Who is Catherine Serou?
A FORMER US Marine from California turned up dead in Russia - after she caught a ride from a stranger in western Russia. Catherine Serou, 34, was found dead the morning of June 19 in a forest outside the Bor suburb where she lived in western Russia. Serou was a law student and Marine veteran from California. The student was in Russia to begin studying law while learning the language so she could return to the United States and work as an immigration attorney, reports said. The 34-year-old was enrolled at Lobachevsky University about 250 miles east of Moscow studying in its master's law program. She received a bachelor's degree in design and a master's in art history from the University of California at Davis, reports said. 4 Catherine Serou was a law student studying abroad in Russia at the time of her death  Serou served in the Marine Corps and did one tour in Afghanistan before she's earned her bachelor's degree. Serou went missing on Tuesday, June 15, as she was headed back to a business to try to quickly clear up a payment issue, her mother, Beccy, told NPR. The 34-year-old texted her mom a cryptic message after she got into a passing car for a lift rather than wait for her Uber. In a car with a stranger. I hope Im not being abducted, Serou wrote her mother in her last text. Serou was reportedly last spotted on a surveillance photo, which showed the 34-year-old looking out an open passenger-side window of a silver car around when she vanished. 4 Serou's body was found on Saturday, June 19 Credit: Valeria Alexandrova  The US Embassy in Moscow said it is closely monitoring the probe into Serou's death. Her mother, Beccy, a paralegal, believes her daughter panicked when she noticed the driver wasn't driving to the clinic. "I think that when she saw that the person wasn't driving to the clinic, but instead was driving into a forest, she panicked," Beccy told the outlet. Beccy last saw her daughter about two years ago, when Serou sold her condominium in California to finance her studies in Russia. They stayed in touch with daily phone calls and said her daughter was enjoying her time abroad. "She loved the university," Beccy said. Her mother said her daughter's cellphone last pinged off a cell tower in that forest. A man in his early 40s with past convictions has been arrested and is cooperating with investigators. Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement. The name of the suspect has not been released.