The Plovdiv District Court has remanded in custody Slavcho Megerov, accused of the premeditated murder of businessman Iliyan Filipov.
According to the court, from the evidence collected so far and the seized material evidence, a reasonable assumption can be made that Megerov is the perpetrator of the crime.
Unsettled financial relations related to bets in the so-called “black toto“ are cited as a possible motive in the case. The investigation must establish whether this is the main and only motive for the murder.
The defense indicated that the weapon of the crime has not been found and there is no direct witness to the murder itself. However, a lot of circumstantial evidence has been collected in the case.
Among the key witnesses is Lyudmila Racheva. On the night of September 29-30, she was returning home with her child. According to her, she became worried after seeing that the elevator had stopped on the fifth floor, where she lives.
Shortly after that, she saw a man on the stairs with a mask on his face and a gun in his hand. He walked past her and the child and left the building.
Racheva went back to her apartment and called Iliyan Filipov. The two continued to talk while he returned to the building. Filipov asked her to go out to the landing, and he called the elevator. Then the woman heard a shot. She took a knife and went down to the ground floor.
A significant part of the evidence in the investigation is the recordings from security cameras.
A camera located about 50 meters from the building filmed those entering and leaving it. Investigators also have other recordings that tracked the movement of the alleged perpetrator.
According to the data presented to the court, he was traveling in a “Peugeot“ car. At 23:19 the car drove off to the scene of the murder, and at 00:04 the man entered the building.
11 minutes later the cameras filmed Racheva's car parking and her entering the building. The exit of the alleged perpetrator was also recorded.
At 01:01 another car was filmed parking in front of the building. The man, who had previously been hiding on the side of the building, entered after Iliyan Filipov.
According to the data presented in the case, subsequent recordings from video surveillance cameras in the city tracked the movement of the accused Slavcho Megerov.
Fingerprints were also seized from the steering wheel of the car, which is owned by his sister.
According to the data presented to the court, there is no information that other people left the building after the murder.