Suitcase Murders: Maxim Gareyev

Episode Transcript
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(00:37):
Hello, and welcome to Murder DictionaryPodcast. My name is Brianna and that
is my co host Courtney. Hello, welcome to the show. If you
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(00:59):
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are everywhere. Just search for us, you will find us and all that

(01:22):
info will be linked in the shownotes like it is every week, along
with some links to some resources forthings that are positive for your mental health,
resources for domestic violence, substance abuse, all sorts of things like that.
We always have those links every singleweek in case you or someone you

(01:42):
love needs them. And with allthat said, I think we can just
get into a brand new letter andour case for tonight. I'm excited,
but this has been some horrific research. Yes, we are starting the letter
s and we have chosen the subjectof suitcase murders, any murders involving putting

(02:07):
bodies in suitcases, so you canimagine the horrific things that Courtney has been
dealing with with researching and writing.Not good. It's just very interesting because
there's so many. And at firstI'm like, there's going to be a
few, We're gonna find them.But it was kind of shocking. And

(02:29):
what's even stranger is there's so manyright now that are open, and I
mean it makes sense a suitcase.It's like everybody's got one, right or
a few, and everybody's trying toconceal and get rid of evidence. And
I seem to notice that if suitcasesare involved, there's always an attempt to

(02:49):
really cover things up. And withthese cases we see that it never works.
People that use suitcases are more likely, I feel like, to be
caught quickly, it seems in thestories the cases that I see, and
we've covered a couple of them before, you know, and this is just
diving deeper into that aspect, butit seems like the intention is to get

(03:14):
rid of evidence and throw the policeoff the tracks. But it always comes
back quicker in these cases. It'sstrange, I can tell you right now,
though, until they find ahead generallybecause hands you know, I mean
you can fingerprint, but there's alot of just bodies that have been found,

(03:37):
you know, that are just completelyunidentified and accounted for until you find
fingerprints that you can identify. Becausethat's the other side of it is you
might have a fingerprint, but there'snobody to go with it, right or
a face that you can do asketch of a picture or something like that.
It's a lot of loose ends.The ones where they aren't caught immediately.

(04:00):
It's always a case of not beingable to even tell who that person
is that's the victim. Yeah,it's really strange. And there's right now
there's a very I guess famous caseright now out of Seattle, Washington.
Are those kids I call him kids, those TikTok kids that were on the

(04:21):
rocks by the water and they founda suitcase and they opened it on camera
they found body and that's an opencase right now, and that it was
this landlord has murdered this couple andhe's charged right now. But there's no
resolution at this point, so wedidn't we didn't cover it yet. But
you know, suitcase Part two twentytwenty two. Who knows. Yeah,

(04:41):
we'll see what the resolution is.For that one. Yes, there's a
queue that we're going to be havinga circle back around because there's a few
pending that are international as well.And I will say one interesting thing is
that in India there was a townwhere they had to the police force had
to make a state. Meant thatno, everyone settled down. There's no

(05:02):
suitcase serial killer. We're just findinga lot of dead people in suitcases.
There's a serial killer that's putting peoplein suitcases out there. So I'm not
kidding. We're coming back to that. I have not heard of that.
That's really strange. So there yougo. There's your suitcase backgrounds. Yep.

(05:23):
So with that we can get intowho we're talking about today. On
this episode, we're going to discussthe case of a Katerina Kata Glenova aka
Kati Love's Life. Yes, thatwas her Instagram handle. She's a pretty
famous Russian Instagram model. So shewas born in Russia in nineteen ninety four,

(05:46):
so this is not only a recentcase, but she was a very
young person as well. Yes,her mother is doctor Olga Semakina, a
Moscow based cardiologist, and her fatherwas doctor Stanislav Samachkina, a urologist.
It Katerina entered the pageant circuit whileshe was still in school. Anne continued

(06:13):
to be a contestant in many beautypageants throughout her life, so she was
the type of person that wasn't reallythe top three every single pageant she entered,
but she did okay, and sheeven won a pageant in twenty nineteen.
She was beautiful, Yeah, definitely, it makes sense. Yeah,

(06:34):
you definitely look at her and you'relike, oh, yeah, I see
the pageant world in there. Well. Also her pictures, she knew how
to pose. Yes, you couldtell yeo absolutely was there. Her goal
was to become a doctor like herparents. It Katerina also aspired to be

(06:57):
a well known model because she travelingand having her picture taken, so it
was just the combination of everything sheloved. She began documenting her entire life
through photographs and posting them on herInstagram account Katie loves Life, and she
really hoped that Instagram would give herthis big break that she was looking for,

(07:23):
so she posted multiple times a dayand was very active on social media.
Her friends fet Lana recalled that itwas only after Katerina had a nose
job in twenty fifteen, at agetwenty one, that her confidence really grew
and she came out of her shelland really started to take off. Like

(07:46):
as a person, she was moreself assured, and it reflected in her
work. Thank God for plastic surgery. You know, it does more than
psychologists for some people. For somepeople, Yeah, I think there's it's
slippery slope. Yeah, but yeah, for that person, if there's one
thing that's holding them back and they'rereally really kind of obsessing about it and

(08:07):
getting anxious about it, that couldmake the difference and then that's the end
of it. After the nose job, she was more self assured and she
began posting more risque photos on Instagram. You could tell by her account that
she had become more confident and wantedto basically show herself off. Yes,

(08:31):
definitely. Once she changed the kindof pictures that she was posting, her
follower account exploded and to Katerina's dreamsof this internet fame began coming true.
I'm sure there's people that are listeningthat know of her. That Kati Love's
life Instagram was huge. Yeah,I mean I didn't follow her, but

(08:56):
when this happened, I remember knowingof the okay, you know, but
right, I mean there's probably peoplethat were following her. She was really
popular. Yeah, this is anotherthing where the kids probably followed her.
There, it is. That's mypoint here, we're the old people in

(09:16):
the room. In twenty nineteen,Ekaterina was twenty four years old, and
although she began seeing her followers countrise, she really wasn't able to fully
support herself just through social media.She did drive a BMW that her parents

(09:37):
actually bought for her, and shelived alone in a nice Moscow apartment that
her parents also paid the rent for. Although Ekaterina wasn't making money, she
did have both her brains and beautyto rely on, so there were multiple
avenues for her to make a careerpotentially. You know, there was like

(10:01):
a plan A, plan B.And she had these skill sets to rely
on. While Instagram was clearly thenumber one priority for her, she had
also just graduated as a doctor fromPyragov Russian National Research Medical University and plan
to become a dermatologist. It's perfect. She would be so good at doing

(10:26):
botox and stuff, right, Yeah, and she knows what the customers wants.
She's in touch with kind of thebeauty realm of social media, and
she's been there. She's been theperson that just wants these fixes. That's
like, Okay, I need tojust address this one thing and I'll be
able to come out of my shelland feel more confident. You know.

(10:50):
Yeah, she had beautiful skin.She's just been walking in these people's shoes
and she can help them get whatshe has achieved through just a minor amount
of work. She had also justbegun a clinical residency at a Moscow hospital.

(11:11):
Throughout her time at school, shewas also running her travel blog.
She shared lots of photos and thoughtsfrom her seemingly constant international trips to places
like Venice and Dubai. In oneentry, she stated that she quote liked

(11:33):
to travel often, but in eachcountry I spend no more than three to
five days. In the previous year, she had been to Venice, Paris,
Punta kana, Ebisa, Barcelona,and several more places. She was
just constantly on the go, alwayson the move everywhere. She was also

(11:56):
always just styled to the nines,perfect hair, makeup done, designer clothes.
Really, her pictures looked like professionalHarper's bizarre travel ads. You know,
they were just this image of perfectionand living kind of this dream life
all over the world. She wasknown for her resemblance to and reenacting the

(12:22):
esthetic of Audrey Hepburn. In twentyseventeen, Katerina posted quote, I've adored
Audrey since school and people often tellme that I look like her. They
called her the Russian Audrey Hepburn,and I remember my first knowledge of this

(12:43):
case was seeing that as the headline. You know, Russian Audrey such and
such exactly. That was my knowledgeof her. Her follower account just kept
growing, and finally she became asocial media influencer, amassing eighty five thousand
followers on Instagram. It was reported, but not fully confirmed, that she

(13:11):
was also using her social media presenceto market herself to male clientele as an
escort. And I like to keepthis open. This is just my personal
take on things. You know,once someone passes away, a lot of
people come out of the woodwork totalk shit about them or defend like it's
one or the other. Either theywere the most amazing person alive and you

(13:35):
couldn't see them do this, orthey did all these things and no wonder
they got killed, you know,especially coming from the Russian background that is
very restrictive of the standard of whatyou're supposed to do and constantly kind of
boxing people in and expecting them tolive to just this very rigid version of

(13:58):
normalcy. Right, Yeah, No, it's all allegedly. Yeah, I
mean, I just think it's importantto point that out. We preface everything
with allegedly because then when someone comesforward in a very repressed society and says

(14:18):
she's this, she's that, Ithink some of that is just coming from
wanting to just say negative things abouther because she was out there, you
know, using her looks and dressinga certain way that was kind of frowned
upon, you know what I mean. Yes, so it's easier for people
to disparage her. Yes, it'seasier to do that than it is for

(14:39):
some reason to just scroll past right, got to touch shit. It was
claimed that she was charging one hundredand thirty pounds or one hundred and eighty
two dollars US per hour for herservices, again allegedly allegedly. The next

(15:01):
trip she had been planning was toHolland. She was planning on leaving on
her twenty fifth birthday, which wasTuesday, July thirtieth, twenty nineteen.
Her last Instagram activity was a photoof her enjoying a glass of wine on
the Greek island of Corfu, whichwas posted on Monday July twenty second,

(15:28):
so about a week before she wassupposed to leave. Her Instagram was not
active after the twenty second when shehad an encounter with a man named Maxim
Gutieve. Thirty three year old MaximGutive was living in Moscow and working as
an IT specialist. He had fourdegrees and an MBA from Britain's Open University.

(15:56):
Smart guy, yeah on paper exactly. And that's the thing that's striking
to me. We don't know whathe was like socially, we don't know
what there was behind that. Imean, when someone has four degrees,
that's awesome, but when you findout something like their murderer, I can
only imagine that there was something offwith him. I'm thinking, you know,

(16:22):
he's not just a smart guy.He's a guy that only puts his
energy into his education and struggles inother areas. Yes, probably not a
normal social life, right. Acquaintancesfrom when he was in college describe him
as rude, and a quote brutalguy. Maxim was extremely insecure, so

(16:48):
after graduation he began having plastic surgeryto try and boost his confidence. And
you know, for Katerina it workedgood to work for him. Right,
If you just have maybe these oneor two things addressed that are issues for
you, it might really give youthat boost. But I feel like it's

(17:10):
a fifty fifty. It could eitherreally change how you feel about yourself and
bring you out of your shell,or it could be like, well,
I've done these things, so whynot do twenty other things. Well,
it's like, you know whatever,your first procedure is a gateway drug for
sure, and you're just going todecide what you're doing next for every six

(17:33):
months. Great example, Dolores CataniaReal Hospital in New Jersey. She got
to stop now, Dolores, please, you gotta stop now. She's verging.
She's gonna go to Jocelyn Wildenstein.And we can't have that for her.
We love her too much. Andit's you know, the other thing
right now is the teeth, thebig teeth, the veneers. Everybody's getting

(17:56):
them, and they're all a sixteenthof an inch too long. That's what
it is. You know. Everybody'sand like Snooky's a great example Margaret Joseph's
We Love You like They're all everybody, Everybody's got him. Britney Spears is
one of the first where you sawher smile change from a curve to like

(18:18):
a like a square like around squarejaw and it's all teeth related, you
know. Definitely, that's my otherI have a few talks going on today.
Welcome, welcome back everyone we've missed. This is your Ted talk about
plastic surgery. Well, I've gotone about crime TV later, but I'm
saving that for the end. Yeah. Definitely, there is this sense of

(18:44):
like you can see a stopping pointfor people. You know, Maxim reached
that stopping point as well, whereit's like you can see someone's face change,
their body change, and you're like, okay, you still look a
little bit normal. We see iton reality TV, see it in La
a lot because we live here.I mean it's everywhere, and you see

(19:04):
that just that edge where it's like, if you get one more procedure,
you're going to look terrible, butif you stop now, you could be
safe. It's like Jenga. Yeah, yeah, he just bringing this out
and put it somewhere else, you'retaking a chance every time. Yes.
Yeah. So he definitely was atthat place where he had a couple of

(19:27):
things done and he kind of couldhave stopped there, but he was so
insecure and like deeply had these selfesteem issues and just kept going. So
he had hair transplants, facial chemicalpeels, eyebrow tattooing, began dyeing his

(19:47):
eyelashes, and got a ton offillers. And the fillers are the one
thing that I feel like rapidly startmaking you look bad, yes and waxy.
Yes. Oh yeah, you're likeshiny. Your skin is all taught
and it looks like it hurts exactly. In twenty nineteen, Maxim met Katerina

(20:11):
online and they began messaging and theneventually, after messaging for a while,
they met up. Maxim was afrequent patron of sex workers that he would
find, usually on Instagram. Thenhe would do what he did with Katai,

(20:33):
where he DMed them and then metup for sex. This is the
way that Maxim claims that he mether. He was extremely forthcoming about their
relationship and said that they met upregularly. And I just have to point
out really quickly that for me Wheneverthis happens where someone is oversharing, I

(20:57):
start distrusting their version of the truth. I just think that it's a creepy
thing that maybe he gets off ontelling people these things, and I just
I don't really trust it. SoI'm going to say allegedly in whatever a
bunch of times, because it justcomes off as he's trying to really force

(21:18):
the narrative. And when someone's forcingthe narrative, it seems like it's done
out of knowing that they're wrong,and they're just trying to frame it in
a certain way, you know.I hear that. I also have a
background in working at adult stores wheredudes would just overshare all the time,

(21:40):
and I'm like, there's a reasonyou're doing this. You're a fucking creep
you know. Yeah, this isnot this is not my job to just
listen to you talk about this shit, right, So I'm familiar with like,
Okay, yeah, I get it, you did this, that and
the other thing. I don't trusta word you fucking said. You're just
saying it because you want to havethat be the story, you know.

(22:00):
Yeah, anyway, Yeah, there'sso many different angles. But I also
feel like there's financial receipts that hewas like in debt for doing this with
multiple different women, you know whatI mean. Yes, so part of
me feels like he's just telling thetruth now, but he could also be
totally get it, Like he seesthese people just like, oh my god,
tell us more, tell us more, right, and he's just like,

(22:22):
oh my god, I'll tell youeverything right. So it's probably both.
It's probably both. And then youknow, maybe like it's the attention.
You know, they're like waiting breath, and it's it's you know,
it's all of it. But thenhe does it a lot with a lot
of different people and like had noproblem just putting his credit card out for

(22:44):
this like financial document, you knowwhat I mean. So, yeah,
it's just facts too, It's both. I get it. Yeah, there's
totally an element like there's some truthto this, But I think when it
comes to the murder, he's gota captive audience and I think he's hamming
it up, if that makes sense. Probably. So that's my only thing

(23:08):
is like I trust some of thethings he said and others I'm like,
let's take this with a grain ofsalt and let's not completely shit on this
person that he killed and use itto justify like, oh, she was
a sex worker or whatever. I'dlike to just kind of put that on
the back shelf and be like,well, she might have done this.
The only evidence we have is ofthis one guy, So that's it.

(23:33):
Yeah, and it's not justifiable evenif she is a sex worker. No,
but you knowlically, that's what happens, of course. Yeah. After
several weeks of seeing each other,he was beginning to become really more attached
to her and started referring to heras his girlfriend. Ekaterina, on the

(23:59):
other hand, would often describe Maximas a wolf when talking about him with
friends. That's why I thought thisalso was really shittily reported by the media
because everything you read is they say, like, her boyfriend, you know,
killed Oh her ex boyfriend is theone that killed her. And so
it was really like you had todecipher was this guy actually her boyfriend?

(24:22):
Like did she spend time and enjoyspending time with this guy? Yeah?
I mean honestly, where my headleans is just I feel like maybe he
was a sugar daddy. Yeah,I know what I mean, Yes,
like exactly what this is he wouldbuy her things, and she relied on
him a little bit financially. ButI don't necessarily believe that it was so

(24:44):
transactional. And that's not to saythat he didn't have history with such workers,
you know, you know what you'resaying now, But I just feel
like there wasn't really a pattern.I feel like he's just kind of hamming
it up. And she's the typeof person that may have been like,
well, I've got this beauty andpeople are seeking me out, and yeah,
this guy is really intense. MaybeI can get something out of this,

(25:07):
you know, like maybe that washer mindset. I agree. I
kind of also see this as thisgirl is in med school, she's got
to pay the bills. She wantsto travel, she's got to pay for
that. I mean, she's gotto travel, she's got places to be
in, things to do, andyou got to be able to afford that.
And if this guy is willing topay me, like absolutely, I

(25:32):
see nothing. No. I meanlike I totally think that motivation is fine.
Like she's she's got plans, youknow. Yeah, I just I
don't really judge that, you knowwhat I mean, I don't judge sex
workers. I yeah, So itjust seems like, Okay, let's be
kind to her. She did getmurdered, and it also just seems like

(25:55):
maybe calling her an escort isn't themost accurate depiction. So I just like
to bring that up to Ben.That's fine, No, I mean,
I see nothing wrong with it.She's in med school, she's trying to
be a dermatologist in a place wheremost women are not becoming doctors. Right,
I'm we are supporting this. Andit's clear that becoming a doctor was

(26:22):
her plan A. You know,like it wasn't like she was oh,
like plan A is being an influencer. Plan B is like maybe go to
college or something. She wasn't halfassing it. She got through school,
she did well, and she wason the path to be very successful in
either realm, in medicine or withsocial media. Yeah, and at some

(26:45):
point plan B kind of met planA and made it much eat right,
like two became symbiotic. Absolutely.I mean, the girl is traveling all
over the world and she's going tobe a doctor, right, and she's
got a BMW and her parents arelike, hell, pay your rent,
like shit, something right, Brianna, She's doing everything right, and I'm
changing my profession like instantly, areyou kidding me? Yeah, as soon

(27:11):
as this episode is over, Igotta get on social media and change some
things. Didn't you don't you havean only fans all right? So Maxim
had recently quit his job, andthis was something that really bothered at Katerina
very much. And of course,if he's in this sugar daddy role,

(27:33):
you've got to assume that her financialwell being is tied into his finances,
you know, so if he's gotless money, it becomes a problem for
her. So of course she wouldkind of make a big deal about it.
Yes, this well has run dryand it's time to find a new
well with water in it, rightlike there it is. He claims that

(27:56):
over the course of several months,he had given Ekadina large sums of money
as well as gifts. According tohim, the relationship had ended once he
discovered she was seeing someone else,which, of course like greatly bruised his

(28:17):
ego. A short time after theybroke things off, Ekadina began planning of
her birthday trip to Holland with hernew boyfriend, a wealthy fifty two year
old man. The new well,yes, thank yes, the new one
that took me out. I waslike new well. I'm like, yes,

(28:40):
that's the new well, the onethat has water. Yeah, this
one has water in it, lotsof it. Like all trips. She
was of course really excited, lookingforward to traveling to Holland and just documenting
all of it and her traveling onsocial media. Even though she was looking

(29:00):
forward to her birthday and the vacation, people noticed that recently Ekatarina seemed kind
of down, just not herself.A friend, Marina Nicotina, told a
reporter recently, I noticed that shehad changed a lot. Marina told investigators

(29:25):
that in the last few months,her friend had received several death threats.
Ekatarina was also being blackmailed with nudepictures. The same picture had previously been
sent to classmates of hers at theMoscow college she attended in twenty sixteen,

(29:48):
and not only did it happen once, but again the pictures came out in
twenty eighteen, before her birthday.She was being threatened with nudes once again
in twenty nineteen. It's like,there's got to be multiple people that all

(30:10):
had some issue at different times.I mean, unless I guess it's the
same person that could just be doingit again and again and again. But
yeah, that's true. It justseems they're because they're all different kind of
threats, and you know, itjust kind of seemed like they were from
different people because some of it wasthe med school, some of it was

(30:33):
the hospital, you know what Imean, like separate, but the same
kind of I don't know, maybeit was all the same person. Maybe
in my mind it sounds like itwas gossip, like a game of telephone,
Like oh, you know, ifyou're in the same medical community,
maybe you meet new residents at thishospital or that office and you're like,

(30:53):
oh cool, I went to thisschool or whatever. It's like, oh
want to I went, or Ihave a friend that went to that.
You know. Do you know withKatarina, like oh yeah, guess what.
You know, she's on the dirtyright. And that's especially, like
I said earlier, in like asociety, a culture where things are a
little bit tough on women and welike to keep them in these little boxes.

(31:18):
You know, the fact that shewas riskue on her social media made
her an easy target. That's whatI'm thinking. Yeah, probably rumors seem
to follow with Katarina throughout med schooland there was a lot of gossip about
her possibly working as an escort topay her way through med school, and

(31:41):
in my mind, it's like,hey, if that's what you're doing,
good on you. You know,like I wish you luck. That's awesome.
She found a way and she founda way to market herself. Right,
there's a lot worse things you coulddo with your escort money, you
know. If that's great? Iagree. She's got to pay for all
this traveling, right, so it'sreally kind of fueling all her dreams.

(32:04):
She can pay for school, maybeshe can take trips and then keep posting
on her social media, which againgets her more followers. It's all kind
of a circle that kind of feedsinto each other in my mind. There
were also rumors within the school thatMaxim had met her online as an escort,

(32:28):
then became her sugar daddy. Maximalso claimed that he himself was a
sugar daddy, which in his eyes, meant that he was more than just
a boyfriend. To him, thatwas like next level, Like I'm more
than just a boyfriend. I'm aprovider and I give her all these things.
Yeah, he took it very hardwhen they broke things off and went

(32:52):
to Katerina's house just before she wasset to leave on her birthday trip.
As her vacation departure was approaching,people close to her began to worry because
they had not heard from her,you know, since a week before her
departure. She just kind of droppedoff for four solid days. There were

(33:16):
no phone calls, no texts,and no post on her social media,
which of course was not normal forher. Like we discussed, she was
posting multiple times a day that waspart of her job. Her parents were
immediately concerned that something was wrong withtheir daughter. On Friday, July twenty

(33:39):
sixth, twenty nineteen, they wentto her apartment complex and they just asked
the landlord to let them into herunit. They told him what was going
on and asked for permission to goin. They hoped that they would find
that, you know, she wassimply not answering her phone or something.

(34:00):
That's a simple explanation. The landlordagreed and let her parents in to search
the home, only to find theirworst nightmare. Ecaterino was dead. Her
body was forced into a suitcase andthen rolled into the hallway of her apartment.

(34:23):
She had been stabbed. Nineteen timesin the neck and chest. Her
throat was also slit before she wasput into the suitcase. Her legs were
sticking out of the top of thesuitcase, and she was only wearing a

(34:44):
lace garter belt. There's pictures ofher when they opened the suitcase online.
Anyone wants to see that. Andit is so bizarre because it's just like
up around like her ribs kind of, you know, and it's it's not
like some fancy you know. It'sjust it's out of place, and it's

(35:08):
it's bizarre to me that it wasleft because it's so clearly like on her,
you know what I mean, whenshe's just full nude and there's no
clothes anywhere else, but that isstill on her. Yeah, that is
really strange, especially you know,if if other things were missing and whatnot,
and a murderer is trying to coverup a crime scene. Yeah,

(35:30):
you take the time to take certainitems. You would want to really take
anything that was porous and maybe couldabsorb or whatever. You know, you
want to take everything. And itis a little strange, and there is
some element of a murderer trying tolike humiliate a person that they'd killed.

(35:52):
You know, we see this alot, where they leave them in certain
poses or whatnot. I think thereis an element of leaving lingerie on her
to make her seem a certain way, you know. Yeah. Her father
immediately called an ambulance to the apartment, desperately hoping that they could do something,

(36:15):
but he soon realized that it wastoo late and that she had actually
died before they arrived. At herapartment, police found no weapon at the
scene, and there was actually nothingout of place indicating a struggle. There
was not one drop of blood atthe apartment, even though the stab marks,

(36:38):
of course, indicated that she hadbeen the victim of a really gruesome,
bloody crime. Yeah. That's reallyone of the biggest mysteries of this
whole thing, too, is like, what a good job. Yeah,
it's just weird. Yeah, itmust have originally been a very bloody,

(36:58):
awful scene. And so did itcome so far? I mean, you
see people attempt to clean up thingsand it doesn't work out. But this
person had really taken their time andreally cleaned everything, which is rare.
But you don't take the garter billand it's like, yeah, maybe it's
buckled on or something, you know, I mean, whatever, it's usually

(37:19):
like snap, it's not that hard, you know, or just goes over
the waist, but obviously he's gotknives around cut it off. It's like
they did. This is the thingthat I don't know why this is my
hang up, but no, Iget that. It seems deliberate, you
know. I think you're right.I think it was left on on purpose,
because yeah, he didn't make mistakeslike that, you know, exactly.

(37:43):
So of course, this whole lackof evidence, murder weapon, any
clothing, stuff like that indicated themurderer had done an extensive cleanup after killing
Ekadina. It seems like the killerhad possibly meant to take the body with
them, but it really became toodifficult with this suitcase and the leg sticking

(38:06):
out and all this stuff. Instead, they decided, okay, I'll just
clean up. I'll take the clothingany other items that I need with me
so that I don't leave any evidencebehind, and that became the priority that
was bigger beyond getting her body out. Based on her social media and communication

(38:28):
with loved ones, police theorized thatshe had been killed on Tuesday, July
twenty third. During the investigation,police reviewed surveillance video at Ecadorina's apartment building.
In the days leading up to Ecadorina'sdisappearance, a man wearing a baseball

(38:49):
hat was seen on surveillance visiting herapartment. When he came to the apartment
building, Maxim carried a plastic bagwhen he arrived, and then he carried
a bag out with him on thevideo. Four hours later, he returned
carrying a hard shell suitcase and wearinggloves. When Maxim was seen leaving her

(39:16):
apartment on the video, he hada different, smaller suitcase with him and
was wearing a completely different outfit.I know this seems very silly, but
man, if you wear a baseballhat, you just look more suspicious.
I feel like every surveillance video someone'swearing a baseball hat, right, that's

(39:39):
a thing. They're like, youcan't even see me. I'm invisible because
I have this baseball hat on,and it really just makes you look more
suspicious on any CCTV. How doyou know it was me? I did
everything possible to hide my identity.I put the hat on. That's all
I was supposed to do. Thatwas as far as I got. Yeah,

(40:01):
it's like the new mustache is ahat. It's the new haircut.
What do you mean, right,Ted Bundy? You don't know who I
am at all because I cut myhair or I'm wearing a mustache. It's
just a baseball cap. Does notfix it, period. Yeah. Police
were looking from Maxim to ask himsome questions related to his relationship with Ekaterina

(40:25):
and of course the surveillance video whatwas going on. He was found in
a Moscow apartment and after initially speakingwith him, police decided to take him
in from more questioning. Once theywere at the station, Maxim was interrogated

(40:45):
and their conversations were taped. Itreally didn't take long from Maxim to confess
to murdering Ekaterina. In his confession, he recounted his version of what he
said happened that night. Maxim saysthat he had gone to the apartment to

(41:12):
meet Ekaterina for a sexual rendezvous thatthey had allegedly agreed that he would pay
her for allegedly allegedly or When hegot there, he saw that she was
packing a bag for her trip toHolland, and he knew that this vacation
would be with her new boyfriend.So Maxim began arguing with Ekaterina. Afterwards,

(41:40):
they had sex and fell asleep fora little while until Maxim woke up
in the middle of the night.At this point, Maxim decided to leave,
so he asked her to basically justmake him a cup of coffee so
that he would have enough energy toget home safely. According to him,

(42:02):
Ekaterina responded by telling him that shedidn't want to waste any coffee on him
because he was a loser. Nope, I don't trust it. Yeah,
I don't believe it. Okay,you don't trust it. I think it's
bullshit. So after hearing her response, Maxim claims that he told her he

(42:24):
would just make it himself. Allegedly, Katerina took this as an opportunity to
basically insult him again, saying thathe was too stupid to make a cup
of coffee. I just h yeah. Wrong. She then took it a

(42:49):
step further by making fun of hislooks, which of course she knew was
a source of a lot of painand turmoil for him. Maxim says,
quote, she told me that Iwas ugly and that even plastic surgery wouldn't
help me. He claims that shethen called him a poor man and quote

(43:14):
insulted his financial earning capabilities. Ithink that's what the argument was about.
And this other stuff is just hethinks he's ugly. So she said I
was ugly, you know what Imean. Yeah, they fought over the
fact that he lost his he quithis job, and he didn't care to
go back. She's not about it, her man, it's got to have

(43:35):
a job. Sorry, not sorry, And he knew what he was getting
into. Yeah, and so yeah, why is it all of a sudden
a problem now exactly? And shefound another Well get over it, like,
get a job then if you wantto see me, that's simple.
And in the sugar daddy relationship,it's like, you know what it is.

(43:55):
I think for her it's like,hey, we're not in love.
This is not what this is.We're not in a relationship. You are
supporting me and I'm giving you certainthings my time and whatever. But you
know that that's the deal. That'sall this is. So if you want

(44:15):
to continue having these encounters and spendingtime with me, you got to be
successful. And I'm not just goingto take you on as a boyfriend and
hang out with you for free.Basically, Yeah, I think that there's
a little bit of altered reality forhim. This was never a relationship,

(44:38):
so I think he was just completelyoff base and kind of shattering that illusion
and telling him he needed to havemoney in order to continue seeing her was
most likely the biggest thing about thisdisagreement. He's that pretty woman was a
real right, that's what happened here. I'm gonna make her fall love with

(45:00):
me. Yeah. No, Accordingto him, she said that it would
take him at least a year tosave enough money to be able to see
her again. That's a burn.Maxim says, quote, I could not
stand that the alleged repeated insults madehim enraged, and he just snapped into

(45:27):
this angry, jealous lover mindset.Basically. Yeah. Honestly too, I
don't believe the order of the sequenceof events at all. Honestly, it
seems to me like maybe they hadsex first, like as soon as he
got there, probably, and thenall this cracked off and this argument happened,

(45:51):
and then this is what happened,you know, that's where it turned
that he was feeling. So hewas just so angry the things she was
saying, and it was all comingto an end, and there's nothing he
can do about it because go tohis job and she doesn't want to see
him, and like, what canyou do about that? And I think
it's funny because it's just another exampleof the fragile male ego and women,

(46:15):
you know, we have to takelike all these we have to take insults
and like disses to our fucking physicalappearance and our value based on the dollar
we bring in or don't, andwe just laugh and we just oh Tommy,
and we just scroll past, right, and they they murder us.

(46:36):
That's what they do. Yeah,there is that saying of a man's worst
fear is that a woman will laughat him, and a woman's worst fear
is that he will murder her.It no, no, it's a thing,
it's it really rings true in alot of senses. I think that

(47:00):
there's definitely a spectrum where there's alot of men that don't struggle with these
things. Not everyone is a maxim, is a murderer, or you know,
is a shitty dude. But theones that do struggle, I think
these kind of blows to their ego. Even if all these other topics that
he brings up weren't part of theargument, and it was just about money.

(47:22):
That's enough for a man who strugglesin this area and is a really
fragile dude to basically snap, youknow, if a person's not really self
assured and really can't handle it.For him, it was just the worst
possible thing that could happen is forhim to get rejected, basically. Yeah,

(47:46):
And like I said, just plentyof people do not struggle with this,
but he was that person. Youknow, he's having all these plastic
surgeries. He needs her approval andher attention so badly. He's clinging to
her and claiming that she's his girlfriend, when at best he was a sugar
daddy, you know. Yeah,so he is not really living in our

(48:10):
world. He's just completely thinking abouthimself and he's very fragile. So after
all these insults were happening as faras he claims, and even if it
was just the financial thing and notall the extra shit that he brought up
when it was happening, he justknew right then and there that he was

(48:31):
going to kill her. As sheturned away from him, he hit her
head and then grabbed a knife fromthe kitchen and stabbed her with it.
Ekaterina ran into the bathroom and shetried to lock the door behind her.
She couldn't get it locked in time, so he pushed the door open and

(48:54):
grabbed her. Maxim then pulled herout of the bathroom. As she began
screaming frantically in the hallway, hecovered her mouth, but she broke free,
so he stabbed her again. Hethen chased her into living room and

(49:15):
hit her again in the neck,at which point she finally fell to the
ground, where he continued to stabher multiple times. Confirming what had been
seen on the footage, he saidthat he took all the bloody clothes and
evidence to a remote forest and burnedit. I mean, this struggle is

(49:37):
so back and forth and everywhere.I mean again, he cleaned the hell
out of this place, right,That's what I kept thinking this whole time.
He is chasing her, she isrunning for her life, and she's
almost getting away. She's getting upand running and dodging him. There's gonna
be blood everywhere and he I mean, it's amazing, like the cleanup job

(50:00):
he did. And then he justtook it all out and burned it.
Yeah, she got stabbed in multiplelocations in you know, tight quarters because
it's all happening within a couple rooms. But at the same time there would
definitely be more evidence. But hewas clearly a very meticulous person that just
really cleaned up everything and destroyed andburned everything he could except for the garter

(50:25):
belt of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Maxim told police
that he regretted the murder and wouldcooperate in any way that he could.
At his arraignment, he apologized toKaterina's parents, then said, quote,
I am ashamed of myself. Duringthe trial and leading up to it,

(50:52):
the Russian tabloids took aim at Maxim. Of course, they settled on his
looks, and due to all theplastic surgery, the ragmags took to calling
him quote Kendall, as he beganto have a very plastic, scene metelish
look about him. It's true duringcourt proceedings he kept his face in his

(51:15):
hands, saying he quote looked bad, and of course he avoided all photographers
that he could. It was foundduring the investigation that Maxim was in debt
to the tune of eight million rublesor one hundred and seven thousand, two
hundred and eighty US dollars, buthe said, the murder had nothing to

(51:40):
do with money. Again, accordingto him, lack of money. Yeah,
that's a good chunk of change.Yeah, that's a ton of money
to be already in debt. Thiswoman wants you to have a job.
His parents said that they hadn't beenin touch with Maxim for about a year

(52:04):
because they were so angry with himabout his debts, specifically because they were
a crew through his payments to sexworkers that he found on the internet.
He'd been in such bad financial shapethat his parents sent him money every month
to help cover the basics, justto make sure that his bills were getting

(52:25):
paid. You know, it justseems like he was so irresponsible with money
that someone needed to look out forhis just food and keeping a roof over
his head. Well it's wild too, because they hadn't talked to him in
like a year, but they werestill sending him money. Yeah, I
think, yeah, they just reallywanted to emotionally cut him off, but

(52:47):
make sure that they didn't feel guiltyabout it, so they kept paying his
bills. You know, yeah,I guess. I mean, I don't
know. I just kind of surprised, like he's not calling you to just
be like hey, mom, howis everything going? Like that Sunday call
just to make sure that check showsup, you know, like, damn
it, mom, what's going on? Okay? Goodbye? How dad?

(53:13):
You know? Yeah, most oftenwhen there's financial support, especially like full
financial support for everything you need tosurvive, you have somewhat of a relationship,
even if it's not good. Soit's very strange that they really didn't
talk, didn't have any relationship atall except for money. That was their

(53:35):
only connection to each other. Ekaterina'smother, Olga, testified during the trial
about how traumatic finding her daughter inthe apartment was, especially in the suitcase.
For her, that's got to bereally gruesome, she said, quote
I saw my daughter lying in asuitcase, the big red suitcase. I

(53:59):
started to scream. With the confessionand stuff, it seems like this is
just an open shut case. Likethe trial is kind of a formality,
right, yeah, it definitely is. So. Maxim was sentenced to nine
years in a quote strict regime,penal colony, Russian prison, Moscow,

(54:22):
Russia. Right, no, thankyou. He is getting all he deserves,
even though he deserves more time.Right, definitely for killing someone.
It's just in my brain. That'stoo short of a sentence I confessing.
Yeah, like, oh that's fine, I'll just tell them the truth and

(54:43):
then I'll get out of it.How do we not value human life more
than ninety years? He can stillget out and have a whole life ahead
of him. That's what makes methink that there was some sort of like
a pleom. Most were like,tell us everything and we'll give you less
time. And that is part ofthe oversharing of it all, you know

(55:05):
what I mean, right, letme tell you as much as I possibly
can to try to get out,And so that's where all of this extra
crap comes in, and really,you know, talk about her and trying
to give as much info as possible. But it's also like, hey,
dude, like you know, it'skind of all of it. But nine
years is nothing. So the confessionhas something to do with that. Yeah,

(55:30):
it makes a lot of sense thathe was told certain things or promise
certain things if he gave information.So of course he gave a ton of
information. Yeah, that definitely addsup for me. In addition to the
prison sentence, he also had topay two point five million rubles or thirty

(55:52):
three five and twenty five dollars toEkaterina's family, which of course is not
an that's no nothing like oh great, I killed your daughter, Go buy
a car or something. An economybare you know, like, yeah,

(56:12):
yeah, that's so fucked up.And again, I don't know. It
trips me out the value that's placedon a human life, that we have
put a number of years and anumber of dollars that this human life represents.
It's very depressing. Yeah, whenit's this small. Especially Maxim's father,
Rentz, told the media that hethought the sentence was quote strict,

(56:38):
and I think that motherfucker's tripping.I do too. And he hasn't talked
to him in a year, andhe thinks it's strict. Yeah, you
don't give a fuck. You justwanted him out of your hair. You
know, you just didn't want todeal with him. You wanted to throw
him to the side and have himnot bug you. It's probably tired of
every time his kid he would seehim. He didn't recognize them rights and

(57:02):
it's like, oh, you're you'repaying for that now, you know,
and we know you're in debt andwe're paying you and you're you know what
I mean. It's like, hmm, I don't know. I feel like
there was probably some issues there withthe family and the finances, and he
had gone to all these colleges,he had four degrees, he had student

(57:23):
debt, you know. Yep,there's a lot here, and then yeah,
she broke his heart right and hecouldn't be told that he was ugly.
Yeah, in my eyes, there'sa direct connection. You know,
this rejection from his parents, whichwe don't have any information on the background

(57:49):
there, and I think there's areason for that. There must have been
some sort of trauma or fraught relationshipthat they had in their history, and
so when it came time to supporthim and that he needed all these things,
they completely rejected him. And youknow, he sinks into this habit

(58:10):
of working on his appearance because hedoesn't want to be rejected. And then
he meets Ekaterina and as soon asshe rejects him and is like, this
is not a relationship. It's onlya relationship if you have money. There's
only an interaction and a connection ifyou can financially provide for me, and

(58:32):
not to him was a rejection.So he just I think it was trauma
based. It's got to be somesort of issue that's similar to his parents
relationship. You know that it bringshim back to being rejected and being abandoned.

(58:52):
Yeah, there's something I mean thatdoesn't I'm not trying to make excuses
for he thinks you're trying to anycome on, come on, But it
just an explanation to maybe what wasbehind this is got to be rooted in
family trauma, rejection, alienation,abandonment, those kind of things. That's

(59:15):
what makes sense to me. There'sa lot of insecurities here. That's that's
most definitely that's the thing here.So but yeah, Wild out of Russia,
yep, first suitcase, number onesuitcase murderer, So really quick,

(59:37):
I do want to share there isexciting things. Um The Devil, you
know that season two about Sherry Schrinerended finished up. I would say it
was pretty good. I was entertainedall five parts. I liked it.
Um, I didn't watch it.I'll have to, Yeah, you know,

(01:00:00):
it was interesting. There's worse thingsto watch, is basically what I'm
hearing. Thing that's on right now. It's not a Cecil Hotel. If
it was another Cecil hotel. TheSon of Sam thing is another Cecil Hotel.
Okay, yeah, I stopped watchingeverybody I couldn't everybody stopped watching it.

(01:00:20):
I fell asleep sitting up almost everyepisode. Yeah, if you haven't
tried to start, just don't start. It's a waste of time. One
of the greatest podcasts personally that Ienjoyed very much was Broken Hearts. And
now there is a show a DiscoveryPlus. I'm gonna watch it tonight.
I haven't watched it yet. I'vebeen thinking about it like all week.

(01:00:42):
It's gonna be interesting. It's aboutthe family in Washington and in NorCal that
they drove the the six kids adopted, and they drove off the cliff and
they all did God. You know, every time you open your mouth,
I'm like, damn, I don'tknow shit. I don't pay attention to
what's going on at all. You'rethe queen of breaking news and remembering all
these details and knowing about all thecases. I like, dive deep into

(01:01:04):
the cases that we do check outor anything that I'm interested in. But
man, you always know what's goingon. I've never heard of that case.
Oh yeah you have. It's justit's there. Trust me, it's
not ringing Bells. It's these thetwo lesbian women that they adopted, the
six black children, and the littleboy went viral because he was at a

(01:01:28):
Black Lives Matter rally I think itwas, and he was holding a sign
that said free hugs, and hehad he was crying and a police officer
was hugging him. Do you rememberthat. I remember that kid. I
don't remember anything else. That isthe kid. He was one of six
kids that they adopted. And theywere absolutely abusing these children the whole time.
I mean we're talking withholding food,physical abuse. They were on the

(01:01:52):
run from like all these multiple CPScases. It was all the show.
And she was faking this whole socialmedia life with these kids. That looking
back is like one of the scariestthings ever. And she drugged her and
her wife, they drugged on someof the kids, drugged herself and drove

(01:02:12):
off a cliff off. I thinkit was like Route one up and like
big Sir up in that area out. Wow. Oh yeah. The podcast
is rough, but like riveting,I mean, so well done. It's
called Broken Hearts and it's about theHeart family and I highly recommend, and
as always every time I talk aboutDiscovery plus I have to push the murder
hornets. If you have a past, it is like my favorite scientific thing.

(01:02:37):
I definitely watched it, did you, Yeah, based I think we
talked about it. Were you asintrigued by these hornets? No? I
was like, well, this iskind of interesting, but I wasn't as
stoked on an what they had touse all the equipment and they found it.

(01:02:58):
Dude, come on, Oh mygod, I'm just I'm like getting
hot right now. I'm excited thinkingabout it. Yeah. As soon as
you told me, I went tomy wife and I was like, so
I got to watch this documentary aboutmurderess. I think I think you did.
I think we've done this. Iget excited every time. Um,
it was so good. It wasso much fun. Uh the DC Sniper

(01:03:21):
thing on Vice right now? Ohyeah, I haven't watched that started it.
It's a little slow, but I'mgonna get there. It doesn't matter.
I'll do anything. This This caseriveted me. I remember when this
was going on like it was yesterday, and I'll just never forget it.
It was like I was in highschool and our family friend's grandfather from Arkansas

(01:03:44):
was in town while this was goingon. And we used to all stand
in the driveway of their house andtalk about this. They lived across the
street, and we would have thesemeetings every day about what do you think
is going on? Like, whatthe hell? What kind of cars?
It's got to be a car,right, you think he's on a bicycle,
you think it's two people, youthink it's one. It was just
a wild time. And so I'vebeen waiting for this special. So I'm

(01:04:06):
I'm very excited to watch this.That case will never not just like make
me stop and listen. It isreally fascinating. I got right the second
it is. Um, yeah,Beverly Hill's Housewives premiered. Yeah, this
is Slowlywives podcast. No, it'snot. It's just you know, it's

(01:04:26):
what I do. I can backit up with murder. Okay, so
for every murder, I've got areality show for you. So it's like
ninety Day Fiance. We got thisgoing. Okay, we got this,
we got Housewives, we got theNew Jersey reunion and Beverly Hills premiere like
all in the same. I mean, it's what a time to be alive.
Okay, that's all. That's allI know. That's all. And

(01:04:49):
then, um, I had neverwatched vander Pump Rules, and on Hulu
they have every episode, and soI got all this free time. I'm
like, here we go. SoI'm on season two. These people are
insane, absolutely nuts. The earlyseasons are the most insane amazing. I
mean, I still watch it,but I shouldn't. It's completely trash,
and everyone on there is trash,but the early seasons are fun trash.

(01:05:15):
I heard her phrase this week thatI had never heard before, and it
made me laugh so hard. Andit's comes out of Jack's mouth and he
utters, he utters the phrase sweaterline. And I haven't even gotten to
see one yet, but I waslike sitting there just going, like Stace's
yelling at him because he's he's takingthe you know, he's dis in her

(01:05:38):
because she's really trying to do itin fashion and you're just taking the you
know, importance away from what I'mtrying to do it with your stupid sweater
line. And I'm like, whatthe fuck you guys, how did I
not know about I'm so late tothe game. Yeah, You're really making
me want to go back and watchold episodes because I'm lunching together. I'm
on season two, Katie just toldeverybody that Kristen fucked Jack's think it really

(01:06:02):
happened. You're seriously at the bestpart of the entire series. This is
amazing, That's what I'm saying.Everybody comes joined. It all downhill from
here, I promise you, that'swhat I And now they all love babies,
and I'm like, am I gonnareally? And Stacy gets canceled eventually.
Oh yeah, she's very canceled.Oh her mouth, This girl,
you're on television, like even backthen, Like, do you know you're

(01:06:25):
being filmed the things you're saying.Yeah, I think she's always been a
pretty awful person, and yeah,it's only recently that she's taken that awfulness
to the next level publicly, whereshe's just super sheet shitty and being called
out on you know, whatever hashappened in the past or whatever she's currently
saying. But she really it's likeshe keeps escalating. She's like, oh,

(01:06:46):
I can get away with this.We'll let me be even shittier.
You know. Well, I'm watchingand bring little mini bottles of wine into
restaurants because she's like, well,if they don't serve alcohol there, I'm
gonna bring it anyway because he can'ttell me what to do. And I'm
like, oh, okay, Isee you like got it. And then
her dad she says with her dad, her dad pulls a fund to whiskey

(01:07:09):
ball out of his pocket, andI'm like, oh, this is learning
behavior. This is absolutely going downthe generation. Okay. Yeah, so
anyway, I don't like her parentseither. Everyone we need to take this
patre. Her mom is super shitty. Oh I can't wait, Like I've
already had, you know, afew introductions, but I At one point,

(01:07:29):
she tells Stacie's boyfriend that he's toogood for her her own daughter.
It's insane. It's one of thesaddest things. And I'm like, oh,
that's why she's so fucked up.Oh man, I can't deny that,
Like I haven't heard someone in myfamily say that about their child.
But yeah, that's up. Itis so fucked up. But yeah,
it happens creating future murders of America. She's a mess. Oh yeah,

(01:07:51):
no, they're out there, thesekids, these poor kids that haven't been
in school or for like a yearand a half, that don't know anything
thing but iPads and rolls, andit's just enough TikTok. I guess I
don't know these kids are up to. But anyway, all right, we
gotta go. We're just talking now. Now it's just Vanderpup Rules as Vanderpunk
Rule Hour. But yeah, it'sbeen exciting. So before we get out

(01:08:15):
of here, let's just remind youthat there's a bunch of links in our
show notes every week. If youwant to read more about the case and
look up our sources, we've gotthose in the show notes. If you
want to join our Patreon and getaccess to a bunch of extra stuff,
then that's patreon dot com. SlashMurder Dictionary podcast. If you want march,
it's on threadless. And definitely followus on social media if you want

(01:08:41):
updates on when we're putting out episodes, the new subjects, breaking news,
memes, everything that you will need, so follow us on Instagram, Facebook,
and Twitter. I think that's it. We can get out of here.
I gotta go watch this Broken Heartsthing. I got to go.
So thank you everyone, Thank youfor listening. We love you, thank

(01:09:01):
you for hanging in with us.We'll see you next next time. Yeah,
take care of everybody, and we'llsee you next time with a suitcase,
another suitcase. I can't wait.Bye bye

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