New details emerged in court Tuesday about the killing of a married Medford, Massachusetts, couple whose bodies were found in a Boston storage unit last week.
Leonid Volkov, 37, charged with murder and larceny in connection with the deaths of Kiryl Schukin and Pavel Vekshin, was arraigned in Somerville District Court on Tuesday morning, wearing a black "Jurassic Park" movie T-shirt. He was ordered held without bail pending his next court appearance on May 19.
The bodies of Schukin, 37, and Vekshin, 28, were discovered in rubber storage bins in a Brighton storage unit Friday. They both died of numerous stab wounds, according to investigators, and Schukin's body was found dismembered.
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Prosecutors indicated in court Tuesday that additional charges against Volkov could be forthcoming.
According to the district attorney's office, Schukin had been a guarantor on the lease for Volkov's apartment in Medford, but after learning that Volkov had failed to keep up with the payments, Schukin reportedly told Volkov he would no longer serve as the guarantor on the lease, which resulted in Volkov, his wife and their two children being evicted.
Investigators believe Volkov and Schukin met in a rented U-Haul truck, which Volkov was driving, on March 29. Schukin was never seen alive after that conversation.
Investigators said a person believed to be Volkov was seen on surveillance video entering and leaving the victims' building on Locust Street in Medford in the days following the time when Schukin and Vekshin were last seen.
Officials said police located the U-Haul truck at the storage facility where the victims' bodies were found. Investigators believe Volkov was using the vehicle to transport items from the victims' apartment to the storage facility.
During Tuesday's arraignment, prosecutors said the victims' credit cards appeared to show numerous transactions for various items, including expensive electronics, purchased throughout eastern Massachusetts during the timeframe they were believed to be dead. Surveillance footage showed a person at the stores consistent with the person entering and exiting their apartment building.
Purchased items as well as receipts were eventually found in the same storage unit, prosecutors said. Investigators also found trash bags inside the storage unit, which contained used cleaning products, bloody towels and wipes and bathroom items from the victims' apartment, including a blood-stained shower curtain and rug, prosecutors said.
The front passenger seat of the U-Haul truck and a plastic piece of trim were also found in the unit, each testing positive for blood, prosecutors added.
Volkov is being represented by attorney Debra DeWitt, who did not object to her client being held without bail at Tuesday's hearing. She said the case against her client has a lot of holes and questioned the surveillance footage, pointing out that it's not unusual that Volkov would go into the apartment, since he and the couple were friends.
