Oregon man, 29, serving life for killing 27-year-old Russian bride in twisted love triangle researched time travel after her death in hopes of reversing his 'horrible mistake'
Bizarre new revelations have emerged in the case of an Oregon man who has been convicted of murder for fatally shooting his Russian fiancee who got caught in a twisted love triangle, including how he researched time travel and offered to trade in his soul on the internet in a desperate bid to undo his mistake.
William Hargrove, 30, was sentenced in January to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years for the 2017 killing of 27-year-old Anna Repkina.
Repkina, a native of Moscow, Russia, who had traveled to Oregon to marry Hargrove after meeting him on a dating site, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the back of the head along a logging road in Alsea in April 2017.
William Hargrove, 30 (left), was sentenced in January to life in prison for April 2017 murder of his Russian fiancee, Anna Repkina, 26 (right)
The pair initially met on a dating site in 2016, and in December of that year Repkina traveled from her native Russian to spend the winter holidays with Hargrove
Hargrove was arrested just days later after police identified him through a KFC receipt that was found at the crime scene.
The murder case is now the subject of an upcoming installment of CBS' 48 Hours, which is scheduled to air at 10/9pm on Saturday.
The true-crime show details how Repkina first met Hargrove online in 2016 after splitting from her boyfriend of seven years.
Not long after connecting with the Russophile Hargrove online, Repkina decided to travel to the US to meet him in person and spend the winter holidays with him.
At the end of her 10-day trip, Hargrove presented Repkina with an engagement ring. What he omitted to tell his bride-to-be was that this whole time he has been having an affair with his married landlady, Michelle Chavez.
Hargrove and Chavez continued their romantic relationship even after he proposed to Repkina, and after his newly minted fiancee moved 5,500 miles from Moscow to Oregon to start her new life with her future husband.
According to reporting, Chavez wanted Hargrove to be in an exclusive relationship with her, and she gave him an ultimatum around Easter, forcing him to choose between her and Repkina.
Just two days later, Repkina turned up dead.
Hargrove proposed to Repkina (left) at the end of her trip, and three months later she moved from Moscow to Oregon. She was apparently unaware that her groom was dating his married landlady, Michelle Chavez (right)
In April, Chavez issued Hagrove and ultimatum, forcing him to choose between her and Repkina (left)
A groundskeeper near Alsea found her body along a remote logging road, with trash littering the ground around her.
He told police officers during a videotaped interview that he initially thought it was a prank, but when he touched Repkina's hand, he realized she was dead.
Police Lt Chris Duffitt said among the fast food bags, cigarette cartons and candy wrappers recovered at the scene, they came upon a receipt from a KFC eatery that was issued on April 14, which they were able to trace back to Hargrove.
In the wake of Repkina's killing, Hargrove took to the internet to research time travel.
'He's saved screenshots of web pages that show you how to do a particular spell to travel back in time,' said Detective Chris Dale. 'And we also see communication through WhatsApp in which he is trying to ask for help in how to travel back in time.'
Two days later, Repkina was found dead along a logging road near Alsea, Oregon, from a gunshot wound to the back of the head (pictured)
Hargrove said he wanted to 'correct a horrible mistake' that his 'best friend' had made. In his desperation, he even offered his soul to strangers in exchange for information on time travel.
But being seemingly tormented by guilt did not stop Hargrove from using Repkina's ATM card to withdraw $800 from her bank account, which he then used to pay for his car insurance, buy Star Wars LEGOs and stock up on candy and cigars.
Hargrove was arrested after police interviewed a friend, Kevin Thomas, who dined with him at the KFC eatery before the murder, and learned about the 'problematic love triangle.'
Thomas told police that Hargrove had asked to borrow his shotgun but never gave it back. The weapon was later recovered from Hargrove's vehicle, and his cellphone data put him at the scene of the murder.
During Hargrove's trial last fall, defense lawyers alleged that it was actually Chavez who killed Repkina in a fit of jealous rage.
Chavez denied having anything to do with Repkina's murder when she took the witness stand and described her relationship with Hargrove.
She testified that the couple met at a bar where he worked as a bouncer. She was married to a professor at Oregon State University at the time, but her husband gave her permission to step outside their loveless marriage and start a relationship with Hargrove.
Police found trash littering the ground at the crime scene, including a KFC bag
Inside, they found this receipt from April 14, which eventually led them to Hargrove
He soon began renting a room in Chavez' home in Albany, which she shared with her husband and their two children.
While he was living there, Hargrove, who had an open relationship with Chavez, began chatting with Repkina online.
Repkina's mother, Yelena, testified at Hargrove's trial and said she was worried about her daughter's decision to move around the world for a man she barely knew.
'I thought she was rushing things,' Yelena said through an interpreter on the witness stand, according to the Corvallis Gazette-Times.
Chavez testified that she was initially unbothered by Hargrove's relationship with Repkina, and that she even let the Russian beauty stay at her home during the Christmas visit.
She said she began to get jealous when Repkina moved to the US permanently three months later and Chavez learned that they planned to get married.
Chavez told Hargrove to move out of her home and live elsewhere with Repkina, which he did.
Over the following few weeks he split his time between both women. He vowed to keep his marriage promise to Repkina while simultaneously insisting to Chavez that he was committed to her.
Chavez believed Hargrove and agreed to leave her husband, even giving him her wedding ring as a symbol of how serious she was about their relationship.
Soon after, Chavez' hope for a future with Hargrove was shattered when she saw a Facebook post in which Repkina announced her engagement to Hargrove - with a photo of the bride-to-be wearing Chavez's ring.
After killing Repkina, Hargrove used her ATM card to withdraw a total of $800 from her account (pictured using an ATM)
Repkina and Hargrove scheduled the wedding for March 23, 2017, less than a month after she arrived from Russia.
The wedding dress and rings had already been picked out when Hargrove called the nuptials off at the last minute.
To Repkina, Hargrove blamed the cancellation on a no-show officiant. To Chavez, he said that he wasn't in love with Repkina and was sending her back to Russia.
Three weeks later, Repkina was still living with Hargrove, so Chavez issued her ultimatum on April 15, according to a police affidavit obtained by the Gazette Times.
During Hargrove's trial, defense alleged that Repkina was killed by Chavex in a fit of jealous rage
She allegedly told Hargrove to 'fix this' and 'get rid of her', cryptically warning that if Repkina was 'not gone by Thursday, I'm building a snowman'.
On the witness stand, Chavez explained that 'building a snowman' was a family joke about killing someone and hiding the body inside a snowman somewhere cold enough that the snow would never melt.
Chavez insisted that it was a joke, while Hargrove's attorney branded it a clear threat to kill Repkina.
The prosecution dismissed that argument by highlighting a later message in which Hargrove told Chavez: 'I will have this solved permanently' by April 19.
Prosecutors said Hargrove followed through with his promise the day after Chavez issued the ultimatum.
On the afternoon of April 16, 2017, he allegedly took Repkina into the woods and shot her in the head with the shotgun he had borrowed from Thomas, leaving her body face-up on a dead-end logging road.
He then called Chavez and met up with her for sex a few miles away, prosecutors said.
Investigators arrested Hargrove three days after the murder through the story they heard from Thomas.
Repkina was a native of Moscow. She turned to online dating after splitting from her boyfriend of seven years
During his first police interview, Hargrove claimed that he barely knew Repkina and had only gone on two dates with her, according to police records.
He said he had tried to break things off with her after she announced that they were engaged on Facebook.
His story began to weaken when he was probed about the KFC meal with Thomas and claimed that he'd thrown away the takeout bag outside a general store in Alsea.
Detectives told him that couldn't be true, at which point he stopped cooperating and said: 'I want a lawyer.'
A jury convicted Hargrove of first-degree murder in November 2019, and in January of this year he was handed a life sentence.
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