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Prof. Irina Shur was found murdered in her Moscow apartment. Photo: VGIK Moscow.
Russian police have detained a woman suspected of murdering a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor in her Moscow apartment.
The body of Irina Shur — an academic who taught musical theory and cultural history at Moscow’s VGIK film school — was discovered in her apartment in a residential building on Moscow’s Kutuzovsky Prospekt on July 19.
The police did not name the alleged killer nor disclose any motive for the killing. They said that the detained woman was a former social worker who had worked with Professor Shur in 2016 and had remained in contact with her.
The Tass news agency reported on Friday that the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, had instructed subordinates to report on the “ongoing investigative actions” in the case.
Shur’s body was discovered by a friend who came to her apartment, concerned that she had not answered her phone for two days. Shor suffered multiple stab wounds during the assault. There was no sign of forced entry into her apartment, indicating that she knew her killer.
Students of Shur spoke fondly of their teacher’s passion for her subject and their shock at her death.
“She knew how to get people interested in music and was the kindest woman,” one of them, Artak Serovani-Ohanyan, told Moscow’s News 1 broadcaster.
In a statement, the VGIK film school said that the “intelligence, high education, integrity, modesty, sincerity and human warmth of Irina Borisovna Shur will be sorely missed by VGIK teachers, staff and students.”