to settle the financial issue in a radical way. At the appointed time, the men met and went to a rented apartment on Rafiyeu Street, where the collectors were waiting for them.

“The debtor was tied up, held and periodically forced to ask his family and friends to borrow money,” the report said.

Investigators have established that parcels with explosives were sent to the businessman’s former colleagues by the defendants themselves in order to distract the police from the disappearance of the Minsk businessman. It is also said that in the Minsk region they managed to find skeletal human remains, which were sent for examination. The Investigative Committee added that six men aged 46 to 66 years old who were involved in the disappearance of the businessman were detained in a criminal case.