Police: Bodies found in car were those of missing couple

OLIVETTE, Mo. (AP) - Authorities say the bodies found in a car in a secluded St. Louis area ravine are those of a missing couple.

St. Louis County police identified the victims Tuesday as 43-year-old Michele Laws and 47-year-old Igor Zhukov, of Olivette.

Laws’ mother, Ruth Laws, told KMOV-TV that her daughter helped Zhukov run a business buying and selling cellphones and often meet people to make the exchanges. She says her daughter told her the two were meeting someone Thursday at a Quick Trip in Riverview.

Ruth Laws says she never heard from them after that and now believes it was a “set up.”

The couple was supposed to take their daughters to piano and swim practices that night but never showed up. Their car was found Monday.

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Information from: KMOV-TV, http://www.kmov.com