Burning Man Homicide Mystery Gets Murkier as Victim Is Identified as Russian Man
A clearer picture is emerging of the shocking homicide that took place on Saturday at the annual Burning Man Festival, the nine-day international desert gathering of thousands, as police in Nevada have identified the man found dead in a pool of blood on the grounds of the event. Yet further questions have emerged as details about the deceased Russian man, and what happened in the final few days, are beginning to crystalize.
The annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, about 120 miles northeast of Reno, touts itself as an event that brings people together to “co-create art, community and shared experiences of awe.” But this week, a palpable police presence loomed over the penultimate and final day of this year’s celebration, with detectives questioning revelers in the temporary, man-made Black Rock City about a violent death and who was responsible.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office identified the deceased man found on Saturday night around 9:14 p.m. local time as 37-year-old Vadim Kruglov, a Russian national who had traveled to the U.S. from his hometown in Siberia and resided in Washington state; friends had reported Kruglov as missing days earlier, according to social media posts. Kruglov’s lifeless body was discovered “in a puddle of blood” just as the central totem of a large man began burning on Saturday, signaling the end of the festival, which for many is an endurance test taking place in a harsh climate.
The deceased man was taken to the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office and on Tuesday, in a statement, the office said it had identified him as Kruglov using fingerprints.
Visiting the U.S. from the Siberian city of Omsk, Kruglov arrived at Burning Man in Pershing County, Nevada, on Aug. 24, according to an Instagram post from his friend. They grew worried when they lost contact with him as the festival start date approached.
“He has not been in contact since. His tent and belongings were left at camp, but he never returned,” wrote Sofiia Shcherbakova, who attended Burning Man with Kruglov.
On Wednesday, a woman who says she was at the party to first notify authorities of the man’s death spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how she learned of his death. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she’d had a “bad feeling” come over her as the massive central totem of the Burning Man was set ablaze; her partner, a four-time Burning Man attendee, estimated that 90 percent of attendees had headed to the center of the grounds to witness the festival’s namesake event.
The woman, who spoke to THR from Venice Beach days after leaving the festival, said that as she and her group drove out of Black Rock City, they were approached by a woman who she described as Israeli, in her 50s or 60s and wearing a red dress.
“We left, and on our way out, a woman flagged us down, and we opened the window, and she was very calm and said to us that someone in her tent was bleeding out and might be dead,” the Venice Beach source told THR.
When they asked the woman if they had checked his pulse, she told them that she “didn’t want to touch him,” the source recalled. At that point the group says they used a StarLink to call a Black Rock Ranger, who both said they know and who was working at the festival; that Black Rock Ranger relayed the news to the sheriff’s office, the source said.
The Hollywood Reporter has contacted the Black Rock Rangers and the lead detective on the case at the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office seeking to corroborate the woman’s version of events but neither returned phone calls of messages.
The couple shared an image of the tent from where they say the woman emerged and Kruglov was allegedly found dead.
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said that it is investigating the incident as a homicide but does not appear to have any major leads in a case where much of the scene of the homicide has been disassembled, removed or is now dust in the wind.
“We are also currently seeking information regarding any suspect identifiers for any person who would commit such a heinous crime against another human being,” the office’s statement reads.
Source: Hollywoodreporter
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