[12] In 2000, she began studying at the Management-Faculty of the Black Sea branch of the Moscow State University.

In 2003, she married a fellow journalism student, Alexander Frolov, whom she met in 2000 during her studies in Sevastopol.

[15] Baburova's political activity may be traced back to her having witnessed an attack by neo-Nazis on a foreigner, after which she wrote in her diary, "It is difficult to look in the eyes of a Korean student, who has only just been struck in the temple by two juvenile thugs... they waved 'Sieg Heil' towards the tram and ran off."

[19][20][21] On 26 January 2009, Baburova was buried in the central city cemetery of her home town of Sevastopol.

The murder suspects were 29-year-old Nikita Tikhonov and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Eugenia Khasis, members of a radical neo-Nazi nationalistic group.

According to investigators, Tikhonov was the one who committed the murder, while Khasis reported to him, by cell phone, the movements of Markelov and Baburova right before the assault.

The motive of the murder was revenge for Markelov's prior work as a lawyer in the interests of anti-Russian activists.