PORTLAND – Police who are investigating the killing of Margarita “Rita” Fisenko Scott searched an apartment in Portland on Monday and continued working to determine her whereabouts in the last days of her life.

Scott, 29, was found dead Thursday in a car outside the Motel 6 on Riverside Street.

Police are examining the car at the forensics lab at the Portland police station, interviewing Scott’s friends and family, and following leads that have come from the public, said Lt. Scott Pelletier.

“We’ve been receiving tips. We are following them all up,” he said. “We haven’t ruled anything out.”

Police plan to release more details about the case Tuesday in an effort to generate more leads as they work to find Scott’s killer.

On Monday, evidence technicians dressed in white protective suits spent several hours searching an apartment at 266 West Concord St.

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Police towed a car from the driveway of the apartment building for analysis. They would not say what they found at the building or what led them there.

When asked if Scott lived there, Pelletier said, “We don’t know yet.”

Neighbors said they saw a woman matching Scott’s description living at the house in the past two months.

The first-floor apartment is now vacant because the tenants moved out.

The apartment is being renovated.

Scott’s family said Scott hadn’t been in touch with them since before Christmas.

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Her parents filed a missing-person report with police, said her cousin Alla Sherstyukov.

Sherstyukov said the family was told that Scott was found in the back seat of the car that was registered to her and her husband. She took the car after they broke up.

Family members believe she might have been dead for some time before she was found because she did not call her grandmother on the grandmother’s birthday, Jan. 15, and on the next day it snowed.

The car was found Thursday covered with snow, Sherstyukov said.

Scott came to the United States from Kazahkstan when she was a girl, part of an extended family that has immigrated here from the former Soviet Republic.

Scott married her partner of several years, Cary Scott, in the summer, Sherstyukov said, and they split up in November.

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“She said she needed to temporarily leave him,” Sherstyukov said.

She didn’t know why they separated, but said they were very close and Cary Scott is devastated by her death.

The family plans a memorial service Friday at the First Russian Baptist Church in Gorham.

The service will start at 5 p.m. and all are welcome, Sherstyukov said.

Police say they have encountered a language barrier in interviewing some of Scott’s family members, who speak Russian.

Investigators still have not spoken to all of them, even though detectives worked through the weekend, Pelletier said.

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Scott’s husband, extended family and others who have been interviewed have been cooperative, he said.

Police are trying to reach friends and former employers who might have seen Scott in the days before her death.

At the request of police, the state medical examiner has not released the cause of her death, other than to say it was a homicide.

Police have canvassed businesses in the area where Scott’s body was found, trying to find security video that may provide clues, Pelletier said.

Police ask that anyone with information call 874-8604 or go to the police website, www.portland-police.com, to submit an anonymous tip. 

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@pressherald.com

 


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