Footage from a CCTV camera captured military historian, Oleg Sokolov, tossing "packages" off a bridge into the river below. Sokolov drunkenly fell into the river while trying to cover up his crime. When Sokolov was fished out from the water, the 63-year-old man's backpack contained his partner's severed arms.

Sokolov had been dating Anastasia Yeschenko, who used to be his student. Yeschenko's brother claimed that she had called him complaining about a fight the couple had. Yeschenko wanted to go to a party with a male friend but her partner was not happy about it. The tiff between the couple reportedly ended with Sokolov shooting Yeschenko at least four times with a rifle.

During the hearing, evidence hinted that Sokolov had a social gathering at his house with Yeschenko's dead body locked in another room. Sokolov thought that by throwing his lover's body parts into the Moika river in Saint Petersburg, he could escape being caught.

Russian professor tried to throw lover's body
Sokolov tried to dispose of his murdered lover's arms in the Moika river AFP / OLGA MALTSEVA AFP / OLGA MALTSEVA

Sokolov used a saw to chop up Yeschenko's body before packing them up. At night, Sokolov went to a bridge over the river and started tossing the body parts. A CCTV captured Sokolov going back and forth three times before he accidentally fell into the river.

Rescuers pulled the professor from the river to find severed arms in his backpack. Upon questioning, Sokolov admitted to the murder and dismemberment of his 24-year-old student turned lover. The police found the rest of Yeschenko's mutilated body in the professor's luxury apartment as well as a bloody saw.

Sokolov admitted to his crime and might be facing 12 years in prison for it.

The Daily Mail pointed out that Sokolov loved to dress as French General Napoleon Bonaparte. His students found him to be both brilliant as well as a "freak." Sokolov liked being called "Sire" and referred to Yeschenko as "Josephine."

The professor taught at the Saint Petersburg State University, where Russian President Vladimir Putin went to school. He was also president of the Russian Association of Military History.

Yeschenko was not the first student who had a romantic relationship with Sokolov. Sokolov's first wife was also a student who Sokolov later married.

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