Husband held for murders of wife and mother-in-law

By Colin Fernandez
Last updated at 7:51 AM on 13th August 2010

A company director going through a bitter divorce was arrested yesterday for stabbing to death his estranged wife and mother-in-law.

Sergei Zolotovsky was seen holding a knife over the body of former partner Svetlana, 40, near a bus stop.

The 42-year-old was allegedly chased to his nearby house where he is said to have fatally stabbed her mother, slashed his throat and set fire to the house. He was later found hiding in the loft.

Zolotovsky, the director of a construction company, is under police guard while being treated in hospital.

Officers are investigating whether he ambushed Mrs Zolotovsky, from whom he had been estranged for 12 months, as she left home in the morning to go to work.

Friends said her mother, known only as Mrs Belska and aged in her late sixties or early seventies, had been staying to help her daughter get through the divorce.

Neighbours said the couple were from Latvia and had lived at the house in Beckton, east London, for the past seven or eight years.

Onlooker Michael Herbert told how he saw Zolotovsky, dressed in black, standing over the younger woman’s body.

Mr Herbert, 47, who had been trimming hedges at 7am yesterday, said: ‘I heard screaming and I went round the side of the building and saw him standing over the body.

‘The guy had a knife in his hand and a woman was lying on the ground cut open. It was not a very nice scene to see.

‘He stayed there for a few minutes and then he started running away from the scene, so two of us made chase.

‘One of us gave up, but I carried on up an alleyway. When I got there the house was on fire.

‘He threatened us, saying: “Keep away, I’ve got a knife.” He carried on.’

Mr Herbert added that before he gave chase he covered the woman’s body in clothing because it was ‘obvious’ she was dead.

Two concerned colleagues of Mrs Zolotovsky, a lab technician at the private Wellington Hospital in St John’s Wood, north-west London, travelled to her house after she did not turn up for work.

Marlon Da Silva, a fellow technician, said: ‘She had some problems with her husband. She was in the process of going through a divorce. Her mother came to support her.’

A neighbour, Ben Tilley, 28, said that her husband had moved out a year ago.

‘I have not seen him since he moved out,’ he added. ‘When they first moved here they were a nice couple, a pleasant couple.

‘They were very house proud. Something happened a year ago and he moved out.’

A Wellington Hospital spokesman said that staff were ‘deeply shocked’ at the news.

‘Svetlana was a well liked and highly valued member of staff and she will be missed by all that knew here.’ he added.

‘We would obviously pass on our deepest sympathies to her friends and family who have survived her.’

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Rickells, who is leading the investigation, said: ‘This was an horrific attack in broad daylight.

‘We know the victim left her address in east London at 7.20am to walk to work. She was attacked at the bus stop in Stansfeld Road.

‘We have traced several witnesses but would like to speak to anyone who may have been in the area at that time.

‘We know that the elderly lady had been staying with her daughter after arriving in the UK three months ago.’

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1302459/Husband-held-murders-wife-mother-law.html