A MAN is to be sentenced today for the murder of a woman in Mirfield.
Jevgeni Matjuhha will appear at Leeds Crown Court and will be handed a life sentence for the brutal murder of Nadija Ondzule.
He was convicted at the court yesterday after a brief trial.
Matjuhha fled the country after the killing but was found after a major inquiry by police here and in Europe and tracked down to Estonia.
Latvian Miss Ondzule, who was 36, had been living in a flat close to the centre of Mirfield.
She was strangled.
The murder inquiry was launched by West Yorkshire Police’s homicide and major enquiry team (HMET) on Tuesday, February 1.
Officers had been called to Oddfellows Street “over concerns for the welfare of a woman”.
Miss Ondzule’s body was discovered shortly after 6.30pm that night.
A police tent remained up in the garden of the end terrace property – a house divided into flats – as scene of crime officers continued to search for evidence.
But within hours of the inquiry, police confirmed they were looking for a man who was thought to have fled the country.
Yesterday the man who headed the inquiry welcomed the conviction.
Det Supt Sukhbir Singh of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team said: “On February 1 this year, Nadija Ondzule was found strangled at her home in Mirfield.
“As we investigated her death, we quickly discovered that the man who killed Nadija had fled the country, going to Estonia in an attempt to avoid detection.
“By working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service, Eurojust and the Estonian authorities, Jevgeni Matjuhha was arrested on February 5.
“He was extradited from Estonia, back to the UK on May 6.
“Matjuhha has now been found guilty of Nadija’s murder and faces a life term in prison for his crime.”
