- Three leading medical examiners are categorical: The young woman died of mechanical asphyxiation
- He claims he became emotional when she asked him: Are you sure the child is yours
33-year-old Evgenia Chorbanova, for whose death her husband Orlin Vladimirov is on trial, was face to face with her strangler. The young woman’s neck was squeezed from both sides more than once, leaving finger marks in several places. She was in a supine position, as evidenced by the blood clots on her buttocks. She was also sidelined, as she had hematomas on one half of her body.
Evgenia resisted, because with suffocation, death is not instantaneous, but occurs from minutes to hours in pain and suffering.
These are the conclusions of the three medical examiners who conducted a new examination of the causes of death of the 33-year-old mother of a boy.
She disappeared on October 13, 2021. At the time, her husband Orlin claimed that she left her home in the capital’s “Lagera” district to go to the gym, and did not return. Her body was found in a suitcase near Pernik a month later. Orlin, who at the time was a manager in an international company, and his father Plamen, a former employee of DANS, were detained for her murder. The two received life sentences from the Sofia City Court, which they appealed. Thus, the case reached the appellate court, where Orlin presented the version that he did not strangle his wife, but the two quarreled, got together, flew and collapsed together on the floor. When she fell, she hit her head on a cupboard.
Because of his claims, the court turned to
three leading forensic doctors to do a new examination
about the causes of Eugenia’s death.
For more than two hours on Tuesday, Alexander Minchev, Dimitar Nikolov and Veselin Topalov, who are from the Departments of Forensic Medicine at the “Pirogov”, ISUL “Tsaritsa Joanna” and Aleksandrovska hospitals, answered the questions of the lawyers and Orlin himself. They explained in detail what mechanical asphyxia (suffocation) was, how long someone had to be suffocated to die, and that this type of death was not instantaneous.
Orlin, who again showed his composure, was also well prepared in the field of forensic medicine, because he even quoted the scientific works of the doctors. He was interested, for example, in whether the hair must be cut in order to examine a head wound. The doctors explained to him that they had performed dozens of autopsies and there was no medical examiner who could not detect an injury to the back of the head.
Until death occurs, she is
she was conscious, she understood what was happening
and she emotionally processed what was happening, is the conclusion of the doctors. According to them, Evgenia’s death was not caused by the stretch film wrapped around her head. During the course of the investigation, allegations emerged that he had suffocated her. However, doctors are of the opinion that it is not so, because a person resists if four coils are made around his head. This happened slowly and there had to be resistance from the victim.
Experts couldn’t say exactly when she was placed in the suitcase, but since rigor mortis occurs anywhere from two to eight hours after death, it must have been before. No fractures were found on Evgenia’s body, so this issue is being discussed both in the case before the city court and now.
At the end of their hearing, Orlin asked them if they signed the expertise with an electronic signature, to which the judges countered that it didn’t matter.
Then he again asked for explanations. He did the same in the case before the first instance. This time he was explaining to the magistrates that
there was a double standard in the case
As an example, he pointed out how it was said that his relationship with Evgenia had deteriorated during the last year of their life together, which was not true. They had gone abroad, to the sea and to their friends’ weddings and uploaded many pictures on Facebook of these events. It was also not true that he was not with her in the hospital when she had a benign mass removed. And that too could be learned from Facebook. According to her relatives, she was very hurt that he did not support her at that moment.
Then he explained that he took good care of his family, which did not have any financial problems, and Evgenia herself praised him on social networks for being a great father. He also explained that BGN 90,000, which was planned for the purchase of a new home, was his and not his father’s, as the prosecution claimed. He again asked for an economic examination to show his financial situation.
Orlin flashed back to October 13, 2021, the day of death
of Eugenia. He asked for another inspection of the cabinet to look for traces of blood on it. The new element in his explanation was that during the scandal Evgenia said to him: “Are you sure that the child is yours”. He got affected. Therefore, he asked to be examined by a forensic psychiatrist and a psychologist, who would say what state he fell into after hearing this line.
The court agreed to have him undergo an examination to determine whether he was in a state of affect at the time of the crime. It will be presented on November 12, when the next meeting is.
Orlin is currently in prison, and his father Plamen is free on BGN 5,000 bail because he suffered from many illnesses.