- Date
- 01/04/1997
- First
- Valentin
- Surname
- Karkavtsev
- Sex/Age
- M, 43
- Incident
- accident
- Motive
- nJ
- Place
- rail station
- Job
- journalist
- Medium
- Federal District Plus
- CENTRAL
- Street, Town, Region
- Mezhevo, Tver Region
- Freelance
- no
- Local/National
- national, Komsomolskaya pravda
- Other Ties
- Cause of Death
- hit by train
- Legal Qualification
- No information
- Impunity
- investigation
The body of "Komsomolskaya pravda" correspondent Valentin Karkavtsev was found on 1 April 1997 by railway employees near the Mezhevo station in the Tver Region.
Karkavtsev was carrying a letter from the newspaper which stated that he was travelling to attend the international ecological congress in St Petersburg. Newspapers reported that the journalist wanted to stop off on the way ("Kommersant" said in Tver; "Izvestia" citing "Komsolskaya pravda" said in Rzhev) to check up on facts contained in a reader’s letter. That was why he was taking the slow local train, not the express.
A receipt in Karkavtsev’s pocket showed he had been fined by ticket collectors around 9 pm for not having a ticket and then he decided to get out at Mezhevo. Karkavtsev had all his belongings and money with him, excluding the suggestion of robbery and the fact that the dead man represented a well known Moscow newspaper made the investigators treat this death particularly seriously, noted the "Segodnya" daily (4 April 1997). The transport section of the prosecutor’s office investigated and an autopsy suggested that he was knocked down by a passing locomotive.
Karkavtsev originally came from the Arkhangelsk Region where he edited the "Severny komsomolets" newspaper. He had worked for Komsomolskaya pravda since 1991. A prize for journalism in memory of Karkavtsev was later set up there.