Rapper Andy Cartwright's wife fed husband's fingertips to rats to cover up murder, dismembered body over 4 days
The wife of a popular Russian-Ukrainian rapper dismembered his body and covered up his murder, including chopping off his fingertips and feeding them to rats. Marina Kokhal was arrested in Russia for the alleged murder of Andy Cartwright, 30, whose real name is Alexander Yushko. Although she admitted to chopping up his body over a four-day period using a hacksaw and knife, she pleaded not guilty to the crime of killing her husband.
Kokhal’s lawyer Irina Skurtu denied reports that her client initially confessed to the murder then changed her plea on legal advice. “She categorically does not admit guilt, did not admit it, and is not going to admit it. The cause of her husband's death has not yet been established. Marina herself still declares that she did not kill, but only dismembered the body.”
According to the latest developments of the macabre case, the suspect's plan to feed the severed digits of her husband's hand to rodents to evade identification of the corpse failed when after the fingertips were found by investigators. After a dispute with her spouse, Kokhal “caused the death of her husband in an unidentified way” Russian officers said. They added: “In order to hide the traces of the crime, the accused dismembered the victim's body into separate body parts for the purpose of subsequent destruction.”
Apparently, “for her own protection” from the rapper's angry fans, the widow is being detained by the police, according to a law enforcement source, the Sun reported. The investigators are afraid that Cartwright’s followers “may take revenge on her for the death of their idol”.
According to the defendant's lawyer, her client, who also acted as a business manager for her popular rapper husband, decided to dismember the rapper's body because she did not want the rapper’s fans to find out he had died an “inglorious” death from a drug overdose. “The remains were kept in Alexander's room (in black bin liners) and in a fridge," the lawyer added."The smell was only in this room. She seemed to me absolutely sane, although very nervous, but she can be understood. She does not look to me like a mad drug addict. She explained the situation quite coherently, but kept repeating: ‘What have I done? What have I done?’”
Reports said that it was only after she was “morally” and “psychologically” appalled about her plan to dismember her spouse's body that Kokhal called in her lawyer and the police. Her lawyer claimed that if her account of the events was true, she had not committed any crime under Russian law. The cause of death is yet to be proved as the police await the final forensic report.
Although there were reports of some human organs including the stomach that had gone missing from the family flat, investigators denied reports that some body parts had been cleaned in the family’s washing machine.
The couple lived in a prestigious address in St Petersburg. Kokhal posted videos on YouTube with titles like “Congenital aggression. Serial killers” and “When you know your husband's lover personally”.