Reports: Abducted UC Davis Graduate Catherine Serou Found Dead In Russia; Suspect In Custody
MOSCOW (CBS SF/AP) — Russian news reports said searchers on Saturday found the body of UC Davis graduate Catherine Serou, who had gone missing for several days in Nizhny Novgorod after texting her mother that she was "in a car with a stranger."
Serou earned a bachelor's degree in design and a master's degree in art history at the UC-Davis before heading to Russia to further her studies.
Russian authorities reportedly had a man in custody on suspicion of murder.
The body of the 34-year-old Serou was found in a wooded area near the city of Bor, 400 kilometers east of Moscow, the reports said.
Serou was last seen on Tuesday after getting into a car. In an interview with NPR, Serou's mother said she received a frightening text from her daughter.
"It says: 'In a car with a stranger. I hope I'm not being abducted.' And that's the last thing she wrote," Beccy Serou told NPR. "She's out there in this forest, I think, relying on her wits — if she hasn't been killed — to stay alive."
Serou moved from Northern California to Russia in 2019 to study law at a university in Nizhny Novgorod, a major city adjacent to Bor.