Body parts of missing girl, 9, found dumped in lake

A father's search for his missing daughter ended in tragedy after parts of her body were found stashed inside a plastic bag and dumped in Obrochny Lake in the city of Tyumen, Russia.

Nine-year-old Nastya Muravyova was reported missing after she left a candy shop on June 30. CCTV footage from the store showed her wearing bright yellow capri pants and pink trainers. Her 18-year-old sister Tatyana spearheaded the search with leaflets and audio appeals. She had inspired a hundred volunteers to help with the hunt.

Over a month into the search, the young girl's body was eventually discovered dumped amongst reeds in the lake. Cops saw the plastic bag containing her remains on Thursday, Aug. 19. They are adamant that someone had placed it there recently. They said they have combed the area previously and found no evidence that could lead to the girl's disappearance.

"It is absolutely certain that the corpse had not been there all the time since the girl's disappearance. We had recently combed the area again, every bush, and at that time the remains were not there," one of the searchers said according to The Sun.

Police are now on a major hunt to catch the murderer. The girl's father, 40-year-old Sergey Muravyova, was initially suspected of her disappearance and murder because of a prior murder conviction. But the single parent insisted on his innocence and he also passed a lie detector test.

A day before the gruesome discovery, eyewitnesses reported that a man was seen near the lake carrying a black plastic bag. Authorities reportedly also have in custody a 39-year-old suspected paedophile and they have yet to question him on Nastya's death. The murder suspect was recently detained for raping an 11-year-old girl. He also has a prior murder conviction record.

Russia's top criminal investigator Alexander Bastrykin has taken a personal interest in the case. He will lead others in the ongoing investigation while "criminologists" work on the crime scene. It is said that divers have continued the search on the lake for other possible clues that would help piece together the circumstances that led to Nastya's disappearance and her gruesome death.