Student From CA Killed In Russia, Suspect Arrested: Report

Los Angeles CA

19 June, 2021

4:47 PM

Description

MOSCOW — Catherine Serou, a 34-year-old American who was studying in Russia, was found dead after she went missing earlier this week, Russian investigators said in a statement. Her body was found in a wooded area near city of Bar, 250 miles east of Moscow, reports said. A suspect around the age of 44 was arrested, but a name was not released. The cause of death was not specified. Serou left her home around 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, got into a vehicle and headed toward the village of Rekshino, Russia's Investigative Committee said. Serou sent an email to her mother expressing fear that "unknown people" were driving her somewhere, newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported. Serou moved from California to Russia in 2019 to study law at a university in Nizhny Novgorod, a major city adjacent to Bor, news reports said. Beccy Serou, her mother, told NPR that her daughter was in a hurry to get to a clinic Tuesday and may have gotten into a passing car. "I think that when she saw that the person wasn't driving to the clinic, but instead was driving into a forest, she panicked," her mother said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.