A group of young men in Montenegro unknowingly spent about an hour with a man who would allegedly commit a triple murder just one day later. The encounter took place along the Zeta River, where the men had previously seen 30 year old Russian citizen Mihail Shabunin, who occasionally visited the area to swim. According to the men, Shabunin approached them and introduced himself as a Russian who was staying in the Herceg Novi area. Because they had seen him several times before, they did not consider the encounter unusual and invited him to join them for food and drinks. At the time, there was nothing that suggested the seemingly ordinary meeting would soon become connected to one of the most disturbing crimes in the area.
The young men told investigators that Shabunin appeared somewhat unusual during their conversation, describing him as cold and distant while mostly smiling. However, they said he did not behave in a way that made them believe he posed a serious danger. During the meeting, he reportedly told them that he was staying in Herceg Novi and sleeping in a tent near the Zeta River. He eventually left after spending roughly an hour with the group, carrying a black backpack. The men had no reason to believe that they had just spent time with a person who would shortly become the focus of a major police manhunt.
The situation changed dramatically after police announced that a Russian citizen was suspected of killing three employees at a shooting range in Strahinjici near Danilovgrad. When the young men saw the photograph released by police, they realized that the suspect appeared to be the same man they had met by the river. They immediately contacted authorities and handed over a photograph they had taken during their encounter, along with the phone number Shabunin had given them. They also told police that he had mentioned staying in Herceg Novi, potentially providing investigators with an important clue about where he could be found. The men later said they could never have imagined that the person they had welcomed to their meal could have been connected to such a violent crime.
The search for Shabunin eventually ended in Herceg Novi, where police surrounded him and he died by suicide. Following the operation, investigators conducted an inspection in coordination with the state prosecutor and discovered two handguns along with more than 230 rounds of ammunition. Authorities suspect that the weapons and ammunition had been taken from the shooting range after the triple murder. The young men who encountered Shabunin before the killings said they hoped the information and material they provided to police helped authorities locate him and prevent any further violence. Their unexpected meeting by the Zeta River has since become a striking detail in the investigation, showing how an apparently ordinary encounter occurred only hours before the deadly events unfolded.
