Missing Men Found Dead In Storage Unit; Medford Man Charged With Murder

MEDFORD, MA — A Medford man is facing murder charges after two missing men were found dead in a storage unit over the weekend, according to authorities.

Leonid Volkov is charged in connection with the deaths of 37-year-old Kiryl Schukin and 28-year-old Pavel Vekshin, authorities said.

The men were fatally stabbed and their remains were discovered Saturday morning in a storage facility on North Beacon Street in Brighton, according to a news release from the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.

Schukin had been a guarantor on the lease for Volkov’s apartment in Medford, but had recently declined to be the guarantor for the lease’s extension, which led to Volkov’s eviction, the news release said. On March 29, Volkov and Schukin met in a rented U-Haul truck that Volkov was driving, according to authorities.

A person believed to be Volkov was recorded on video entering and leaving the victims’ building in the days after Schukin and Vekshin were last seen, authorities said, adding police found the U-Haul at the storage facility where the bodies were discovered.

Late Friday, investigators executed a search warrant at the storage unit, which had been rented by Volkov in one of the victims’ names, according to authorities. Inside the unit, they uncovered the men’s bodies in rubber storage bins, authorities said. A body tentatively identified as Schukin’s had been dismembered, according to authorities.

Investigators also found bleach, rubber gloves and items belonging to the victims, authorities said.

Volkov, 37, was arrested Saturday night in North Attleboro, according to authorities, who said he would be arraigned Tuesday in Somerville District Court.