Mother Sounds the Alarm: Her 18-Year-Old Son Was Beaten and Drowned in a Drain

SHAMSHYAN.com has received a call from Khnarikh Piliposyan, a resident of Aragatcavan village in the Aragatsotn region, who reported that her 18-year-old son was found drowned in a drainage canal last year. However, according to the mother’s suspicions, her son was not drowned, but rather murdered.

In an interview with SHAMSHYAN.com, Ms. Khnarikh stated, "On July 24 last year, my son came to the village from Yerevan. He had gone to the university to sign a contract and inform me that he wanted to be enlisted in the army through the 'I Am' program. My son came home, and three younger boys from our yard came over to visit. They took him out of the house, made some jokes on the porch, and at one point, one of the boys said, 'Let’s take him and drown him in the canal so he doesn’t go to the army.' They laughed it off and went on their way. My son was supposed to go to the army on the morning of the 26th, he'd come home on the 24th, just two days before," she recounted.

She continued, "Around 4:30 PM, they took my son from the house, and by 5:30 PM, I received a call that my son had drowned. Those three friends tricked him into going with them, claiming they were going to fetch stairs from the field, but instead, they went to the canal, and I don’t know… they probably killed him or did something terrible. My child returned from Yerevan in clean clothes, but he left in those same clothes which were completely stained, his face was all beaten up, the area above his left eyebrow was cut, there were scratches around his eye and ear, and he had injuries on the right side as well, his nose was also broken; he was horrifically beaten, and it looked like blood and sweat had been wiped on his blouse. The investigator noted on the document that the three boys took Davit Piliposyan next to the cemetery near the Akhurian canal, inflicted bodily harm, and then the boy drowned. This indicates that they beat him first and then, with the intent to kill, threw him into the water. No criminal case had been initiated.

“On August 15, when I saw my son’s clothes, I called the prosecutor's office. We went to file a complaint since the case was being closed due to our lack of complaint, but the same investigators didn’t understand that we were in mourning. We lost our 18-year-old son in such a brutal way,” the grieving mother expressed. She believes her son was first beaten and then thrown into the canal. “The forensic expert's conclusion stated that death could have resulted from drowning and other circumstances, and those other circumstances—beating and then throwing him into the water—are what it means. The criminals kept my son’s clothes for 8 days before returning them to us,” she added.

According to the mother, the village shepherd was the one who pulled her son out of the canal. “We have protested the entire investigation, as a result of which the investigator was replaced. On the 24th of every month, I bring flowers to my son’s grave, but the heads of the flowers are cut off and taken away. I don’t know if they want to silence me or what they aim to do; I don’t understand. I went to Yerevan to get a public defender, and they said there is a separate reception day for people from the regions while the case is currently under the jurisdiction of the Aragatsotn investigation department of the Investigative Committee of Armenia. I don’t even know what to do. We are demanding the chairman of the Investigative Committee to reveal this mysterious and brutal murder; otherwise, we, as family members, will join the weekly protests at the government building organized by the mothers of soldiers who have been killed or died under suspicious circumstances. What’s the difference? My son was also willing to serve in the Armenian army, but at the hands of some ruffians, he is brutally beaten and then thrown into a canal, while investigators in the Aragatsotn region are demonstrating unprofessional approaches, possibly driven by other interests,” she concluded.