Hotel victim named

Detectives today named a man found murdered in his room at a top London hotel.

Yermia Yunataev, thought to have been in his 40s, was killed in a room on the seventh floor of the Marriott Hotel just off Oxford Street in central London last Sunday.

His body was discovered only after bloody clothes and documents from the four-star hotel were found dumped at a Eurotunnel terminal in Kent.

A post-mortem failed to establish how he died but police believe he was probably strangled or suffocated.

They are investigating the possibility that he was the victim of a "hit" carried out by an international drug or organised crime gang. He is not thought to have been the victim of a robbery.

Detectives were initially baffled as to who the victim was.

Today they said Mr Yunataev was believed to have had an Israeli passport, although he is also thought to have checked into the hotel under a false name.

He arrived at the hotel at 9.05am on Sunday in a black cab and went into the bar area until 9.50am before going to the hotel lift.

A police spokesman said: "We need to speak with anyone who knew Mr Yunataev.
"We also need the driver of the black cab that dropped him at the hotel to come forward."