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So this was a complex character. A father of three, a dodgy businessman and bad debtor who had also helped the cause of local justice! It was part of Pichugin's job , of course, to garner information from a variety of sources, some of them unsavoury. And Gorin, who was in on every deal in Tambov from the moment it left the ground, was just such a source. And not a bad one either.
It's important to note that the Procuracy General does not have an investigation network of its own, so it asked the FSB and Interior Ministry to follow up a number of promising leads. So why was Pichugin arrested as the organiser of the abduction and murder within days, before several crucial questions for the investigation had even been answered?
And none of these facts or assumptions were secret: Gorin's part in various swindles and shady dealings in the region was known to many. In contrast to the Procuracy General's investigators, Tambov journalists had been writing about the possible motives of Gorin's numerous acquaintances a whole year earlier. But there was nothing in Pichugin's case - apart from the motives subsequently invented by Burtovoy and Demidov.
This what I think happened. At the outset, Burtovoy and his team were still trying to work as they had been taught. And the letters to the FSB and Interior Ministry reflect their true professional instincts - to go by the book. All leads have to be followed up, even if only superficially. Even on a contract job. But with superiors breathing down their necks the investigators, realising the nature of the case, ditched any pretence of professionalism.
In this way Pichugin was declared the killer on the basis of motives concocted by the prosecution with no evidence whatsoever. No more thought was given to the actual circumstances of the Gorins' disappearance. This must have been done to order, there is no other explanation for Burtovoy's disregard of his own letters to fellow officials.
But replies did come to the letters to Nurgaliyev and Zaostrovtsev - in December 2003. By that time Aleksey Pichugin had been in jail for six months and Burtovoy needed those replies as a fish needs a bicycle. All the leads had been "followed up" and discounted, apart from Pichugin. The machine of repression had it all sewn up by June. And there is really nothing more to say.
What they wanted from Pichugin
So, without waiting for all the leads in the inquiry to be investigated, and probably not even intending them to be, Burtovoy decided to arrest Pichugin. For the sake of the arrest he needed a reason or at least a plausible pretext. He might link the Gorins' murder to items found during searches of Pichugin's home and workplace. Also, he might try to use the findings from fresh forensic examinations in the case to link Pichugin to the assumed murder. How was this part of the investigation proceeding?
The expert findings are a central part of our investigation, and will figure again later. But the search is the detective's most basic tool and is always available. On 19 June 2003 investigators from the Procuracy General, with backup from the FSB (whose people only officially joined the investigation team on 7 July), carried out searches at three addresses: the flat of Pichugin's first wife, where he was officially registered; the flat where he was actually living at the time of the arrest; and his office.
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