The convict attempted to conceal his crime by posing as his wife on social media for months
FILE PHOTO: Model and beauty pageant star Ksenia Popova (then Sapozhkova), who was killed by her husband Alexander Popov in 2021, is seen in a promo photo at 19 years old. © Viktor Gagarin
A Russian man found guilty of murdering his wife, a former beauty pageant star, has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison by a Moscow court, after horrific details of the case shocked the nation.
The Sherbinsky District Court of Moscow convicted Alexander Popov for the murder of his wife Kseniya Popova (née Sapozhnikova) on Friday, handing down a 12-year prison sentence for the grisly crime.
“After examining the evidence presented by the parties, evaluating the case materials, the court delivered a guilty verdict, according to which Alexander Popov was found guilty of the murder of his wife … and sentenced him to imprisonment for a term of 12 years,” the court said in a statement on Telegram.
Popov initially went to the police in January to report his wife missing, claiming she had gone on a trip overseas and never returned. However, law enforcement soon grew suspicious of the man and made him their prime suspect, finding that Popova never left Russia, while interviews with her relatives revealed that they had received odd messages from her which did not fit with her usual mannerisms.
Further doubts about Popov’s story were raised when officers discovered he had sent his daughter away to a friend’s house sometime in August 2021, after which he was seen hauling large trash bags out of his home.
Popov eventually confessed to the murder after contacting the police, reportedly admitting to killing his wife and even showed the investigators where he disposed of her body. While he later retracted some of confessions, he was nonetheless convicted based on the evidence against him, though the court noted he still has a chance to appeal within 10 days of his official guilty verdict.
As a young adult, Popova was a well-known beauty queen, and was crowned the winner of the ‘Miss Kuzbass’ contest 2010. Born in the Siberian city of Novokuznetsk, she also sought to compete in the ‘Miss Russia’ 2011 contest. She moved to Moscow with her husband in 2020, after Popov found a job working for the Moscow Metro. He had previously served as a government official in their hometown.
