DISAPPEARING ACT

Government Worker Found Alive 13 Years After Reported Dead

Marianna Stupina was attempting to avoid prison time when she disappeared.

Marianna Stupina, a former Russian government official who was facing jail time for fraud in 2012, was found 13 years after allegedly faking her death. She served as the first deputy to Nikolai Yarovoy, the former Minister of Housing and Communal Services in the Astrakhan region. Facing seven years behind bars, Stupina reportedly enlisted her husband to help her by having him identify another dead body as her and forging a death certificate. To find a dead body she could pass off as herself, Stupina reportedly monitored news reports until a body resembling hers was found. She assumed a new identity and lived in Tatarstan, a Russian republic, until she was found alive. Stupina was discovered after investigators began looking into a double murder connected to the original fraud case. After her husband confessed to their plans, she was taken back into custody and is currently serving her original prison sentence. Authorities are still deliberating on how to address the faked death.