A resident of Stryi has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the premeditated murder of a 17-year-old student committed in late August 2014 in Lviv region. This was reported by the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the investigation, on the night of 31 August 2014, a 17-year-old student of a local agricultural college was spending the evening at a nightclub in Stryi. At about five in the morning she left the venue and headed towards the halls of residence where she lived. In the street, the girl met a 38-year-old local resident (his age as of 2014), who invited her to join a group of friends and continue the night out.
Together with him and his acquaintance, they went to the man’s house in a village on the outskirts of Stryi. Later the acquaintance left, and the girl stayed with the homeowner. Late that evening, when she was about to go home, the acquaintance returned and the men offered to give her a lift.
During the journey, the convicted man, who was driving, stopped the car on the roadside near a forest. He suggested the girl get out of the car to talk in private, led her aside, grabbed her from behind by the neck, threw her to the ground and strangled her. To conceal the crime, the man dragged the body further into a wooded area and buried it in a pit, after which he returned to the car and left the scene together with his companion.
For almost a day, friends were unable to contact the girl and informed her sister. Their own search efforts brought no result, so the next day the sister reported her missing to law enforcement. Initial search measures in 2014 yielded no result: the police found only the girl’s mobile phone, which had been found by a local homeless man. Due to a lack of direct evidence, she was considered missing for more than eight years, and the case remained unsolved.
A breakthrough in the investigation came in 2023, when, on the initiative of the leadership of the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, the case materials were thoroughly reviewed and a new investigative and operational team was formed. Prosecutors, together with officers of the Strategic Investigations Department in Lviv region, reassessed the available evidence, planned new investigative measures and identified a suspect – a resident of Stryi who had previously been prosecuted, including for an offence related to sexual violence.
Given the significant time that had passed since the crime, investigative actions in 2023 were complicated. A set of forensic medical, molecular genetic and forensic examinations made it possible to conclusively identify the victim and confirm the fact of the murder. In January 2023, the man was detained and informed that he was under suspicion, and in July of the same year the indictment was sent to court.
During the trial, the defendant did not admit guilt and showed no remorse. At the same time, the prosecution, with the involvement of juvenile prosecutors from the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, gathered a comprehensive body of evidence, on the basis of which in October 2026 the court sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
The actions of the man who was in the car during the events of 2014 were examined separately. The criminal proceedings against him for concealing a crime under Part 1 of Article 396 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine were closed by the court in 2023 due to the expiry of the limitation period for criminal prosecution.
The man convicted of murder is currently in custody and will remain there until the verdict comes into legal force. The verdict will take effect after the expiry of the time limit for lodging an appeal.
“Returning to the investigation of ‘cold’ cases is not just a process, but a matter of principle: the passage of years does not lessen the gravity of the crime or erase the pain of loss for the family. When it comes to premeditated murder, we are obliged to do everything possible to establish the truth, because the inevitability of punishment is the only proper consequence for a life taken,” said the prosecutor of the Department for the Protection of Children’s Interests and Combating Domestic Violence of the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Volodymyr Telepko.