US woman’s last text before slay in Russia

A female former US Marine turned up dead in Russia after catching a ride with a stranger and nervously texting her mom, “I hope I’m not being abducted,’’ according to reports.

The body of Catherine Serou, a 34-year-old law student from California, was found Saturday morning in a forest outside the city of Bor, in western Russia, where she lived, about an hour after a 44-yearold man was arrested in her disappearance, the Moscow Times and NPR reported.

Serou had gone missing Tuesday evening as she was headed back to a clinic to try to clear up a payment issue, her mother told NPR.

The Afghanistan war vet may have gotten into a passing car for a lift rather than wait for her Uber, said her mom, Beccy Serou, of Vicksburg, Miss.

“In a car with a stranger. I hope I’m not being abducted,’’ Catherine wrote her mother in her last text.

The mom told NPR she has no idea what happened to her daughter next but, “I think that when she saw that the person wasn’t driving to the clinic but instead was driving into a forest, she panicked.

“Her telephone last pinged off a cell tower in that forest,’’ the mom said.

A surveillance photo reportedly shows Catherine looking out an open passenger-side window of a silver car around the time she vanished.

The accused man was not identified, but he has prior convictions and is cooperating, according to the Moscow outlet.