![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/01\/19\/77285197-12698745-Priest_Mikhail_Zubarev_40_is_suspected_of_killing_and_beheading_-m-45_1698866476257.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA priest allegedly killed and decapitated his wife in front of their terrified eight-year-old daughter in a macabre Halloween killing.<\/p>\n
The woman’s skull was later found by police in the family’s freezer, according to reports in Russia.<\/p>\n
Orthodox priest Mikhail Zubarev, 40, is in custody after the bloodbath in which his wife Viktoria Zubareva, 44, was killed.<\/p>\n
Their daughter and son Daniil, 17, were today hospitalised and receiving psychological help in Nizhnekamsk, in Russia’s Tatarstan region.<\/p>\n
Parishioners had complained about the priest’s ‘odd’ behaviour, and earlier this month he had been suspended by the Russian Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n
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Priest Mikhail Zubarev, 40, is suspected of killing and beheading his wife Viktoria, 44, (pictured right) in front of their terrified eight-year-old daughter<\/p>\n
Reports citing law enforcement say Zubarev ‘slashed the blade across Viktoria’s neck’ before dismembering her body.<\/p>\n
Covered in blood he ‘began to pray’, urging his daughter to join in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The distraught girl phoned her elder brother to plead with him to return to the family home. He arrived soon afterwards.<\/p>\n
Some accounts say the priest put his wife’s severed head in the freezer, and it was found by his daughter.<\/p>\n
Others indicate it was his son ‘who hoped that his mother’s head could be reattached’ to her body.<\/p>\n
Zubarev hailed from the Arctic region of Murmansk, and had worked as a prison priest.<\/p>\n
He graduated from the Moscow Orthodox Theological Seminary in 2010.<\/p>\n
A church statement read: ‘Currently, the banned priest Mikhail Zubarev is in custody.<\/p>\n
‘Law enforcement agencies are conducting an investigation.’<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/01\/19\/77285199-12698745-image-a-44_1698865979657.jpg\")
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The woman’s skull was later found by police in the family’s freezer, according to reports in Russia. Circled is Viktoria who was killed by priest\u00a0Mikhail Zubarev (right)<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/01\/20\/77288517-12698745-image-m-48_1698870165685.jpg\")
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Parishioners had complained about the priest’s ‘odd’ behaviour, and earlier this month he had been suspended by the Russian Orthodox Church. Pictured:\u00a0Priest Mikhail Zubarev<\/p>\n
Church leader Metropolitan Kirill of Kazan and Tatarstan ‘received the news of the terrible incident with deep sorrow’.<\/p>\n
He expressed ‘sincere condolences’ to Viktoria’s relatives.<\/p>\n
He ‘prays for the repose of her soul and for the health of the orphaned children’.<\/p>\n
The protest faces a potential life sentence if convicted of murder.<\/p>\n