Four men charged with murder in Nelson
Thursday, November 9, 2023
We have charged four men with murder following the death of a man in Nelson.
Our officers were called by the North West Ambulance Service around 5.20am on Sunday, 5th November, to a report of a man – who we can now name as 53-year-old Andrej Minin – had sadly been found deceased inside a house.
His family are aware of the news and are being supported by specially trained officers.
A Home Office post-mortem examination found that Andrei died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head and neck.
As a result of our enquiries, we arrested three people on suspicion of murder on Sunday and a fourth man on Tuesday.
Following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, we have today charged the following four men with murder.
- Waldemar Bernacki, 51, of Fir Street Nelson
- Laimonas Prascevicius, 53, of Fir Street, Nelson
- Vasile Olaru, 56, of Fir Street, Nelson
- Rimantas Vystartas, 54, of Fir Street, Nelson
They have been remanded into custody to appear at Burnley Magistrates Court today (9th November).
DCI Mark Haworth-Oates, of our Force Major Investigation Team, said: “Andrej lost his life after being the victim of a serious and sustained assault and my thoughts are with his loved ones.
“The people charged with his murder were well known to Andrej and I know that the offence has had an impact upon the local community, some of whom knew all of the men involved.
“Although we have charged four men, our investigation is at an early stage and I would appeal to anyone with information about the people involved to come forward as it may assist our understanding of what led to this tragic outcome.”
Anyone with information is asked to email [email protected] or call 101 quoting log 0259 of 5th November 2023.
