Fishermen Eat Friend: Cannibalism not Illegal in Russia
Fisherman lost for four months on an expedition in frozen Siberia admit they ate their friend in order to stay alive. The Siberian Times reports that Alexander Abdullaev, 37, and Alexei Gradulenko, 35, were on a fishing expedition in a remote area of eastern Siberia, a massive geographical region of Russia that is mostly uninhabited, when they cannibalized their friend Andrei Kurochkin after he froze to death.
Four men - the two who survived, the one they ate, and a fourth one who is still missing - were stranded in one of the most remote places on earth after their jeep sunk in a frozen river. They set out on their expedition, which was supposed to be a two or three week fishing trip, in Aug. 2012, leaving from Dipkun village, and were reported missing in November when one of their sisters went to the police.
According to The Daily Mail, the four men took refuge in a hunting lodge, which they used as a base for a few weeks until their food supply ran out.
From the Siberian Times:
Going north some 300 km from their starting point, they were trapped by floodwater, by now in the Sakha Republic. Their UAZ jeep sank in the swollen river, they told rescuers. At the end of September they managed to make one mobile phone call - but then vanished.
When the two surviving men, Abdullaev and Gradulenko, were rescued by helicopter in Dec. 2012, they admitted to investigators that they ate Kurochkin to stay alive. It is unknown what happened to the fourth member of the expedition.
When the remains of Kurochkin were found, investigators confirmed that the man had been cannibalized. The Siberian Times reports that preliminary analysis confirmed that the body had been disjointed bit by bit and that flesh was stripped from the bones, but whether Kurochkin had been murdered first or simply froze to death could not be determined.
"He died from the cold after getting a leg injury," Gorulenko told investigators. "He was frostbitten and froze to death. Only after that did we start eating him, to survive."
Gorulenko said he and Abdullaev used an axe to cut away the flesh, and that Kurochkin's body kept them alive for another ten days, until rescuers arrived.
And now, the wife of the man who was eaten, Olga Kurochkin, speaks out about the horrifying account of the fisherman who ate her husband. She demands that the surviving men be punished for cannibalizing her husband.
"Can you imagine what I have left? One foot with toes, one finger, and the back of his skull with some hair," she said. "This is it. This is all I have left from the man I loved."
Olga initially refused to believe that her husband was dead, even after remains were found in the area that Gradulenko and Abdullaev were rescued in.
As in most countries, cannibalism in Russia is not illegal. Usually, people who cannibalize other people are charged with crimes other than cannibalism, such as murder or desecration of a body. Unless it can be proven that the surviving men murdered Olga's husband, their actions will most likely go unpunished.