Two women charged with murder after strangling a man in a car in Sofia, one of them is a diplomat with 30 years of experience

Sofia City Prosecutor's Office pressed charges against two women for premeditated murder and asked the court to take a remand measure against them, the press centre of the Prosecutor's Office said on January 22.

A man found strangled to death in his car in Sofia, child custody dispute is the possibe cause of the murder

On January 20, 2024, Sofia City Prosecutor's Office charged a 33-year-old woman and her 54-year-old mother with the intentional murder of a 44-year-old man - the young woman's husband.

The investigation was initiated under conditions of urgency on January 19, 2024 following a tip-off from the father of the murdered victim. It is being conducted by the Sofia Directorate of Interior, under the guidance and supervision of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office.

After the initial investigative actions and searches, the supervising prosecutor considered that sufficient evidence has been collected to press charges under Art. 219, para. 1 of the Penal Procedure Code.

The charge against the two women is that on January 18, 2024 at about 21:20 in Sofia, on Elemag street, (where the victim lived), in complicity as perpetrators, they intentionally killed the 44-year-old man, who was sitting in the driver's seat. The 54 year old woman was squeezing the neck of the victim from the back seat of the car, while the 33-year-old woman was pressing him against the seat and closed the driver's door when he tried to get out of the car.

According to the preliminary conclusion of a forensic expert, the victim's death was due to strangulation.

The car with the corpse of the victim was found slightly burnt in a wooded area in the Vitosha mountain on the road to Aleko hut.

The two accused were detained for up to 72 hours by Prosecutor's order.

Today, January 22, the supervising prosecutor submitted to the Sofia City Court a request to take a pre-trial detention measure against the two defendants.

Sofia City Court decided to hold the hearing behind closed doors. The defence and the prosecution requested that the facts and circumstances surrounding the personal lives of the two defendants not be disclosed.

The defence argued that one of the defendants was a diplomat with over 30 years of experience and was a public figure. Krasimira Trifonova and Gabriela Peeva entered the courtroom wearing masks and hoods to hide their faces.

BNT team contacted the sister and father of the murdered Peyo Peev. They refused to comment on what happened until investigators release official information.

The acrimonious divorce between 44-year-old Peyo and 33-year-old Gabriela was over a dispute over whether he is the father of both children. He claimed they were his and she claimed that Peyo was the father of only one of them. This led to the moment when on Friday the man was strangled and driven to Dragalevtsi in his private car in an attempt to set it on fire.

The tragedy took place shortly after 9 pm. As the man sat in the driver's seat, the mother-in-law clutched his neck and his wife pressed him against the seat. When Peyo tried to get out, she closed the door.

"Another young man has had his life taken from him as a result of an unsettled relationship between husband and wife - a deteriorating relationship linked to custody. I can give that as a motive for the serious crime. His wife and mother-in-law are currently in custody. The investigation is at an early stage. The autopsy should be performed today to give a definite clarity on the cause of death," said Zhivko Kotsev, Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior.

A woman with the initials M. Y. or Milena, according to BNT sources, who claims to be the victim's sister. In the group of the neighborhood where he lived, she wrote that she was looking for her brother, but unfortunately the police found him murdered. BNT team also reached out to her to ask if she had an explanation as to why it came to this. The response was that they have an explanation for everything, but it will become clear during the trial. The woman also said that on the advice of the police she could not comment further about the case. Their father was also laconic.

"We have all sorts of explanations but we are not in touch with the media. We are waiting for everything to come out officially - from the police and the judicial system," the victim's father Orlin Peev said.

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