How a 31-Year-Old Resident of the Moscow Region Ended Up Dismembering Her Own Child 0 6

On the morning of Sunday, November 16, 2025, workers found an abandoned backpack in a pond in the Golyanovo district of Moscow. When they opened it, they saw a child's head inside. By the evening, the police discovered the boy's body and detained the suspect. She turned out to be a 31-year-old resident of Balashikha, who is now accused of murdering her six-year-old disabled son. It turned out that the woman was under the care of a psychiatrist and was using drugs, but child protection services and the police turned a blind eye to this.

The workers immediately called rescuers and the police. Divers arrived at the pond — they searched for the child's remains in the water for several hours but found nothing else. Soon, a Telegram channel close to the security forces, SHOT, reported that a decapitated body was found on the balcony of a one-room apartment in the residential complex "Novaya Alexeevskaya Rosha" in Balashikha. It is less than half an hour's drive from there to the Golyanovo pond. By 1 PM, the Telegram channel Baza reported that witnesses had been found who saw a medium-built man about 180 centimeters tall throw a bag into the pond, in which the backpack with the child's head was later discovered. Later that same day, information emerged from the Moscow region's prosecutor's office that the boy's grandmother had contacted the police. She allegedly reported her six-year-old grandson missing and said that a man living with his mother had taken him from their home. During the questioning, the child's mother, 31-year-old Elena Tsutskova, also stated that her son was with her boyfriend.

However, later Tsutskova's neighbors said they had never seen her with the man she mentioned. After that, investigators detained Tsutskova — and in the morning she confessed that she had killed her six-year-old son and dismembered his body. She was unable to explain her motives for the murder. Later, the boy's grandmother told employees of the Telegram channel "112" that Tsutskova had no cohabitant.

Elena Tsutskova was born in the city of Zarechny in the Penza region and moved to Moscow in 2013. She enrolled in the Moscow State Humanitarian University to study education but did not complete her studies there. Tsutskova frequently changed jobs: at different times she worked as a courier and a saleswoman. According to the Telegram channel Baza, her last job was at a "Magnit" store, from which she was fired. Additionally, Tsutskova had numerous debts from microloans: from 2022 to 2024, she was a defendant in 12 cases at her registered address. Lawsuits against her were filed by microfinance organizations. In the database of enforcement proceedings of the Federal Bailiff Service, Tsutskova is listed as a debtor in six cases of credit debts totaling approximately 93,000 rubles.

On social media, which Baza cites, Elena Tsutskova wrote about herself that she "walks between worlds" and participates in "experiments with consciousness." She mentioned that numbers began to haunt her in her dreams, which she considered "signs from another dimension." Tsutskova also ran a Telegram channel where she posted images generated by neural networks.

"By the way, in our reality, I consider not just one experiment with consciousness, but a bunch of them on Earth. And it seems to me that I have been in another. Of course, one can say that this is nonsense and hallucinations, but still, the understanding of this is striking," she wrote on her social media. Six-year-old Miroslav was Tsutskova's second child with her ex-husband Alexander Matytsin. According to the propaganda television channel RT, the boy was born with hydrocephalus — an excessive accumulation of fluid in the brain. Miroslav could not walk, did not speak, and moved only in a wheelchair. "The deceased boy was disabled. I saw him. I have tears now when I think that I might have prevented the tragedy. The child could not walk, was always in a wheelchair, did not speak. I remember he looked at me, reaching out his hand. A good, affectionate boy. He was attached to his mother," recalled Tsutskova's acquaintance Anastasia.

Tsutskova and Matytsin also have an older daughter — she is now nine years old and is in the second grade. Her paternal grandmother said that she did not love her mother: she often hit and punished her. According to her former mother-in-law, Tsutskova loved her cats more than her children.

"I only heard screams last week on Thursday; she was screaming something in a hysterical voice out the window. It was around 11 PM. At half past four in the morning, they continued, but inside the apartment. I did not see the man or the grandmother," a neighbor of Tsutskova told the publication MSK1.

Alexander Matytsin's mother told the publication Baza that recently he wanted to take his daughter to his place while she was on vacation. But Tsutskova did not answer his calls. When Matytsin went to her home, no one opened the door. According to other sources, after the parents' separation, the daughter stayed with her father and lived with him. Elena Tsutskova's ex-husband, Alexander Matytsin, had been convicted twice for theft of money, documents, alcohol, and a bicycle. He also has debts: according to enforcement documents from the Federal Bailiff Service, the amount is at least 76,000 rubles.

"Why do you use?"

Elena Tsutskova was in contact with a resident of Balashikha, Anastasia. She used to live in the apartment that Tsutskova rented and was friends with the landlords. Anastasia helped them rent out the apartment, and that’s how she met Elena Tsutskova, who responded to an advertisement for the apartment rental in the summer of 2025. In a conversation with the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets," Anastasia recalled that at first, Tsutskova made a normal impression on her.

"I helped her with the apartment if needed. Sometimes she came to my work, and we could chat. Once she came over, and we started talking. She confessed that she had recently used something. She did not hide it; she spoke openly. But I did not pry into her life; she is an adult and is responsible for herself," Anastasia said.

According to Danilina, when asked "Why do you use?" Tsutskova replied that she liked it. The Telegram channel SHOT, citing Tsutskova's neighbors from her previous apartment, reported that she was often seen in an inadequate state, and screams were often heard from the apartment. According to them, the children went around with bruises and scars on their bodies. Three days before the head of her son was found in the Golyanovo pond, a neighbor heard loud screams from their apartment.

"There was a strange feeling from her. I often heard screams when I went out to the store or for errands. The child was definitely screaming," Tsutskova's neighbor Dmitry told "Arguments and Facts."

Also, the Telegram channel SHOT reported, citing neighbors, that Tsutskova did not clean the litter boxes for her cats, which caused a bad smell in the apartment. At the same time, Anastasia noted that Miroslav was always cleanly dressed and did not look hungry.

At the same time, Anastasia noted that the apartment was dirty, "there was always a mess, things were scattered," and there was almost no food in the refrigerator. On the stove, there was most often just a frying pan with cutlets "made of who knows what." In the one-room apartment that Tsutskova rented, there was almost no furniture, and she herself slept on a mattress. Despite financial problems and debts from microloans, Tsutskova always paid her rent on time.

Over time, Anastasia told the landlord that Tsutskova was using drugs. According to Anastasia, the landlord planned to evict Tsutskova because she was afraid that Tsutskova would spoil something or take something out. An anonymous source from TASS in law enforcement also claimed that Tsutskova was using drugs; in 2014, she was fined for evading treatment for drug addiction.