A Deadly Affair: Mayka Kukucova Claims Her Innocence In Andy Bush Killing As Maria Korotaeva Tells All
THE Sun leads with news of Maria Korotaeva, aka Masha, lover to Andrew Bush, the British jeweller found shot dead at his rented home on Spain’s Costa del Sol. His ex-lover Mayka Kukucova is accused of murdering him. Reports suggest she could be carrying his child.
On Sunday, Mr Bush’s daughter Ellie, 19, told The People about Mayka, recalling a family trip to Dubai:
“We were out shopping and there were loads of things Mayka wanted to buy but Andy said no. She went into a blind rage, screaming and threw a handbag at him. She did it to purposefully hurt him and then stormed off. We didn’t see her for a few hours, it was a common thing… She stamped all over his laptop, then put it underneath a tap and put it back in the case. When we got back to England he realised but he tried to ignore it. He thought he could change her.”
Mr Bush’s sister Rachel worked in the same Bristol shop as Kukucova. She told the paper:
“She wasn’t right in the head. It got to the stage where Andy had to ask her to find a new job because her anger became uncontrollable. She’d come into the shop and create these scenes in front of the staff.”
Kukucova’s lawyer Michal Filip replies:
“Mayka left Spain because she feared for her life and health. This was because of Andy Bush and the people he was meeting with.”
Mayka drove to Slovakia. According to Netky.sk, Kukucova told Slovakian media:
“I let myself into the hands of police thinking that my country will provide me protection and without sufficient evidence will not extradite me to Spain, because everything happened differently than media has described it.”
The Times notes:
Mayka Kukucova had recently got back together with former boyfriend Peter Kucharik.
Such are the facts so far.
Today we meet Masha.
THE girlfriend of murdered gold dealer Andy Bush has told how she had a chilling confrontation with his alleged assassin moments after he was fatally shot. Masha Korotaeva said Andy’s ex-lover Mayka Kukucova calmly emerged from his Spanish villa after the shooting and told her to get out of his car.
Last week, the Mail provided no source for its report and Masha’s alleged quote:
She could not get past the intricate security system but then watched as Kukucova came out of the house with a ‘crazy cold’ look on her face. She added: ‘She was cold. She was in no rush. She was looking like she was just getting her stuff and getting away because he had asked her to. She didn’t look like she had killed him. [Her face] was crazy cold. She talked to me normally.’
Today we learn that Masha is 21 (the papers can finally settle on her age) and:
Kukucova had the keys to the £60,000 Hummer, and took Andy’s bags from the boot before speeding off in it.
Says Masha:
“Then the car sped off and I realised the front door was closed. I shouted for Andy to let me in but there was no answer.”
So…
Masha tried in vain to get into the villa, then charged her mobile using an outdoor socket, called Andy’s sister and the police.
She said she was hysterical by the time police eventually arrived two hours later.
Masha said: “They kept me outside on the road. I started praying, ‘Please God let him be alive, I don’t care what else, just let him be alive’. Then the ambulance woman came over to me and said, ‘He’s dead’. I passed out.”
We rewind. Masha says she and Andy entered the house. She claims they spotted Mayka at the top of the stairs, dressed in Masha’s pyjamas of skimpy vest and shorts. Masha ran from the house, afraid of any confrontation. She sat in Andy’s Hummer, the one they had arrived in. Andy came out and told her: “It’s OK darling, don’t worry. Call the police and tell them to come now.”
He returned to the house. Masha discovered her phone battery was dead. She decided to sit and wait.
“I could hear shouting and then I heard a bang, then another bang-bang. I thought it was something being thrown down the stairs, maybe a TV or the luggage. Then Mayka came out of the house. She had the keys and said, ‘Get off the car’.”
Mayka drives off. Masha says she tried to get back into the house, but was unable to.
She also claimed Andy was scared of his ex and suspected her of ROBBING his Bristol home. Masha said: “Mayka was a subject that he did not like to talk about. He would shake when he spoke about her. But one night he started telling me about a robbery.
“He told me two men had broken in and stolen everything — he thought that Mayka was involved. I later found out from the police that the men that broke into the house were Slovakian.”
The Times has more on that:
Mr Bush’s family believe that she faked an armed robbery at his home on the outskirts of Chepstow in south Wales when their relationship began to crumble. He came home in September last year to find her handcuffed with a pillowcase over her head. The previous day she had tried to hide his passport to stop him going on a business trip to Dubai. According to sources close to the murder investigation in Spain, his family claim it was the desperate act of an obsessed woman trying to control and manipulate her man. A brief police statement in response to enquiries from The Times suggests that there were doubts from the start. It said: “Gwent police was called to an address in Pwllmeyric area of Chepstow at approximately 6pm on September 8th 2013 following the report of a robbery. Officers attended and spoke to a 23-year-old female occupant who alleged that she had been robbed by three or possibly four men. Investigations are ongoing into the alleged robbery.”
Masha also says:
Andy presented her with a £10,000 diamond ring on the way to Bristol airport and told her he wanted to discuss “something important” that night.
An engagement ring? The Times quotes Kukucova’s hairdresser, “who has known her since she was a child, said that she had been looking forward to restarting her life in Slovakia”:
“Peter was her ex-boyfriend before she knew Bush. They started to date again. The relationship with Peter was like a new experience for her. She planned to started a new life in Slovakia with Peter… They [Andy and Mayka] started to feel a generation gap between them. She wanted to go out and he was tired from business. At the beginning, she saw only the nice side, but after 18 months it started to be different and he stopped treating her [well]. The main reason why they separated was that he was mean. There was a problem for a long time: she wanted something and he refused to give it to her. She wanted to live a real life and he wanted to stay at home.”
She said that the couple did become engaged and, after a lot of nagging, he bought her a big diamond ring which she was still wearing three weeks ago. The friend said: “The problem started after the engagement. She started to get bored. She always wanted to be the centre of attention.”
There is no suggestion that Peter is in any way involved in Mr Bush’s death.
Back in the Sun, Masha is talking of she and Andy’s trip to Bristol airport:
But he also realised he had forgotten the key to the villa. Masha added: “In Russia we believe it is bad luck to go back for things — but Andy got in a cab to go back for the key.”
Did he go back for them? On April 8, the Mail reported:
She [Masha] says she feels guilt over Mr Bush’s death because he had wanted to turn back before getting on the flight because he had forgotten the villa keys, but she convinced him to pick up a spare set in Spain.
Masha is innocent. The reporting is fractured. The focus is on Mayka. And the story of young, photogenic East European women and the killing of a middle-aged British jeweller on the Costa del Sol is one made for the tabloids….
Posted: 14th, April 2014 | In: Reviews Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
