Journalist Oleksandr Lapshyn found dead a month after going missing

Oleksandr Lapshyn, a journalist from the city of Kharkiv, has been found dead a month after he went missing on 29 May. The circumstances of his disappearance remain unclear.

Source: Serhii Bolvinov, head of the investigative department of Kharkiv Oblast National Police, in a commentary for Suspilne

Quote from Bolvinov: "On 30 May 2024, Oleksandr’s family went to the police to report that he had gone missing. The police launched an investigation. On 29 June, we received information from a passer-by who had found a body showing signs of suicide hanging from a rope in the Sortyrovka district.

Of course, we had to establish the man’s identity because he had been there for a long time and it was not possible to confirm his identity visually. There was a note in his pocket, but it was impossible to read it due to the heat. It was likely a suicide note."

Details: The police collected a DNA sample from Oleksandr’s father. Test results showed that DNA from the body matched the father's. Oleksandr’s family has been informed. The police will determine the official cause of death after a forensic examination, but they have reason to believe that Lapshyn, whose body was found in a forest, killed himself.

Oleksandr Humaniuk, head of the search and rescue unit at the NGO Rose on the Hand, told Suspilne that the search for Lapshyn had been ongoing for a month.

On 29 June, volunteers gathered to comb the area near the apartment building where Lapshyn had lived. They managed to search some of the area.

"Sadly, the body was found by some locals, and they called us and told us to come. It was about one and a half kilometres away from where he lived. We kept the information quiet so that the investigators could do their work and inform the family," Humaniuk said.

Suspilne.Kharkiv reports that Lapshyn did not work in the media prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In the spring of 2022, he worked as a fixer for Reuters for about a month. He also wrote about the reality of life in Kharkiv for Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia (Life).

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