Casefile True Crime - Case 92: Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs

Episode Date: August 11, 2018

Throughout June and July of 2007, residents of the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk were gripped by fear after a spate of murders occurred seemingly at random. Victims were brutally beaten using hammers and steel pipes, while some were tortured, with children, the elderly and homeless most vulnerable to the attacks. ---  Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Episode researched and written by Eileen Ormsby, author of ‘The Darkest Web – Drugs, Death and Destroyed Lives: The inside story of the internet’s evil twin.’ For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-92-dnepropetrovsk-maniacs

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It won't be suitable for all listeners. Over-dramatic titles and comments compelling users to click links are a common sight in the internet age. There's even a term for them. Click bait. Caitlin Moran took the bait. In Caitlin's words, the link took us to some footage shot on a mobile phone in some bland murky woodland. It appears to be early summer.

15 feet away, there's a man on the ground. It's immediately clear that a great many terrible things have happened to him quite recently, and that he will die very, very soon. She watched one minute and 47 seconds of the 8 minute video before turning it off. She couldn't stomach anymore. However, that short amount of time was etched into her memory. A horror that would never leave her. Music

Settled on the banks of the Nipah River in the south-central part of Ukraine is the city of Dnieper. Located near 400 kilometers southeast from the capital of Kiev, Dnieper is Ukraine's fourth largest city with a population of around one million people. Considered the major industrial center of Ukraine, the cityscape is dotted with unsightly enterprises and manufacturing plants devoted to heavy industry, residue from an industrial boom during the Soviet era. The city was one of the most important manufacturing cities in the Soviet Union, producing many goods from small articles like screws and vacuum cleaners to aircraft engine pieces and ballistic missiles.

The city itself is characterized by its mix of architectural styles, remnants of its rich history, from Russian neo-classical structures of ornamental brick and stone to ambitious and unfinished Soviet architecture, a symbol of poor economic planning which has plagued the city ever since. It's not uncommon to find very large potholes and crumbling surfaces on many of the city's smaller roads. Trams along the leafy main strips are often in poor technical state. A metro system opened in 1995 consists of one line with just six stations. Work on other stations was abandoned when the city ran out of money. Nevertheless, Dniepro is a powerhouse of Ukraine's business and politics,

the native city of many of the country's most important figures. Tourists flood the city, visiting the various theaters, museums, parks, restaurants and beaches. By 2015, decommunisation law outlawed communist symbols within the city. To comply with the law, in May 2016, the official name of the city was shortened to Dniepro. But prior to 2016, the city was named after Grigory Petrovsky, the communist leader of Ukraine. Back then, the city was called Denipropetrovsk. In Denipropetrovsk in 1988, two baby boys were born. First came Viktor Soenko on March 1, and less than two months later, on April 20, Igor Soprunyuk entered the world.

Although living in the industrial city, both boys were born into privilege, or at least comfortable middle class. Viktor's father was a computer engineer who worked with public prosecutions, and Igor's father was a pilot who spent several years flying around the president of independent Ukraine. Both boys had mothers who doted on them. Igor and Viktor met at school and became instant friends. They formed a trio with another boy, Alexander Hanser, who was Viktor's friend since kindergarten, and the eldest by two weeks. Alexander did not have the wealth of his friends. He lived in the poorer part of town, where it was said rats the size of dogs roamed the buildings.

He had only his mother. His father died when he was a baby. The boys often found mischief. Their first brush with the law occurred when they were caught throwing stones at moving trains. When police knocked on Viktor's door and demanded compensation, his parents paid up and grilled Viktor. When he explained that Igor was the instigator of the incident, they forbade Viktor from seeing him. Yet Viktor did not obey his parents. They didn't bother following through on their punishment, and soon Viktor was back in the company of Igor. The boys had a normal and seemingly happy upbringing, although none of them liked attending school or doing their studies. Igor and Viktor had home computers, and they enjoyed messing around on the internet. As they grew into teens, they got mobile phones, and they began to photograph and document everything they did.

Igor's mother had returned to her job as a high-ranking employee of the district state administration, and so Igor was left to entertain himself, unsupervised a lot. During their time at secondary school in Denipropetrovsk, the boys lived in fear of older and stronger students. Both Viktor and Igor were also frightened of heights, and they were worried that this weakness would encourage bullies. Igor searched the internet for advice on how to overcome acrophobia, and read that the best method was to face such fears head on. This led the boys to stand on a balcony of a 14th floor apartment for hours, hanging over the railing and staring straight down at the ground. Eventually, their fear of heights subsided, and they deemed the face your fears method of getting over phobias a success. With their newfound confidence, Viktor, Igor, and Alexander became increasingly aggressive and antisocial towards anyone they perceived as weaker than them, picking on younger, smaller boys. As the leader of the three boys, Igor led the group into increasingly serious acts of vandalism and hooliganism.

He had developed a fondness for Adolf Hitler, and would proudly tell everyone that he shared the furor's birthday. He liked to take photos of himself with a drawn-on toothbrush-style mustache in front of swastikas he sprayed onto any surface he could find. In eighth grade, Igor brutally beat another child and stole his bicycle, which he then sold to Viktor. Although he drew the attention of police, Igor was not charged. It was rumoured that this was due to the intervention of his influential parents. Viktor's parents again forbade him to be friends with Igor, but they didn't supervise the boy or question where he was going when he went out, so the boys continued to see each other. In 2002, her teacher complained that Igor and Alexander had committed what was described as hooligan acts against her. Rather than charges being brought, the boys were separated. Igor was transferred to a neighbouring school, and Alexander was sent to a vocational school.

It didn't stop the young trio from terrorising the district, but nobody would notify the police because of the influence of Igor's parents. His father was seemingly able to make any unpleasant issue simply disappear. Igor and Viktor had been happy with the results of their experiment for beating their fear of heights. When Alexander admitted to them that he had a phobia of blood, Igor suggested using the same method to overcome his aversion. Alexander would have to get up close and personal with large amounts of blood in order to beat his fear. There were many stray and wild animals in the forest area near Alexander's house. The boys took to capturing dogs and cats and slaughtering them. They kept this up long after Alexander overcame his blood phobia.

When killing wasn't enough to satisfy, they moved on to torture. Igor would use the animal blood to paint swastikas on trees or fences nearby. They would also take photos of each other posing with the animal carcasses, collecting hundreds of gruesome pictures. They believed that torturing animals would help them become tougher in adulthood. One day they fashioned a wooden cross that they hung in the garage of one of the boys' homes. They nailed a white kitten to it crucifixion style, then took turns shooting at it with pistols loaded with rubber bullets. They filmed the kittens ordeal, laughing as it died. Meanwhile, the adults in their lives were seemingly oblivious to what the three teenagers were getting up to when they were not at school or home.

Igor's parents led very busy lives with their high-powered jobs and his father was often away for long periods flying. Victor's father also spent a great deal of time at work, but his mother was at home. In 2005, when the trio were all around 17 years old, they set upon and beat up two 15-year-old boys. There's nothing to say why they chose those two targets or if their attack was motivated by anything. What the records do say is that the trio pounded the smaller boys in the face until they were a bloody mess. The victims suffered from concussion, broken bones and permanently disfigured faces. The parents of the victims tried to bring charges against Igor, Victor and Alexander. But once again, Igor was well-connected and influential father intervened.

They got off with little more than a stern talking to by their parents. After graduating high school, Victor went to the Denny Propertroughs Goyne and Steel Academy to study part-time. While studying, he took on a job as a security guard. Neither of these things appealed to him nearly as much as playing around on the Internet. He and Igor had discovered and enjoyed pursuing gore websites. The pair became obsessed with looking at photos and videos of real murders. They watched footage of drug cartel bosses torturing and executing and beheadings performed by extremists or terrorist groups until they were no longer shocked by anything the sites had to offer.

At the same time, Igor's father bought him a car as a graduation present, a green day-woo. But Igor was not in any hurry to get a job. To get his father off his back about finding employment, Igor declared his day-woo to be a taxi cat and became an unlicensed taxi driver. The taxi became the perfect ruse to cover up the new favourite pastime of Igor, Victor and Alexander. The boys had taken to robbing people, attacking strangers and stealing phones, wallets and jewellery. Quite often they would pick up people in Igor's car, masquerading as a taxi. Then they'd take their unsuspecting victims somewhere quiet and rob them. Alexander had drifted between odd jobs but was unemployed for much of the time.

Coming from a poor household, he saw the robberies as a necessity. Unlike Alexander, neither Igor nor Victor needed the money. They did it for the thrill. Alexander would later say he was becoming increasingly uneasy with the activities of his friends and the recklessness with which they would attack people. Fearing they might accidentally kill someone after two armed robberies on March 1, 2007, Alexander claimed that he would not take part in them anymore. In early June 2007, Igor and Victor picked up a man and a woman in their makeshift taxi to rob them as usual. Previously the pair would conduct their robberies at night to give them the cover of darkness. But this time they picked up their victims in daylight.

Worried that the couple got a good look at them in their car by which they could be identified, Igor and Victor decided that the logical step was to kill them. No details can be found in public records on how Igor and Victor carried out the deed, whether they planned it first or who did what to whom. All we know is that crossing the line from robbery to murder apparently didn't disturb them. It excited them. On the evening of June 25, 2007, 33-year-old A. Katharina Rilchenko hosted an evening at her home in Denipropotrovsk. In attendance was her best friend as well as her mother, Natalia. A sociable and outgoing woman, A. Katharina was a teacher at the local university and participated in local sports. Over dinner she spoke of her recent holiday to Turkey. It was a good night, spent laughing, talking and eating.

At around 10pm, A. Katharina offered to walk her friend home. They invited A. Katharina's mother, Natalia, to accompany them as she was too tired. As the girls left to make the short walk, Natalia settled into bed. After a heavy sleep, Natalia woke up at around 4.30am. A sense that something wasn't quite right compelled her to check her daughter's room. A. Katharina's bed had not been slept in. In fact, it didn't appear as though she had come home at all. At 5am, Natalia left the house and went outside to search for her daughter. A short way down the path, she spotted three women huddled around something on the ground.

As Natalia approached, she realised the women were crowded around her body. It was her daughter. A. Katharina lay in a pool of blood, her hands stiff before her face, as if she had been protecting herself from something. Natalia later recalled the horror, quote, there was no face, only parts of it. Natalia screamed to the women, that is my daughter, call the police, and then collapsed. Not far away, early morning park walkers discovered the body of 45-year-old Roman Tatarevich. Homeless, Roman had dosed off after a drinking binge on a park bench. His body was found in a similar way to A. Katharina's. Both their heads had been struck multiple times with a blunt object, to the point of being unrecognisable.

That same night, another man, Viktor Pertsev, was attacked near his housing estate. He too was struck in the face. He was fortunate that a woman from a nearby hair salon began shouting. She frightened the attackers away, leaving the 58-year-old man in a pool of blood, but alive. Six days later, on July 1, two more bodies were found. Eugene Grishchenko and Nikolai Surchuk. Little is known about their murders or the victims themselves. They too were beaten so badly with a heavy object that their skull split open. Five days after that, on July 6, the two young killers had their most prolific day yet. Viktor had spent the day and evening with his girlfriend. He then called Igor to come and pick him up.

The two decided they would carry out a few robberies before bed to earn some extra money. Igor Nechvalod, a young man recently discharged from the army, was heading home in the early hours after a fun night out drinking and clubbing. He made it almost inside his house when attacked from behind. Neighbours were startled by the blood-curdling screams of Igor's mother when she discovered her son's bloodied body on the doorstep. Just around the corner from where the returned servicemen lived, nighttime security guard Yelena Shram was walking home after finishing her shift early because she wasn't feeling well. Yelena was a hard-working single mother who walked the five blocks home from work regularly. She was almost home when she came upon her killers. Yelena's mother would later say, quote,

There was not a part of her that was not destroyed. When we arrived at the morgue, we couldn't recognise her. Tasked with the job of identifying the body, Yelena's sister could only rely on her clothes, hands and hair. Then, Valentina Hansa, a mother of three, who also had been the sole carer for her disabled husband, was murdered shortly after Yelena. There had now been seven similar murders in less than two weeks in an area of little more than a million people. Despite the similarities in the attacks, local police had yet to link them. No warnings were issued to the residents of the industrial district that a deranged killer or killers were on the loose. The following day, July 7, 13-year-old Andrey Sidiyuk and 14-year-old Vadim and Lyaykov from Podgorodna, around 15 kilometres from Denipropetrovsk, woke up extra early to head off to catch fresh fish as a treat for their mothers.

The two young friends had gone fishing together many times and usually had a third boy with them. But their friend was not allowed out for this trip. It was still dark and would be for some time. His mother was afraid something might happen to him and refused to let him go fishing. So Andrey and Vadim set off on their bicycles without him, carrying nothing but their fishing rods. As they peddled along the familiar country road leading to the Samara River, a green-coloured taxi overtook them. It stopped a little way ahead. The two occupants got out of the vehicle and stood in the middle of the dark road. As the teenagers approached on their bikes, the strangers turned and swung sharply at them with heavy pipes, knocking them to the ground. Andrey was knocked unconscious immediately, but Vadim managed to jump up and start running.

Like something out of a horror movie, he heard the taxi engine roar. As he ran, it started to bear down on him. Vadim's intimate knowledge of the area that had been his home all his life served him well. He veered off into the surrounding bushland where he found a place to hide. The taxi slowed and passed the area where Vadim had left the road. Although petrified, he managed to stay quiet while the driver of the taxi continued to search for him. After a while, the car turned away and returned back from where it came. Once he was sure that the attackers had gone, Vadim emerged from the shrubbery and rushed to check on his friend. Andrey lay in a pool of blood. His face was crushed, but he was still breathing.

He appeared to be trying to say something, but it was impossible to make out any words. Vadim tried to stop some of the bleeding with his t-shirt and put his jacket under Andrey's head to comfort him before heading to a busier road to try and get help. Cars sped by the frantic, blood-spattered teenager until finally someone stopped and agreed to take the boys to the hospital. Andrey was pronounced dead on arrival. Vadim's nightmare was only just beginning though. When the police arrived at the hospital, they promptly arrested him for the murder of his friend. According to his mother, they wouldn't allow him to call her before snatching him from hospital to interrogate him back at the station. When the traumatized teenager began to pass out in the backseat of the police vehicle, a policeman poked him violently with his weapon to wake him up. At the station, they grilled Vadim about the death of Andrey.

Vadim maintained the story of the two pipe-wielding, taxi-driving killers and provided police with physical descriptions of the attackers. Two young, lean, Caucasian men with short dark hair. Unconvinced of his bizarre story, police tried to shake Vadim by threatening to keep him in a cell overnight and later send him to a youth detention center. When Vadim's story didn't change, police finally contacted his mother, who arrived shortly after. She wasn't allowed to comfort Vadim, nor accompany him during police questioning. According to her, police beat her son in an attempt to get him to confess to the murder. Only after she threatened to go to the public prosecutor was Vadim finally released. Vadim was racked with nightmares and could not be left alone, afraid the killers would come back for him.

Now that there was an eyewitness, police finally started looking into similar crimes in the preceding weeks, searching for a link to the murder of Andrey. Armed with sketches from Vadim's descriptions, police stepped up the hunt for the two young killers, bringing in detectives from Kiev. Although no official announcement was made, the people of Denipropetrovsk talked among themselves. News spread that there were killers on the loose, preying on the weak and vulnerable. The locals dubbed them the Denipropetrovsk maniacs. It was clear to the townsfolk that a serial killer was carrying out the attacks, but there was no pattern among the victims. As experts pointed out, serial killers nearly always prefer a specific type of victim, but these people had nothing in common. They were a range of different people innocently going about their business, apparently attacked at random.

The killers appeared to deliberately target victims who were not likely to be able to fight back. The elderly, drunks, young teenagers, or unsuspecting women who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The first service of mobility by subscription to the country offered by Publikemobile. Yes, of course. At start, you can subscribe to your 5G for free, without being attached. Publikemobile. To you, the difference. He was wiped out of the cabin, but he tried to save the expensive farm machinery for its owner and wound up pinned underwater.

By the time he was freed, Sergei was clinically dead from drowning. Rescuers managed to resuscitate him and get him to hospital, where doctors declared his survival a one in a million chance. A young father at the time, Sergei went on to devote himself to his family. He had a wife, Ludmila, who adored him, and two sons who grew up to be fine young men, and two married young women whom Sergei came to love as if they were his own daughters. Sergei worked hard to give his family everything they needed. He was a wonderful cook, a loving father, always cheerful, and met all of life's challenges with good humour. When a grandson came along, Sergei could not be happier. He took it upon himself to teach his daughter-in-law how to swaddle and bathe the baby.

Sergei couldn't get enough of caring for and playing with his grandson, and taking him for long walks. Sergei's life was dealt a second blow when he developed a cancerous tumour in his throat that needed emergency surgery. It was another life and death moment for Sergei, which he faced with strength and dignity. Sergei's wife, Ludmila, said, quote, When the tumour was discovered, he did not complain. He did not whine. He took everything like a man. They were both overjoyed when the operation was successful, but as a result, Sergei was left unable to speak in anything more than a whisper of a few words at a time. He lost his job, but Ludmila said his family heard him, and that was what mattered. People often spoke of Sergei's kindness and gentle nature, but he was also a proud man.

He looked after his unwell mother, as well as his wife, and the four dogs that he had given her home to. Unable to sit at home and feel sorry for himself, he accepted any odd job that others would offer him. He was happy to take on building tasks, fixing cars, garbage collection, driving, or make deliveries on his motorbike. According to Ludmila, he even waved baskets and fashioned household goods. His voice was slowly being restored, and he could speak whole sentences, though still in a whisper. On the afternoon of July 12, 2007, 48-year-old Sergei told his wife Ludmila that he was going to get some fuel for his motorbike. Afterwards, he planned to go and see his grandson, just as he did every chance he could get. Sergei set off along the quiet, wooded shortcut that led to the highway between Denipropetrovsk and the village of Taromsky.

Later that evening, Sergei failed to return home. Ludmila called his mobile phone, but there was no answer. She then phoned her daughter-in-law, only to find out Sergei never arrived to her place as he planned. Ludmila immediately knew something wasn't right. Sergei would always let her know where he was, and if he was going to be late. Ludmila was worried her husband had had an accident or fallen ill, as he was inclined to overexert himself. Ukrainian regulations meant she could not file a missing person's report until he had been missing for 72 hours. She didn't sleep that night.

The following day was spent posting flyers and photographs of her husband around town, and asking others if they had seen him. Nobody had. Ludmila did not give up. She continued to scour the streets, enlisting help from family and friends, until exhaustion forced her to return home. It was two days later when Ludmila received a phone call. A motorbike that matched the description of the one her missing husband had been riding was spotted lying in a bush off a nearby highway. The man who had spotted it led Ludmila and her sons to the location. The family searched the area, trudging the dense woodland along the road where they eventually came across a body.

They recognized it immediately from the gray, neatly pressed suit. It was Sergei. His face had been destroyed. On July 14, two young, homeless siblings, a brother and sister, were cowering in a hut of rags and cardboard they had built, tucked away in a secluded part of Denipropodrovsk. They watched as 45-year-old Natalia Mumcheruk drove past on her moped. As she drove towards two young men loitering nearby, one knocked her off her moped, then dragged her into nearby bushes. When police arrived, Natalia was found in the shrub, beaten to death. The two siblings were able to give police a clear description of the perpetrators, which matched those provided by young Vadim Lyakov.

Rumors of a pair of psychopaths at large were now sweeping the city of Denipropodrovsk. Late night clubs and restaurants in the district and city outskirts were empty. The tourists stayed away from the industrial center. Children were kept inside. The tension was made all the more unbearable by the silence of the news and the absence of any official information from the police. Over the next few days, from July 14 to 16, two mutilated corpses were discovered in and around Denipropodrovsk every day. Each one struck in the face repeatedly with a blunt instrument, and many of them stabbed as they lay on the ground. In most cases, the mutilation rendered the victims unrecognizable. Denipropodrovsk was now host to an unusual number of funerals.

Young Vadim Lyakov was forbidden by his mother to attend the memorial service of his friend, Andrei Sidiyuk, as he was still traumatized by the murder and the police then trying to blame him for it. Perhaps if Vadim had attended, he would have noticed two uninvited and familiar-looking guests. Igor and Victor would attend the funerals and gravesites of their victims to take selfies. In some photos, they'd give the headstones the middle finger as one final act of humiliation and disrespect. More murders followed in such rapid succession that there is little information available about individual victims in records or newspaper reports from the time. A task force established to find those responsible grew to encompass almost every single law enforcement officer in the region. Officials would later say that they had over 2,000 police officers dedicated to the hunt for the two young male killers. Still, this information was kept out of the newspapers, both to avoid panic and in the hope that the suspects wouldn't know the police were onto them.

This was despite the killers knowing that they had been spotted several times and had even left some survivors. Seventy-year-old Lydia Mikrenyacheva was walking her three dogs near her home when she noticed two young men nearby taking photographs. She assumed that they were looking at the nearby real estate and didn't think much of it. As the path wound its way through bushes, secluded from any people who might be about, she was struck from behind and fell to the ground unconscious. Igor and Victor took turns kicking her in the face, hoping to dislodge what they thought were gold crowns on her teeth. Lydia's dog started barking loudly, spooking the pair. They shot the dogs with rubber bullets, killing two and injuring the other. The commotion caused by the dogs forced the pair to run away before they killed Lydia.

She suffered serious internal and external injuries, her jaw was shattered and her face had to be rebuilt. Knowing that the killers had robbed their victims, police distributed sketches of the wanted men and lists of stolen property to local pawn shops. The official story of what exactly led to the events of July 23, 2007 varies. What is known is that two young men visited a Denny Proper Trough's pawn shop to try and sell a mobile phone. They were offered approximately $20 US for the item if it was in working condition. To test the device, the shop clerk pressed the power button. Sure enough, the screen flickered to life. As soon as the mobile phone was turned on, it released a signal that was immediately intercepted by police.

The phone belonged to one of the victims. Police stormed the pawn shop and confronted the killers, Victor Sayanko and Igor Suprunyuk. Police conducted searches of their homes, as well as that of their old but since distant friend, Alexander Hansar. When police descended on Victor's apartment, they were refused entry for around 40 minutes before Victor's father finally let them in. Police retrieved items from the wardrobes of the suspects. According to the investigator who bagged the clothes, there was not a single item from Igor and Victor's belongings that were without blood stains. Their jeans, sneakers and jackets were all soiled in varying intensity of red and brown. Among the evidence collected was a bloody hearing belonging to one of their victims, computer storage devices, as well as the murder weapon, a yellow-handled hammer.

Igor also had a copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and had collected newspaper articles relating to crimes he had committed. The plumbing within Alexander Hansar's property was dismantled. A plumber extracted watches and three mobile phones which belonged to three of the murder victims. Once under arrest, all three suspects were quick to crumble and confess to their crimes. Later, there were questions raised about the methods used by Ukrainian police to extract those confessions. Video released to the press showed Alexander, the only one without influential parents, obviously severely beaten. There were no marks on either Igor or Victor. In Victor's videotape to confession, he first said he acted alone, but soon admitted that he was in the company of Igor.

When the detective asked him how many they had killed, Victor responded, quote, I don't know, I don't remember how many, maybe 19. The detective asked the question everyone wanted the answer to. Why? Victor seemed unable to answer. At first he claimed that he didn't know why. Eventually he admitted that he killed for money. He then volunteered his partner's motive, quote, Igor, Igor just liked to kill.

When a detective asked Igor in his interview what he felt when he killed, the teenager replied, quote, What do you feel when you cut a sausage? By the end of the day, Igor and Victor had confessed to killing at least 19 people in the previous four weeks. By the time formal charges were laid, Igor, Victor and Alexander were charged with involvement in 29 separate incidents, including 21 murders and eight more attacks where victims survived. Igor was charged with 27 of the cases, including 21 counts of capital murder, eight armed robberies, and one count of animal cruelty. Victor was charged with 25 instances, including 18 murders, five robberies, and one count of animal cruelty. Alexander was charged with two counts of armed robbery from March 2007, after which he claimed to have withdrawn from the activities of his friends

and did not participate in the murders. Once the arrests were made, the Ukrainian people were outraged as they heard the litany of crimes about which they had been for the most part kept in the dark. Despite the spate of brutal murders all carried out in the same manner, the city of Denipropetrovsk didn't warn its citizens, nor did they put a curfew into effect. Although some individual crimes made the local papers, there had been no major news stories of people being randomly attacked, murdered, and mutilated by serial killers. Had they been told, people would have taken more precautions. If there had been news stories of the young Vadim and other witnesses that come forward, everyone would have been wary of two young men stopped on the side of a lonely road or otherwise behaving suspiciously. Law enforcement and media alike tried to establish a motive for the killings. Robbery didn't provide an adequate explanation. Many of their victims had nothing worth stealing.

They were vagrants, young boys going fishing, travelers needing a taxi. Not people who would typically be expected to be carrying valuables. Rumors circulated that police had not called all of the perpetrators. In particular, there was the matter of Daniel Kozlov, a close friend of Viktor Sayanko since kindergarten. He was known to regularly hang out with Igor and Viktor. Neighbours recalled many times spotting the Green Dewu pulling up outside Kozlov's house that would honk for him and Kozlov would emerge from the house and climb into the vehicle before it headed off. Kozlov was arrested. Some reports say for the murders, others for hooliganism. He too was the son of a powerful and well-connected father with ties to officials. Surprisingly, he admitted to having knowledge of the crimes, having seen video and pictures taken by the killers and hearing them brag about robbing and killing.

The killers urged Kozlov to join them, saying there was the prospect of making a lot of money. They showed him their expensive computer equipment, which they claimed was rewards of their crimes. People thought that it was quite likely that Kozlov was involved in at least one murder, but the combination of his willingness to talk and his rich and well-connected family meant that he was never charged and he soon disappeared from sight. The parents of the three accused rallied around them. Alexander's mother had no influence or contacts, but Igor and Viktor's parents threw all of their resources and connections into setting their sons free. They maintained firmly that their sons were innocent of all crimes and were fall guys for the true criminals whose power and wealth provided them with immunity. Their public support was met with considerable scepticism.

Alexander's mother told reporters that there had been a mistake in arresting her son. Ironically, she said, quote, He's a kind boy. He couldn't hurt a cat, let alone a person. Viktor's father told the press, I don't know why my son is admitting to these charges. He's an ordinary boy. I think that he must have been intimidated by someone. These charges have been fabricated. Igor in particular was confident that his parents would fix the situation,

just as they had bailed him out of every bit of trouble he had ever been in throughout his lifetime. When his lawyer asked if he had any messages for his parents, he responded that he missed his mother and that he would be back home soon. Journalists worried that he was right. Knowing that his father had been the personal pilot to the country's former president, they wondered if he would call upon the politician to help his son. It is feasible that under normal circumstances in 2007 Ukraine, Igor's confidence of his father getting him out would not be misplaced.

However, there was something different in this case making releasing Igor and Viktor politically impossible. Among the items recovered by police in their raids on the boys' homes were hundreds of photographs and videos of the two young killers carrying out their crimes and posing with their victims. There was everything from an extended video of the torture of a kitten to selfies taken at their victims' funerals, from photographs of them with tortured dogs and cats and more posing with the bloodied bodies of their human victims. Across one photograph someone had scrawled, the weak must die, the strongest will win. There were also at least five videos documenting some of the murders.

A 30-minute film showed the young psychopaths preparing, waiting for, and then murdering Sergei Yatsenko. The footage is dated July 12, 2007. Igor and Viktor stand on the side of the road. Viktor's mobile phone is balanced on the roof of their car, recording video. The woodland road was quiet as the pair discussed their plan to wave down a passing car and kill the occupant, provided it wasn't a big guy. Igor said to Viktor, we can stop a car just like that, and if it is a big guy, we tell him there's no problem and let him go.

And if a little one comes out, we say, welcome, with this. He then pulled a yellow handled hammer out of a yellow plastic bag and brandished it at the camera, as both he and Viktor laughed in excitement. Igor hid the hammer behind his back, then joked, I will pull it out like this, whilst demonstrating a swinging motion. They had binoculars so they could see well into the distance and figure out whether the person coming was a suitable victim. They hoped that whoever it was had a cell phone. Nice, but not too nice, as they wanted to be able to sell it quickly.

If it were a man and a woman, they would go ahead and kill them both, provided the man was not too big. As they waited, they checked the daewoo over, noting that there were blood stains in various spots. They debated about which stains came from which of their previous victims. Finally, Viktor raised the binoculars and saw someone coming down the quiet stretch of road. He called the Igor that it was time. He cried out in excitement, what video we will capture, not just pictures. Igor asked, what does he look like? Viktor replied, he looks normal.

Once Viktor had identified the approaching target, a man on a bike. Igor stood in the middle of the road. Viktor grabbed hold of the camera and held it up at Igor. When Sergei Yatsenko reached the boys, Igor swung around with the hammer. Sergei was hit and fell off his bike. Still laughing, the boys dragged Sergei from the road and into the framing woodland. For eight long minutes, Sergei Yatsenko endured unimaginable suffering. The two killers caught everything on camera, giggling the entire time.

When Sergei died, Igor gave him one last taunt. What a fucking day for you, huh? Igor took his time wiping the hammer clean and putting it in the trunk of the car. Then carefully washed his face and hair, asking his friend to check for spots where he had missed the blood. Running his fingers through his wet hair, Igor said, this time was awesome. Viktor was keen to flee the scene of the crime, but Igor insisted the pair should go back and get a selfie. Once he finished washing, they returned to the blooded remains of Sergei. In a final act of indignity to the proud family man, Igor and Viktor stood over him and photographed themselves performing the Nazi salute.

Viktor Soenko's father insisted that the photographs and footage of his son and friend killing Sergei and others were faked. He told reporters that when police raided his house, they found perfectly innocent pictures and videos of Viktor with his friend Igor in the woods, and that someone who wanted to frame them made up photos and videos using special effects. Experts agreed that faking all footage found would require a Hollywood-level special effects team and a year of editing. Somehow, eight minutes of footage showing the final brutal moments of Sergei Yatsenko's life made its way from the evidence room to the internet. For those who could stomach watching it, there was no doubt that the giggling psychopath featured in the video was Igor Suprunyuk, and his friend Viktor Sayenko was behind the camera. With the release of the video online, another theory began to circulate.

Local media reported the killers had a plan to get rich by selling their murder videos to an underground snuff ring. Snuff is a genre of film depicting the very real killing of a human being. The girlfriend of one of the boys reported that they planned to make 40 separate videos of murders. This was corroborated by a former classmate who claimed he heard Igor was in contact with a rich foreign website operator who ordered 40 snuff videos and would pay lots of money once they were made. Journalists tried to verify the existence of this snuff network. One news crew claimed to find a site with the help of a Russian hacker that contained hundreds of murder videos, many of them made in Ukraine. But their efforts led nowhere.

The story was likely a fantasy woven around the video of Sergei's murder, which had reached viral proportions on shock and gore websites. It should be noted that someone with access to court records leaked the footage, not the killers themselves. Shortly after their arrest, the three suspects received psychiatric evaluations. All were deemed sane and fit to stand trial. Nevertheless, Igor's lawyer tried to mount an insanity defense and insisted that his client should be treated, not punished. Igor's paternal grandmother had schizophrenia and his lawyer argued that Igor inherited the condition. Igor pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His lawyer disputed the psychiatric evaluation that declared Igor was sane,

saying that the notoriety of the crimes meant the defendants could not get fair treatment and the results were rushed and biased. The trial of Igor Soprunyuk, Victor Sayanko and Alexander Hanzer began in June 2008. It was delayed after the first day when Igor's lawyer quit, citing his own health problems. Then in another twist, Victor's parents fired his lawyer and his own father took on the defense. Victor's lawyer was happy to be dismissed, saying that his client's story had changed and he felt he could no longer provide him an adequate defense. Victor, under the guidance of his father, recanted the confession he had made in the police station, saying it had been forced out of him through the use of violence and coercion. The case was adjourned until the new defense teams could get acquainted with the case file.

There were whispers that Victor's father explored other methods of freeing his son, including pressuring at least one of the surviving victims not to testify. The trial recommenced in early July. The three accused had to be transported to and from the courtroom wearing body armor, as there was a very real fear that they would be attacked by victims' families or the general public. Inside court, they were put into a cage from where they observed the proceedings behind bars. Igor and Victor were allowed access to their parents who formed part of their defense teams, but Alexander's mother was denied any contact with her son.

Ten lawyers represented 29 family members of victims eligible for compensation from the crimes. The prosecution's evidence included eyewitness testimony, the many items belonging to the victims recovered from the homes of the defendants, and DNA evidence that confirmed with over 99% accuracy the involvement of the accused in the murders. But the most compelling evidence was the photographs and videos produced by the suspects themselves. The court had a psychologist on standby when these exhibits were presented, and the counselor was put to good use. Several people ran from the court distraught after observing the disturbing content.

The killers gazed calmly from behind the bars to the TV screen. Occasionally, they exchanged glances and smirks. When it came time for them to be questioned about the videos, they denied they were involved. In an outrageous claim, they said they didn't recognize anyone in the footage, despite the many shots in which they appeared close up to the camera. The judge didn't appreciate the court being played for a fool and responded, you are not blind. The defense team for Igor and Victor tried every tactic

from having the photos and videos thrown out of evidence due to them being obtained by an improper search to presenting a conspiracy cover-up that protected the real culprits who they said were rich and famous. They also argued that the confessions had been obtained through torture, although only Alexander had shown any signs of being beaten. When it came their turn to testify, the killers turned on each other. According to Victor's father, Victor was himself a victim, terrified of the psychotic Igor who had forced him into participating in the slaughter. He claimed a sort of Stockholm syndrome and a never-growing psychological dependence on Igor,

arising from the fear the enigmatic younger boy had instilled in him. Victor claimed Igor had made both direct and implied threats of violence and that he had convinced him that he could ensure all of the blame fell upon Victor should they ever be caught. Alexander's defense was that he was only involved in a single robbery prior to the murder of Spree. He pled guilty to the robbery and claimed he had no idea what Igor and Victor were capable of and if he had known, he would not have gone near them, even at gunpoint. As for the property belonging to the victims that was found at Alexander's house, it was accepted that Igor and Victor gifted him these items and that he wasn't actually present at the murders.

Igor, meanwhile, was generally silent throughout the trial, although he seemed to enjoy the replaying of his exploits on video. His mother formed part of the defense team and families of the victims would later say they felt intimidated by her cold, unwavering stare and complete lack of sympathy. The one thing the prosecution still could not answer was the question of motive. The lack of motive, coupled with the extreme cruelty, made this case unique. They accepted the profit from robbery was not the main purpose, since most of their victims had little to steal. The rumors of creation of videos for sale to the snuff market were not addressed at the trial at all.

Eventually, the prosecution settled on the unthinkable. Igor and Victor tortured and killed people, simply for the thrill and filmed their exploits to have mementos to look back on and enjoy in their old age. On February 11, 2009, the court found Igor Soprunyuk and Victor Sayanko guilty of all charges. Igor was found guilty of 21 murders and Victor was found guilty of 18. They both received life sentences, which they immediately appealed, but which were upheld later that year by the Supreme Court. Alexander Hanzer was found guilty of robbery and sentenced to nine years in prison. He did not appeal.

Nobody could believe that the parents of the convicted had truly been blissfully unaware of what Igor and Victor were getting up to. They were accused of turning a blind eye to their misdeeds and blood-stained clothes and their suspicious collection of electronics and jewellery. When Yelena Shram's mother accosted Igor's mother, she reportedly looked her right in the eye and said coldly, maybe your daughter was just destined to die. The mother of returned serviceman Igor Nechvalod said, No job can be an excuse for mental deafness to your child. How could you not feel the changes in the moods of the children, not see the deformation of their interests, not pay attention to the completely blood-stained clothes?

How did you not look under the bed where the murder tools were stored and ignore other people's things suddenly appearing in your house or the appearance of guns and bullets? Natalia Yelchenko lived so close to the side of her daughter's murder that she had to pass by her almost every day. Each time she would say a prayer for her daughter, A. Katerina. She later told reporters, You can't even call them animals because animals kill in self-defense, by instinct, or when they sense danger. They did it just for pleasure. They killed people for fun.