May 13, 2014 at one of the hottest resorts in Tunisia a terrible event occurred. The body of an eight-year-old Nastya was discovered in one of the rooms of the Tapsus Hotel. Further events were so strange that the mother of the child, Natalya Balandina, became the first suspect. Today we recall all the details of this high-profile case.
Incident
On this hot June day, mother and daughter were supposed to leave the resort and go home. But at the appointed time they were not among the tourists who loaded things on the bus. I had to go to my room to remind me of my departure. There, the lifeless body of Nastya was discovered in a bath half filled with water. The hotel employees called the police, and the search for Natalia Balandina began.
There is another version - the girl was found by a maid, who needed to clean the room after the guests. Be that as it may, the search for the woman ended on the beach, where she calmly took sunbathing. When asked by the police: “Do you know that your daughter is dead?” she replied indistinctly: “Yes. Not. I do not know". The woman was absolutely calm and did not show any anxiety.
Indications
Natalia was arrested, and she began to give confused evidence. At first, the story looked as if they, along with their daughter, went to the beach. The girl refused to swim in the cold sea and one went into the room to take a hot bath. Mother did not accompany her, and when she returned to her room, she saw that Nastya was lying under water with no signs of life. Unable to get the baby out of the bath, Natalia went to drown in the sea. She was looking for a secluded place for a long time, tired and sat on a deck chair, where she was detained.
Another version says that she left her daughter in the room and went to the beach to sunbathe before leaving. Natalya never returned to the hotel and only learned from the police about the death of her daughter. This option sounds more convincing, because it is almost impossible to believe in the first. How could a far from fragile woman of forty-three years old be unable to get an eight-year-old girl out of the bath?
Even if she realized that her daughter was dead, then it was necessary to call for medical assistance and the police. She took her bag, documents and went to look for a place in order to take her own life. However, Natalya herself insisted on the first option. At the same time, she did not forget to clarify that it was the hotel employees who were guilty of the death of her daughter. They seemed strange to her from the first day of rest.
Consequence
In a Tunisia detention center, a woman spent a month. During this time, it was possible to interview witnesses and conduct all examinations. The evidence was not in the mother’s favor - under the nails of the girl they found pieces of Natalya’s skin, and witnesses claimed that they had repeatedly heard the cries of the child from the room. There were those who even saw that Nastya's mother was beating in front of people.
Pathologists told the most interesting - the girl did not drown and was not even drowned. Before putting the child in the bath, she was strangled. No water was found in the lungs, and clear fingerprints remained on the throat. No sexual acts were carried out with a living or dead girl either.
The reaction of the Russians
The society heatedly discussed the story the very next day. Numerous media publications and television programs talked about the tragic fate of Natalia Balandina. She worked in a beauty salon and adored all three of her children. The younger Nastya was especially fond of: she sewed her dresses and did hairstyles. Shortly before the incident, Natalya's mother died, and this was a heavy blow for her. Therefore, she went to rest and unwind in Tunisia.
People were in a hurry to help the inconsolable mother. The whole world raised money for a lawyer and tried to secure her return to her homeland. Soon the situation changed, and the mercy of society was replaced by anger. Unpleasant details surfaced. It turns out that the money collected was spent by Nastya's father on a ticket to Tunisia. Where he was in no hurry to take his daughter's body, but went on an excursion. Natalya herself was not an angel either - her colleague paid a huge loan for a woman because she had the imprudence to become a surety. She provided all receipts of payment to the investigation.
People began to demand from the family that all money be returned to them. Nobody wanted to help such citizens. At this time, Natasha's father spoke on federal channels with a call for help and told the horrors about the prisons of Tunisia. Allegedly, his daughter is not even fed there and can be tortured so that she confesses to the murder. After all, if it turns out that the killer was living in a hotel, then the reputation of the resort will suffer very much.
Sentence
Natalia Balandina was released to Russia at the end of June. The woman said that the conditions in detention were normal. Investigators from St. Petersburg took up the case. They did not manage to get an arrest - an experienced lawyer was able to bring many arguments in favor of the client. Despite the fact that the investigation was sure that she had killed her daughter, no one could prove it. Natalia Balandina escaped punishment, all charges were dropped from her. Criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code was instituted and is still not closed. The mother of the deceased is no longer a defendant, the investigation is looking for other possible suspects. The woman herself went to Krasnodar and lives with relatives.