Russian police open investigation into death of British tourist

Jun 18, 2007, 15:59 GMT

Moscow - Russian prosecutors opened a criminal investigation Monday into the death of a British tourist after finding the 72-year- old woman's body near a famous monastery outside Moscow.

Police announced that they found the body of Pamela Crane, a British citizen who had lived approximately 30 years in New Zealand, with signs of a violent death.

According to police reports and missing notices on a Russian travel web site, the mother of four went missing on May 29, two days after arriving in the Russian capital from China, where she had been travelling.

Crane is believed to have set out on a commuter train that morning for Sergiyev Posad, some 70 kilometres northeast of Moscow and the site of Russia's most famous monastery.

When she failed to return to Moscow's Izmailovo Vega Hotel at night, Interpol began a search for her.

The Moscow region prosecutor general said in a statement that Crane's body was found June 3 in a forested area in the village of Repikhovo, near Sergiyev Posad.

The statement said the body had a rope and noose around its neck and that it had been badly decomposed. Police established the body was Crane's on Friday, the prosecutors said.

Authorities did not elaborate on any possible theories behind Crane's death, saying that the case had been assigned to the Moscow region prosecution division for 'especially important cases, murders and banditry.'