Penza, 16 December 2015. PenzaNews. Two men, aged 33 and 35, and a woman, born in the Ryazan region, were arrested on charges of several armed assaults and murders of elderly people living in the Penza region and nearby regions.

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“Two of them were placed on federal watchlist for murder in the Lipetsk region,” Lyudmila Fomina, Senior Assistant of the Head of the Investigative Department of the city Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, told PenzaNews agency.

The crimes were undertaken solely for profit after thorough planning, she pointed out.

“The man enlisted the assistance of a woman, 27, whose task was to earn the trust of the elderly victims and gather information on their financial situation. Among other events, in December 2014 the suspects received a hint that an elderly man, 84, was living in a private house in Poim village of the Belinsky area; they broke into the house using a crowbar, beaten the victim, and took his money, after which they set the house on fire with gasoline to destroy the evidence,” she explained.

The suspects also confessed to several more crimes undertaken with the same scenario, Lyudmila Fomina added.

“In October 2014, the culprits murdered an elderly man, 87, in Kuznetsk. The relatives of the victim reported funds having been stolen from the house,” she explained.

The criminal gang was acting in a very daring and heinous manner without leaving any evidence, which was the reason why the search took so long, the Investigative Department representative said.

“It was only thanks to scrutiny of investigators and operatives of the regional police department that we finally managed to track first one, then other suspects. They have been placed in jail before the court session,” she clarified.