A jilted boyfriend beheaded his girlfriend – a junior doctor – for refusing to marry him, say police.
The man then tried, unsuccessfully, to end his own life by stabbing himself in the stomach.
The couple had been seen talking animatedly several hours before her body was found in a village in Kazakhstan.
Teacher Shyngys Bekenov, 26, proposed to Nazerke Bekzhanova, 21, who had recently graduated from medical university.
But it is believed that she refused because her parents didn't approve of him.
“Furious” over her rejection, Bekenov used a knife to sever her head as they sat in his Daewoo Nexia, according to police.
The man then tried but failed to end his own life by stabbing himself in the abdomen after writing a suicide note asking that they should be buried together.
Teacher Shyngys Bekenov, 26, had proposed to his girlfriend
Bekenov has been detained in hospital in a “grave but stable” condition with knife wounds and will be moved to detention.
He faces a charge of murder with a minimum sentence of 15 years.
His note confirmed he had beheaded the woman after she told him she would marry him, it was reported.
The woman’s beheaded body was found in the car near a dam on the edge of Tasboget village, five miles from Kyzylorda city.
A woman neighbour of the dead doctor said: “The parents of the young woman were against this marriage.
“But why did he kill her? We are in shock. We did not expect anything like this.”
The junior doctor had just started her first job at a medical centre after graduating from the medical institute in Aktobe.
Bekenov is a high-flying young teacher who had been honoured by the authorities.
A pal said: “I cannot comprehend how he could do this.”
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