Denislav Runevski’s sentence is 17 years of rigorous imprisonment because of the great cruelty to the victim, who is 34 years old. older than him. Stabbed her 10 times with a knife on the head, hands and body, chopped her skull more than 20 times with a straight shovel
“I am aware of the gravity of what has been done. I think about him every day. I was very much in love
I wanted to spend my life with this woman, and she wanted to have fun with me
I decided: as soon as we are not together, I will end both of our lives. After I was done with her, I dug a grave for myself. I couldn’t live without her”, read this to the court in Veliko Tarnovo, 28-year-old Denislav Runevski, who hacked his 62-year-old lover – the British Tina Diane Eyre – with a shovel at home.
Two years after the bloody drama in Novo Selo, Turnovo, the spurned lover gave explanations for the first time about how and why he stabbed his victim more than 10 times with a knife and smashed her head with a straight shovel with more than 20 blows.
He had written what he told the court on a piece of paper. He added that everything was like a movie for him and how the guards in the prison helped him become aware.
A few days ago, the district court in Veliko Tarnovo gave Denislav 17 years of rigorous imprisonment for intentional murder, committed with great cruelty and in a particularly painful way for the victim.
It seems that this is not the end, because his lawyer Rosen Iliev insisted in the courtroom that his client is also a victim.
The case for the sadistic murder of the 62-year-old Tina is being heard according to the abbreviated judicial investigation. At the request of the defendant and his defense, only Denislav’s mother – Tsvetanka, and the experts who prepared the forensic psychiatric examination were heard in the courtroom.
“I just can’t assimilate what happened. I am shocked. I only know that this is the act of a very confused, inexperienced and very much in love young man,” said the murderer’s mother through tears.
She pointed out that the son had not had such a deep emotional connection with a woman before Tina. Denislav was only 4 years old when his parents separated,
the divorce was very difficult and clearly remained in the child’s mind
“He was more withdrawn, unsociable, difficult to form relationships and stable friendships. He has never given his heart as much as with this woman,” the mother sobbed in court.
It turned out that Denislav was diagnosed with a mental disorder back in 2015 – after a premature return from England, where he went to work.
Blacked out the blinds in the apartment, paranoid that someone was watching him. He was prescribed medication and things calmed down, but the woman did not know if he had taken the pills when he moved in with his father.
“I am asking you for leniency. For me, there is no more life, but he is a young man”, sobbed Tsvetanka.
Denislav and the Englishwoman, who is called Roxy in the village and Tina by her relatives, found each other through a dating site. The imprisoned young man from Gorna Oryahovitsa spoke perfect English and was quickly impressed by the attention given to him by the retired employee in one of the 10 largest law firms in the world.
Before settling in our country, she was a legal secretary at Clifford Chance for 17 years, the last of which she was in Hong Kong, the British media wrote.
After buying the house in Novo Selo in 2017, she raised dogs and piglets, which she even taught to draw. She was divorced and did not communicate much with her Bulgarian neighbors, but
introduced her young partner to the English woman
community in the village
Thus, Denislav slurps up the embarrassingly older British woman who showed him closeness.
At the end of 2020, Roxy-Tina asked to end their relationship. She was afraid of him.
After their breakup, however, he continued to seek contact with her on Viber. In his last message to her, he wrote: “I have never felt a stronger love than this. I have never asked anyone for anything, but now I am asking you to give us a chance.”
According to the indictment, the day before the bloody drama, the accused went to the village by taxi. He clearly had a hellish plan already forming in his head because he packed a black knitted hat with slits for the eyes, a pair of black gloves, a hot spray for self-defense, a folding knife and a legally owned gas pistol in his backpack.
He spent the night in an abandoned house, next door to that of the British woman,
and in the morning he went home. They quarreled, and Denislav became aggressive. He sprayed her with the hot spray. She started to fight back, trying to yank it out of his hand.
The man took out the folding knife and stabbed her more than 10 times in the face and neck. He also stabbed her twice in the chest. Tina ran inside to the outbuilding.
Denislav followed her, picked up a nearby straight shovel and smashed it on her head, continuing to cut the skull with it as she crawled and struggled to her feet.
At the autopsy, more than 20 strong blows to the head were counted, which caused an open craniocerebral injury and rupture of the brain.
After killing her, he covered the corpse with straw and dumped it in the barn, entered the house and spent the night there. He even washed his sweatshirt of Tina’s blood and threw it on the dryer in the bedroom. In the morning he began to dig a large pit in the yard to bury the corpse and erase the traces of the crime.
During this time, Tina’s friends went looking for her at home
It struck them that the front door was bolted from the inside, which was unusual – Tina didn’t lock. One of the British jumped over the fence and opened for his wife and another immigrant from England. They entered the house, calling for Tina, but she was nowhere to be found.
During this time, Denislav hid in the bathroom on the second floor, holding the door shut. They managed to open it together and saw him, one even took a picture of him with his mobile phone. The killer told them that Tina had gone to town and he had stayed behind to take care of the animals.
The British became suspicious at the sight of his tarnished shoes. They went down to the yard, where they came across the freshly dug grave. The “young lover” ran away. He was later detained by the local policeman and the mayor of Novo selo Hristo Hristov in the home of the lonely grandfather Georgi.
Denislav admitted that he killed his ex-girlfriend
In the course of the investigation, a complex psychological-psychiatric and forensic medical examination was appointed. The experts on it indicated in the courtroom that Denislav has a schizoid personality disorder, but is sane and was aware of his actions.
According to doctors, the young man was probably looking for his mother in Tina.
“In the beginning, he felt comfortable, well protected and probably loved, and this rejection caused aggression,” explained Dr. Tumbev.
It became clear that Denislav refused to talk about the motive and circumstances surrounding the murder even with the psychiatrists. The prosecutor asked for 18 years of rigorous imprisonment for what was done.
The defendant’s lawyer insisted on a sentence below the minimum of 15 years, because a severe sentence would be tantamount to destroying him as a person.
“I deeply repent and ask for a second chance,” Runevski was succinct in his right to personal defense.
No private prosecutors were constituted in the case and no civil claims were filed.
The three brothers and the mother of the murdered Tina did not show up for the dispositional hearing and thus failed to participate in the process.
