A bloodied young man was mistaken for an accident victim

LSM’s 11th episode of the crime-story podcast “A Deadly Cocktail” recounts a case in which a bloodied young man was initially thought to have been hit by a car. One morning, a neighbour found him in a pool of blood, with bloody footprints leading to an intersection and a dark blue shoe lying nearby. It soon became clear that the scene was the result of violence.

The story is based on real criminal case files, but the names have been changed. The episode, titled “A Knife in a Pink Towel,” follows Kalvis and his girlfriend Anna. They had known each other for about four years and lived together for one year, but separated two weeks before Anna came to see him. She had moved out of their shared flat and did not plan to return.

Anna was tired of Kalvis’s gambling and his habit of taking her belongings to a pawnshop. He had pawned her phone, an Xbox and a computer. Once, after returning from the countryside, she found the flat completely empty because everything had been taken to the pawnshop. Anna suspected he had a gambling problem and no longer believed his repeated promises to change.

“A Deadly Cocktail” tells true stories from Latvia’s recent criminal cases involving young people who commit murder while under the influence of alcohol and drugs. The podcast’s creators say they aim to warn about the consequences of substance use.