Video: Police Reveal Details of Brutal Murder in Ashtarak

The police have presented details regarding the brutal murder that took place in Ashtarak on May 19.

It was reported that at 17:10 on May 19, the operative management center of the Aragatsotn region received a call from the "Ashtarak" medical center, informing that the body of 56-year-old Silvard Kocharyan was discovered in an apartment on Tigran Metz Street in Ashtarak, with a cut wound to the neck.

This report was forwarded to the Ashtarak division of the police, and an operative group was dispatched to the scene. Leaders from the police and investigative departments of the Aragatsotn region, the prosecutor, the head of the division, a forensic doctor, and an expert also went to the scene. Numerous cuts and stab wounds were found on the woman's abdomen and chest.

A criminal case was initiated by the investigative department of the Aragatsotn region, and necessary measures were taken to solve the crime as quickly as possible.

The statement also mentioned, “As a result of extensive operational-search measures, the quick collection and analysis of evidence, and cooperation with citizens, the circumstances of this particularly serious crime were clarified, and the suspect, a relative of the murdered woman, was arrested.”

The suspect is a 41-year-old man who arrived in Armenia on a Frankfurt-Yerevan flight on May 18. He checked into a hotel on Mashtots Avenue in the capital and, the next day, left for Ashtarak. There, he attempted to confirm the location of Tigran Metz Street, specifically building 19, from local residents.

Upon reaching the building, he asked one of the residents about the location of apartment 45, ascended to the fifth floor, knocked on the door, and when the woman opened it, the 41-year-old man inflicted multiple knife wounds to various parts of her body, ultimately cutting her throat before attempting to flee.

Neighbors, hearing suspicious noises, shouted from upper floors to catch the criminal as they saw him leaving. One resident from a neighboring building responded to their calls, approached the man, and tried to apprehend him. After a struggle and a threat with the knife, the 41-year-old managed to escape.

Upon reaching Sisakyan Street in Ashtarak, he discarded the clothes he was wearing during the crime, changed into new ones, and shortly thereafter, rented a taxi to reach Yerevan.

In order to locate the man, the operatives of the Aragatsotn regional police department and the Ashtarak division collaborated with their counterparts from the Main Criminal Police Department. It was determined that upon arriving in Yerevan on that day, he did not stay at the hotel on Mashtots Avenue as initially thought, but rather at another hotel on Yervand Kochar Street.

Law enforcement was able to ascertain his location, and on May 20 at 15:30, officers from the Criminal Police Department discovered the 41-year-old man at that hotel, arrested him, and presented him to the investigative authority.

The motives and circumstances of the crime are being clarified during the investigation.