Four years ago, Aleksey Koloskov flagged down a Cincinnati police officer on the street, according to his attorney, and said he wanted to confess to a murder.
Koloskov, who is mentally ill, told homicide detectives that in 2013 he strangled a woman as she sat in the passenger seat of his car. He said he then drove into Kentucky and left her body near a wooded area on the side of the highway.
Detectives connected Koloskov’s story to the 2013 death of 28-year-old Melinda Sue Ingram. Her body had been found on Aug. 27, 2013 by a maintenance worker on the side of Interstate 75 in Kenton County. It was so badly decomposed that a cause of death was never determined.
Koloskov, 39, was charged with murder and after numerous delays − including a yearlong
stay in a psychiatric hospital − is now standing trial in Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Goering’s courtroom.
In the years since being charged, Koloskov has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which court documents describe as a “severe and persistent mental illness.”
He told a forensic psychologist that it was a false confession, according to court documents, and that he knew about the woman and what happened from television news reports.
What Koloskov's attorney said
In opening statements on Aug. 25, Koloskov’s attorney, Tad Brittingham, told jurors that at the time Koloskov talked to police in 2022 his mental health had been declining for several years.
He was paranoid, hearing voices, seeing things that weren’t there, Brittingham said. He had become intensely religious.
Brittingham said that Koloskov wanted to get into the jail to spread a religious message.
“Not one thing that he said (to detectives) was confirmed,” Brittingham said.
Koloskov told detectives that Ingram’s hair was “blond,” but she was a brunette and had red extensions. He said she he had left her naked – her body was found with a black dress pulled up to her neck and she had been wearing a bra. And according to Brittingham, when police asked Koloskov to point out the location along I-75 where he left her body, he could not.
Prosecution's opening statements
Prosecutors said Koloskov provided information that would only have been known to the person who killed Ingram.
He told detectives that he picked up Ingram, a sex worker, near an Avondale Auto Zone. Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Heile said the business was “mere steps” from where Ingram was living at the time.
Koloskov also described an area along I-75, near the tree line, that matched where Ingram’s body was found, according to Heile.
And when shown photos of six women during his interview with detectives, Heile said Koloskov picked out Ingram’s photo.
'A terrible crime against an innocent person'
Jurors on Aug. 25 watched video of Koloskov’s interview with two Cincinnati police homicide detectives, which took place in April 2022.
Koloskov, a native of Russia who had no previous criminal history, said he couldn’t explain why he killed Ingram.
He told the detectives he was “very, very drunk” and that he experienced “pleasure” by strangling her.
He said he felt “very on top of the world,” that he could do what he wanted and “nothing can stop me – no one can catch me.”
“I committed a terrible crime against an innocent person, pretty much,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Mentally ill man said 'false confession' led to murder charges
