Doctor beheaded by boyfriend after she refused to marry him

A junior doctor was beheaded by her boyfriend after she refused to marry him, police say. The boyfriend then tried to take his own life but failed.

26-year-old Shyngys Bekenov, a teacher, proposed to his girlfriend Nazerke Bekzhanova, 21, who had recently graduated from medical university in Kazakhstan. But Nazerke refused to accept the proposal because her parents did not approve of him, it is believed.

Angered by her rejection, Shyngys severed his girlfriend's head as they sat in his car. He then tried but failed to end his own life by stabbing himself in the abdomen after writing a suicide note asking that they should be buried together, according to police. His note claimed he had beheaded the woman after she told him she would marry him, it was reported.

Shyngys Bekenov has been detained in hospital in a "grave but stable" condition with knife wounds. He faces a charge of murder with a minimum sentence of 15 years.

The woman’s beheaded body was found in the car near a dam on the edge of Tasboget village, five miles from Kyzylorda city.

A neighbour of the victim said:

The parents of the young woman were against this marriage. But why did he kill her? We are in shock. We did not expect anything like this.

The victim had just started her first job at a medical centre after graduating from the medical institute in Aktobe.