A mum who was charged with axing to death three of her four children, severing her baby’s head before dumping it in a cupboard, has been detained for two months in a major update.
A courtroom heard that the head of 29-year-old Valentina Mytko’s youngest son, an infant aged just seven months old, had allegedly been severed and was found in a cupboard. Her four-year-old daughter had allegedly been strangled but also suffered axe wounds and her eight-year-old son allegedly screamed before he was axed to death in Kansk, Krasnoyarsk region, Russia, according to witnesses. Only her seven-year-old son survived the brutal massacre, but witnessed at least parts of it after returning from school.
Earlier reports claimed the mum suffered from “paranoid schizophrenia”, however this was not confirmed during an initial court hearing. She will now undergo a psychiatric examination to determine whether this is the case.
Mytko, a Baptist church-going mum has been formally charged with the multiple murders of her children “with particular cruelty”. As she sat in court wearing a mask, she was asked: “Do you understand why you are in court? What were you detained for?”
“For murder,” she chillingly answered. She was asked if she remembered how she killed the children, to which she responded: “Three times there was a blow with an axe. I was arrested.”
When asked why she “put the child’s head in the cupboard”, she did not reply. The woman told the judge she was under “a lot of stress” and died that before the killings she had been registered as having schizophrenia.
“I went to the psychiatrist, he said that I had to take pills, and that’s it,” she said. Russian state investigators argued she had been diagnosed, but this still needed verified, and they are acting against “negligent” social services for failing to ensure the children’s safety.
Her husband had been sanctioned earlier for beating one of their sons. The brutal killings were witnessed by the woman’s surviving child, aged just seven, when he got home from school, according to investigators.
The mum took the boy to his grandparents and “sat down and cried”. A statement from the committee said: “Her son, who had returned from school, saw what was happening, and the suspect then went with him to her parents and reported what had happened.”
Later, during an interrogation, she could not explain what had happened but allegedly told investigators she “did not have the strength to deal with [her surviving son]. A video from the interrogation showed her seeming to understand her rights, as she was seen with apparent cuts on her nose and face.
“Before the interrogation begins, your rights are explained to you,” she was told. “Your words can be used as evidence in a criminal case, including in the event of your subsequent refusal to testify. Do you understand the essence of the charges brought against you?”
She confirmed she did, saying “yes”. The killings happened after the woman’s husband, a driver who was described by neighbours as “tyrannical”, had gone out to work, it is alleged.
The children were found to have “axe wounds to their heads and various parts of their bodies,” reported offical Kremlin newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The suspected axe allegedly used as the murder weapon was found at the site of the killings.
Mytko was remanded in custody on murder charges for two months pending further investigations into the childrens’ deaths.
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