Makar dies after assault on March 9
Her lungs started bleeding and heart stopped on 7:30 a.m, Kyiv Post reports.
Doctors struggled to save her for two more hours. She was formally declared dead 9:30 a.m.
"We did everything we could," said Dr. Emil Fistal, head of Donetsk Burn Center, where Makar was transported from a Mykolayiv hospital on March 16.
Earlier Fistal said Makar had little chance to survive but called her a very strong woman.
Makar was found barely alive on March 10 dumped in a pit at Mykolayiv construction site after having spent about 10 hours with her severely burned body exposed to frosty weather.
The night before she left a local bar with three young men and went to an apartment with them.
The men allegedly gang raped and attempted to choke her to death there.
Later, they are said to have dumped her in a pit and set her body afire.
Makar fought for life for three weeks after being found.
Her feet and one arm were amputated. Her kidneys and rectum were destroyed in the fire. Parts of her body were burned to the bone.
But she survived long enough to speak and testify against three suspects, two of which police shockingly set free at an early stage in the investigation.
As she spoke to her mother, who taped the video of her semi-conscious daughter asking for punishment for the alleged offenders, protests broke out in Mykolayiv and other Ukrainian cities after news broke that the two suspects released were relatives of former regional officials.
Facing mounting pressure, authorities arrested them again.
Today, the three suspects are identified by local media as Yevhen Krasnoschek, 23, Maksym Prisyazhnyuk, 24, and Artem Pogosyan, 22.
Now that Makar has died, they face rape, attempted cover-up and murder charges as opposed to attempted murder.
One of the suspects is also reportedly charged with a rape committed in an unnatural way. If convicted of the charges by a court, all three could face between 15 years in prison and a life sentence.
Amid domestic and international outrage, the case was transferred from Mykolayiv authorities to the central headquarters of Ukraine's General Prosecutor's Office and the Interior Ministry.
Volodymyr Polischuk, spokesperson for the chief police department, predicted that the investigation will be finished swiftly, by April, despite the fact that legislation provides for two months.
Polischuk confirmed that Makar had managed to provide testimony and that her death won't hamper the case.
He said police managed to gather strong evidence, including bloodstained clothes, fingerprints, used condoms and sperm.
Polischuk denied widespread speculation that Mykolayiv-level police officers had been bribed or influenced by relatives of two suspects who were released earlier.
The actions, in his words, are the result of unprofessional behavior of the previous investigator, a 23-year-old woman who has spent only a year on the job.
She has been reprimanded with a warning.
The local head of the district police investigative unit, the head of the police station, district prosecutor and deputy district prosecutor were fired, according to Polischuk.
Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/125193/#ixzz1qZ3fkzcS
