3 youths charged in 'torturous' murder of special needs man
The Prosecutor's Office has charged three youths with the murder last fall of a 42-year-old man with special needs in Raasiku, near Tallinn.
The North District Prosecutor's Office brought the charges against the three, now aged 15, 16 and 17.
Lead Prosecutor Rita Siniväli said the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) had from the outset opened a criminal case under the Penal Code's provision for homicide. The state of the victim's body brought cause to suspect the murder had been conducted in a particularly cruel manner.
"The first suspicions that the victim may have been deprived of life in a torturous or cruel manner arose quite early in the proceedings, upon seeing the body. At the same time, these suspicions also needed to be proven. In the course of proceedings, the police established that the victim had been caused great pain due to beating, had been humiliated, and that the corpse had been desecrated, in an effort to conceal traces of the crime," Siniväli said.
According to the prosecutor, complicating factors in the proceedings and apportioning culpability were that there were multiple perpetrators, all of whom were minors at the time.
"In order to bring charges, it was necessary to precisely establish each youth's contribution, from the planning of the act through to its execution and aftermath.
We needed to determine what the motive of this crime was, which of the young men did what, and to what extent this influenced the occurrence of the tragic outcome."
According to the charge sheet, at around 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 18, 2025, the three youths lured the victim, who was mentally handicapped, into a wooded area near the Harju-Jaani church, around 30 kilometers east of Tallinn.
On reaching that area, the youths are charged with humiliating and beating the victim, including by using a metal pipe they had brought along with them. The victim died at the scene as a result of the beating.
The youths initially left the victim's body in the forest, returning to it the following evening and transporting it to a field in the nearby Jõelähtme rural municipality. In an effort to conceal their crime, they set the body on fire.
As the defendants are minors, the county court hearings may be declared closed, and for this reason the prosecutor's office cannot provide additional comment before the preliminary hearing, which starts on Tuesday, January 20.
A civil claim for compensation for material and moral damage incurred has been filed by the victim's father and was submitted to the county court along with the indictment.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
