The mystery surrounding last week’s bombing in Monaco deepened on Tuesday when Ukrainian authorities revealed that the main suspect was found shot to death, and that a Ukrainian intelligence official and a former law enforcement official suspected of her murder had been found.
Interpol previously named 39-year-old Anastasia Berezovska, who was born in Ukraine and recently lived in Germany, as the main suspect in the bombing. Her body was found with gunshot wounds to the head and a gun casing, police and the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office said.
Ukrainian authorities said they had detained two men on suspicion of killing Berezovska “with prior collusion.”
Police said one of the men, a current employee of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense’s Main Intelligence Directorate, confessed to Berezovska’s murder and claimed that the second suspect, a former law enforcement officer, was an accomplice.
Berezovska arrived in Ukraine on July 1 and has been in contact with her family and two men, Ukraine’s National Police said in a statement on Tuesday. Investigators learned that both men had repeatedly made bank transfers and cryptocurrency payments to Berezovska, leading police to treat them as “individuals who may have been involved in the attempted murder in Monaco.”
Police announced that an emergency search had been carried out against two people in connection with the Monaco attack, during which an active intelligence officer separately confessed to Berezovska’s murder. Police said the intelligence officer did not inform his superiors about his contact with Berezovska or the bank transfer to her, and said the suspect “acted of his own volition.”
“Additionally, during a search of the residence of a former law enforcement officer, a basement resembling a torture chamber was discovered,” a police statement said.
Prosecutors also said that “law enforcement authorities are identifying the instigators and other individuals involved in the attempted murder of a family in Monaco.”
CNN has reached out to Monaco’s police, Monaco’s Ministry of Justice and Interpol for comment.
In last week’s attack in Monaco, a bomb intended for Ukrainian-born businessman Vadim Ermolaiyev exploded at the entrance to one of the city’s most luxurious apartments, injuring three people, including Ermolaiev, a woman and a 13-year-old child.
The identity of the woman and child is unknown, but the injured woman is not Ermolayev’s wife. His wife told Ukrainian public broadcaster Sashpirne on Tuesday that he was not home at the time of the attack but was not injured.
Although the motive remains unclear, Monaco’s prosecutor Stéphane Thibault has previously characterized the bombing as an “assassination attempt,” making it the first recorded bombing attempt on Monaco’s closely guarded and secure streets.
Local authorities said Berezovska carried out the attack disguised as a man. A photo was released of him fleeing the scene wearing a black jumper and tucking his hair under a black bucket hat.
Prosecutors said she then fled to neighboring France and then drove to Italy in a borrowed German-registered car for the surgery. Prosecutors said at the time that the sophistication of the bomb used suggested multiple perpetrators were involved.
CNN’s Issy Ronald, Stephanie Halas and Camille Knight contributed to this report.
