YESSENTUKI. Nov 17 (Interfax) - A court in Yessentuki (Stavropol Territory) on Wednesday ordered the detention of Sergei Tsapok, a suspected organizer of a multiple murder in the village of Kushchevskaya in Krasnodar territory.
Tsapok will remain in custody pending a preliminary investigation, an Interfax correspondent reported from the courtroom.
Twelve people, including four children, were found dead inside a two-story farmhouse earlier this month in Kushchyovskaya. The assailants stabbed most of them to death and then tried to burn down the house.
The victims were identified as local farmer Serever Ametov, his wife, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, as well as the family's guests from Rostov-on-Don - entrepreneur Vladimir Mironenko, his wife, two daughters and his wife's parents.
Ametov's neighbors, Natalya Kasyanova and her son Pavel, who were also in the house, were also killed.
Investigators believe that one of the children died from carbon monoxide poisoning, another child was strangled, while the other 10 died from multiple stab wounds. The victims were stabbed three to ten times with a knife, investigators said.
The victims were stabbed three to ten times, investigators said.
Six suspects, all local residents, have been arrested. They have been named as Alexei Gurov, 24, his younger brother Yevgeny, 20, Vyacheslav Skachedub, 16, Igor Maidanyuk, 17, Sergei Tsapok and Sergei Tsepovyaz.
The Kushchevsky district administration later said that Tsepovyaz is a local MP.
The possible motive of the attack has not been revealed by prosecutors.