Serhiy Kuzmin’s 21-year-old son was murdered in Vienna.Image: imago
The 21-year-old student was discovered in a burned-out car on the outskirts of the city. Investigators assume a robbery-murder.
Dec 3, 2025, 6:32 p.mDec 3, 2025, 6:48 p.m
Stefan Schocher, Vienna / ch media
The perpetrators had parked the car under the elevated tracks of a tram line on the outskirts of Vienna. They doused their victim, a young man, with gasoline and set him on fire – between allotments, faceless new buildings and construction sites. When residents called the fire department, they thought it was a trivial matter. Then it was announced that a dead person was found in the car.
The victim is reportedly Danylo Kuzmin, the 21-year-old son of Kharkiv Deputy Mayor Serhiy Kuzmin. The young man had studied in Vienna. Many questions still remain unanswered. Austrian authorities remain tight-lipped about the victim, course of events and motive, citing victim protection and data protection.
Victim was still alive after being beaten
In any case, reconstructing the course of the crime requires a strong stomach. The victim was probably tortured for hours, had gasoline poured over him while lying in the back seat of his car, and was set on fire. A melted gasoline canister was found next to the dead man in the back seat of the car.
While the Mercedes registered to his father burst into flames on the outskirts of Vienna, the victim was apparently still alive. According to the autopsy, suffocation or heat shock were the immediate cause of death.
The autopsy also confirmed severe blow wounds from one or more blunt objects or blows as well as missing teeth. It is unclear whether the victim was still conscious at the end.
On social media, the mayor of the war-torn city, Igor Terekhov, described it as a “human tragedy.”
Police assume a robbery-murder
The ordeal had begun hours earlier in a completely different place: in a posh hotel on the Danube Canal in downtown Vienna. Or more precisely: in the underground car park of the Sofitel on Vienna’s Danube Canal. Witnesses reported an escalated argument between several men.
Several people – we are talking about five people – hit a man. The witnesses called the police. When they arrived, all they found was a pool of blood. It is not known what happened between this argument and the death on the outskirts of town.
A possible clue to both is the fact that the victim’s crypto account was emptied. How much money is involved is unknown. In any case, crypto accounts can only be accessed via password. It is suspected that the murder victim was tortured to reveal the password. According to the Austrian police, all that is said is: “During the course of the investigations, there were indications of transactions in connection with crypto assets.” One assumes “greed” is the motive.
They had the money paid out quickly
The police assume that a total of five people were directly involved in the crime. Two of them were quickly identified and wanted: a 19-year-old and a 45-year-old. The two Ukrainian citizens were arrested in their homeland.
Before the crime, they had filled two canisters of gasoline at a gas station directly opposite the Vienna UN office. A large amount of cash is said to have been seized from one of the two people. They may have had the crypto funds paid out. (aargauerzeitung.ch)