The Misery Machine - The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs (2020 revisited) | The Hammer Brothers | Ukraine's Most Infamous Spree Killings

Episode Date: October 19, 2020

A year later, Drewby and Yergy revisit the case of the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs, who are Ukrainian serial killers responsible for a string of murders in Dnipropetrovsk (now known as Dnipro) in June and July of 2007. The case gained additional notoriety because the killers made video recordings of some of the murders, with one of the videos leaking to the Internet, subsequently going viral and leading to worldwide attention. Two 19‑year-old locals, Viktor Sayenko, and Igor Suprunyuk, were arrested and charged with 21 murders. A third conspirator, Alexander Hanzha, was charged with two armed robberies that took place before the murder spree. On 11 February 2009, all three defendants were found guilty. Sayenko and Suprunyuk were sentenced to life imprisonment, while Hanzha received nine years in prison. The lawyers for Sayenko and Suprunyuk launched an appeal, claiming that the two were framed by higher ranking members in the Ukraine government. This appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Ukraine in November 2009. Footage of the atrocities continues to circulate to this day. We discuss the likelihood of this case gaining worldwide notoriety if it wasn't for the presence of the snuff-like videos taken by the perpetrators.  Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #podcast #documentary #truecrime  Source Material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnepropetrovsk_maniacs https://www.reddit.com/r/serialkillers/comments/6safme/the_dnepropetrovsk_maniacs_ukraines_most/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Casefile/comments/b3l1pk/dnepropetrovsk_maniacs_scared_the_crap_out_of_me/ https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/7827c4/til_of_the_dnepropetrovsk_maniacs_they_were_two/ https://www.reddit.com/r/serialkillers/comments/5yyttn/has_there_ever_been_worse_serial_killers_than_the/ https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/suprunyuck-igor.htm https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/The_Dnepropetrovsk_Maniacs https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/sayenko-viktor.htm  

I'm Drewby. And this week, we're redoing a case that I've been wanting to do for a long time. And it's Ukraine's arguably most famous free of murder cases. Yep, the Denepro Petrovs Maniacs. Yes. So I regretted that we did this one so early. We were such a very, in a very young time as a podcast. And since then, we've been better at editing. And I think our pacing is so much better. Yeah, I think doing this now, you'll enjoy it a lot more than our original recording of it. I mean, I liked our original recording, but the editing, and it's just so much better now. It's unlistable. The old episodes, some people will say, oh, I want to start from the very beginning.

No, please don't. Please don't do that. Please don't do that. Like, I didn't know how to edit at all. I was just throwing up the MP3 raw. I did nothing to it. We ranted, we raved, we um, we'd odd. Well, a lot of people say they missed the rants, but that's what our Patreon's for. It is. But yeah, I think that if you're new here, start with the newer ones and work your way backwards as much as you can tolerate. But anyways, if you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and subscribe. We are over 1,200 subscribers now. Thank you to everybody that has helped and supported us along the way.

And if you're new here, hitting like and subscribe goes a long way for us, hitting the bell notification and sharing this video with someone that you think would like it really helps us out. So without further ado. The Denepropro Petrovs Maniacs. The Deneprofetrovs maniacs are Ukrainian serial killers responsible for a string of murders in Denepro in June and July of 2007. Two 19-year-old locals, Victor Sayenko and Igor Sopraniak, were arrested and charged with 21 murders. A third conspirator, Alexander Hansa, was charged with two armed robberies that took place before the murder spree. The case gained additional notoriety because the killers made video recordings of some of the murders, with one of the videos leaking to the internet.

Denepropro, previously called Denepro-Petrovsk, is Ukraine's fourth largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in central eastern part of Ukraine, 243 miles southeast of the Ukrainian city capital of Kiev, on the Denepper River, after which it is named. So something that people tend to get wrong about this case, and I thought this many years ago when I first found out about it, Denefro is not this small rural city. in the middle of nowhere. It's actually a very, very big place.

I mean, you have to think about U.S. cities in general. Boston, Seattle, they don't even have one million residents there. Right. DeNepro is about the size of, let's just say, as far as inhabitants, about the size of San Jose or Dallas or Houston. I mean, those cities still have a few more people, but it's about the same.

Yeah, so when you think of this, don't think, oh, third world country, the middle of nowhere. So many people get this wrong about this place. I mean, I had this wrong about this place. It's a very populated city. And it's pretty. I've looked up pictures. It actually is very pretty. They have really interesting architecture there. Yeah. If you've ever seen clips from their videos or in the news and stuff like that, the video they use of record is very terrible. Remember this was back in 2007. Having a good camera was not the easiest thing to come by back then. It wasn't all on your phones. In fact, it's my understanding.

that this was recorded on a flip phone. So think about 2007, the very grainy, awful footage that you could record with your flip phone. I mean, I had a Nokia phone, so I couldn't do that. But I didn't even know that flip phones had cameras back then. So that makes sense why all the clips look like a potato. I think all these things put together. Plus, of course, where they were filming was in the middle of the woods. This contributed to the fact people thinking, oh, this was just the middle of nowhere.

And a lot of reports refer to places as a village. Yeah, yeah, that's true. They do call it a village. And I just don't understand this. This does not qualify as a village in any capacity. So the first two murders occurred late on June 25th of 2007. The first victim was a 33-year-old woman. And I'm not great with Russian or Eastern European pronunciation.

So I'm going to let Yergi say some of these so I don't butcher them. Yeah, Drewby helps me out with all of the Japanese pronunciation. So this victim, her name was Eccarina Ilchenko. Thank you. She was walking home after having tea at her friend's apartment. According to Sayanko's confession, he and Soprnyuk were out for a walk. Soprnyuk had a hammer. And as Ilchenko walked past, Soprnyuk spun around and hit her in the side of the head.

Ilchenko's body was found by her mother at 5 a.m. Within an hour of the first murder, the two men attacked their next victim, Roman Tatarovich. as he slept on a bench near the first murder scene. Tatarovich's head was smashed with blunt objects numerous times, rendering him unrecognizable. The bench was located across the street from the local public prosecutor's office. So just that right there shows you how brazen and uncaring these people were. On July 1st, two more victims, Yvgenia Grishenko and Nikolai Surchuk were found murdered in a nearby town.

On the night of July 6, three more people. were murdered in Deneppro. The first was Igor Netschvaloda, a recent discharged army recruit who was bludgeoned while taking a walk home from a nightclub. His mother found his body in the morning by their apartment building. Yelana Shram was a 28-year-old nightguard who was murdered around the corner. According to Sienko's taped confession, as Shrom walked towards them, Supranuk struck her with a hammer that he had been hiding underneath his shirt and hit her several more times as she fell down. She had been carrying a bag filled with clothes. The men picked up the bag, used the clothes to clean the hammer, and threw the bag out later.

Later, the same night, the men murdered a woman named Valentina Hansa, who was not related to their co-conspirator Alexander, a mother of three with a disabled husband. So you'll see a lot with this. They're killing folks with a hammer, which they're either hiding under their shirt, hiding in a bag, or somewhat disguising it. So you're walking past them, none the wiser, and then boom, they've got you. I can't stress enough. this is 100% in the purest of definition of spree killing. Absolutely. These are people that are picked at random, senseless for no reason, seemingly just for fun.

So the next day on July 7th, two 14-year-old boys from a nearby town were attacked as they went fishing. One of the two friends, Andre Sidyuk, was killed. But the other one, Vadim Liatkoff, Lekyov, managed to escape after hiding in the woods. Later on July 12th, 48-year-old Sergei Yatsenko, disabled by a recent bout with cancer, went missing while riding his motorcycle. His battered body was found four days later with signs of a savage attack visible even after four days in the summer heat. I believe this is the one, the famous one, they got on tape. Yes, it is. So several days later, on July 14th, 45-year-old Natalia Mamarchuk was riding her scoot.

in a nearby village. As she was passing through a wooded area, the two men approached her and knocked her down. They bludgeoned her to death with a hammer or pipe and drove off on her scooter. Local witnesses gave chase but lost sight of the attackers. So I want to talk about Sergei Yetzanko. This is obviously why this got worldwide attention. Now some people think that they had leaked this video on the internet and that's how they got caught, but this came out way after they got. caught. That's a very common myth when it comes to this case. The other thing about this is they didn't just beat him with the hammer and leave. They took their time. They were stabbing him in the stomach and the throat with a screwdriver. They were. I do believe there's some details about that later on, but yeah, it was pretty gruesome. Yes. It wasn't nice. So 12 more

murders followed, often with multiple bodies found on the same day. In addition to the earlier sprees, two victims were found each day from July 14th to July 16th. Victims were seemingly selected at random. Many were vulnerable to attack, including children, the elderly, vagrants, or people under the influence of alcohol. Most victims were killed using blunt objects, including hammers, steel construction bars, etc. A lot of it was this ballpin hammer. Blows were often directed at their faces, leaving them unrecognizable. Many victims were also mutilated and tortured. Some had their eyes gouged out.

while they were still alive. So absolutely horrible people. Yes. I mean, even worse to the fact, there was one pregnant woman that they killed. They literally, I'm not kidding, they literally cut her fetus out of her womb. They're disgusting. Yeah, this is unthinkable evil. Despite this, no sexual assaults on any victim were reported. Some victims were also robbed of their mobile phones and other valuables. Their possessions were pawned off to secondhand shops in the area. This is, I believe, them pawning. victim's phone was what led them to be caught later. It is definitely what them got caught. Yes. Most victims had their belongings left intact, however. It was mostly just the phones. The murders covered a surprisingly large geographical area. Aside from Denepro, many occurred in outlying areas of the Denepro, which is fairly big, bigger than you might think. Yeah, it seems a lot of them were in outlying suburbs as well. So that is quite possible. And actually, I think, where you see some of the camera footage and photos, they're in those outlying areas. Yeah, that would make sense. No official link between the murders was made until the July 7th attack of the two boys.

Vadim Leakoff, the survivor, was initially placed under arrest suspected of murdering his friends. This is so sad. It's absolutely terrible. So he was reportedly denied access to counsel. He was beaten by the police during his questioning. However, it quickly became clear that he was not responsible for his friend's death, given the fact that the murders that he was connected to kept developing. So while he's detained, murders are still happening out in the city. And that's the only reason I believe why they let him go and believe him, because up until now he was the only person that survived.

You witness your friend getting murdered. And now cops believe that you must be the one who did it as you're the only one that's there. And that's the only thing that appears to make sense to them. And then on top of that, completely professing your innocence, you're met with getting beaten by police. I can't imagine what that whole experience was like for that poor boy. It's just absolutely terrible. So despite all of this, he did cooperate with the investigators to create sketches of his attackers. Two local children who had also witnessed the attack, hidden in a tent just a few feet away, also provided a description cooperating the ones given by Leakov. The task force was quickly set up from Kiev, headed by elite criminal investigator Vasili Pascoloff. I think I said that correct.

You did. The manhunt soon grew to encompass most local law enforcement and reportedly over 2,000. Investigators worked on the case. They had all hands on deck for this. The investigation was initially kept secret. No official information about the murders was released and local people were not warned about possible attacks or provided with descriptions of the suspects. However, rumors of the attacks kept most of the local population home at night. Eventually, investigators selectively distributed sketches and lists of stolen property to the local pawn shops. And soon stolen property began to be identified in these pawn shops.

So needless to say, I mean, a lot of reports say, you know, what were the Ukrainian police doing? You know, why didn't they get these guys? They really did. In the amount of time this was going on, yes, this is spree killing. Yes, there were a lot of deaths. There was a ridiculous amount of deaths. But they really had their stuff together too. And I think did a good job. I mean, you have to think these are motiveless crimes happening in the mid to late aughts. You know, there's not a lot of security camera footage in these places. I mean, it really isn't here either. If that one boy. did not survive, I think this would have gone on a lot longer for sure. Oh, definitely. But they did employ a lot of manpower on this case. So I think they did all that they could. Having read this over, I really think they did basically the best they could. So, I mean, aside from beating the poor boy, I would be inclined to agree. I mean, I can't talk smack about this. I really, really can't because look what we do in the U.S. We, you know, kill random people. Yes. Our cops do. So our three suspects here, Victor, Igor, and Alexander. We're arrested on July 23rd of 2007 after they attempted to sell a mobile phone they had stolen from a victim to a local pawn shop, asking for 150 Hervinia.

So we did some calculation on this. That is the official currency of Ukraine. Some reports said that would have been $30 U.S. dollars at the time, but in current currency now, the current exchange rate, that's about $5.30.30 U.S. It's kind of crazy to think a currency could tank that much, but when I looked it up, that's what it was. Yes. So law enforcement agents track the phone's location once the shop's owner turned it on to check its functionality. Sienko and Sopranya were arrested near the cash register of the shop. Hansa was arrested at home, reportedly managing to flush other stolen mobile phones and jewelry down as toilet. That's a silly place to put that.

Just like throw them in a body of water. I'm not advocating for this for sure. Or a sewer drain or something. really silly to bring that home. To bring it home seems nonsensical. So these items were indeed recovered, but all information on the phones was lost due to it being in the water. So the three suspects had attended school together, and by age 14, found some common ground. So they didn't just one day decide to start killing people.

This had some buildup. So while being questioned, Sanco had said that, quote, me and Igor were both afraid of heights, and we were afraid we'd be beaten up by bullies. So Suprania sought advice on getting rid of them. their fears, which led the boys to stand on a balcony of their 14th floor apartment for hours, hanging over the railing. I... Sure?

I didn't do unsimilar things in high school. I'll just say that much. I don't understand the connection of being afraid of heights and getting beaten up by bullies, but okay. I'm assuming that if it was found out, they thought their fears would be exposed and they would be picked on and seen as weak. This isn't an uncommon thing. Growing up, people will, especially boys, will find the silliest things to pick on one another for.

So I can't exactly blame that thought process. However, hanging over the 14th floor railing reportedly had a positive effect on their fear of heights. Hansa was reportedly the more squeamish of the three. He had a blood phobia and even refused to bathe his kitten. I afraid that he might scald it. What? These three, I just... Now, this seems like a stretch to believe.

I don't understand blood phobia, scald and kitten. Put your hand in the water. I'm going to give my cat a bath. It could bleed from the bath. What? These, I... Whatever. Suprenic suggested tackling their fears by torturing stray dogs.

The boys captured the dogs in a wooded area near their house and hung them from trees, disemboweling them and then took pictures next to the corpses. Yep. There's a famous picture of the two of them. And I've been trying to clean up my language, so I won't say what I actually think. But these are monsters. They're disgusting. Animal abuse.

And from what I've been told, and I've never been there, and I had a friend from Belgrade grew up there. It's not uncommon to see stray dogs. I think that's the case in a lot of different places in the world. Yeah. So somebody once told me, I think he had just gotten back from Columbia. He's like, us not seeing stray dogs here in North America. This is the only place in the world you're not going to see them. And that was kind of hard for me to believe.

But. Yeah, I think we have kind of a handle in the stray dog thing. Stray cat, that's a different situation. We have them everywhere. I don't know if anyone has the stray cat thing handled. I don't think anyone's ever going to have the stray cat thing handled, honestly. But if anyone's wondering, well, where do these stray dogs come from? Stray dogs aren't a problem. They're shelters.

That's only an America thing, really, where we have such a good shelter system. There's other countries that have good shelter systems too. Yeah, but a lot of the worlds, there are stray street dogs. Yeah, packs of wild dogs that will hang around or dogs that will bake for food on the street. It does what it is. So they targeted these dogs, which absolutely heinous, you know, I think one of the worst crimes a person can commit is abuse against animals. Me too. And a lot of people really give us a lot of crap for that because we do have such an emotional reaction every time there's some sort of animal death or abuse or something.

of that nature, but it really is right up there. They're innocent creatures, and a lot of them are quite trusting. Sometimes, unfortunately, they're detriment. So when I see that trust gain taking advantage of, it's just, it wounds me. That and they're just more pure than we are. Yes, it is. They really are. So prosecution evidence included many of these photos taken by the suspects while underage.

Some of the photos show the boys drawing swastikas and other symbols with animal blood, giving a Nazi salute and in one photo, Sopraniate poses sporting a toothbrush mustache similar to Adolf Hitler's mustache. Sopreniak was born on April 20th the same day as Hitler and often referred to this fact. There was a long video showing the three torturing a white kitten and it was shown in court. It takes place in their garage. The suspects fashioned across from wooden boards and nailed the kitten to it and then shot it with pistols. before this they placed foam and glue in its mouth to muffle the kitten's noises. This is just...

I feel so bad because two of our cats are in here and I just can't imagine anyone doing anything like that. I know. One is by my feet, curled up and sleeping right now. Not a care in the world. She was kind of feral and we have won her trust over. I can't think of anybody doing that to her. where this little sooty boy that sits between us, Kighten, he is just so loving

and is just so interested in people. I can't imagine a person taking advantage of that. It's just so sickening to me. I know, surprise. Oh, these spree killers, they started by torturing animals. Yes, they started by torturing animals. That's, you know, sign number one,

really. So if your kids or you know somebody is doing stuff like this, get them help, because it probably is going to escalate into something eventually. You make them stop. I've heard people admit that they were mean to animals when they were younger and they grew older and they learned to regret it. Truly, sometimes just teaching kids that it's not okay to do these things. And sometimes kids who are fascinated with killing insects, they will then go and torture animals, you know? It's just intervened. Definitely not a boys will be

boys thing. It's just disgusting. No, no. Anyone's be like, oh, your boys will be boys hurt animals. No, no, absolutely not. Absolutely not. No. For people like, oh, you care about animals, you don't care about people. Yeah, listen to our past couple of episodes, how we went on and on about suicide prevention. Okay, just I don't want to hear this cherry-picking nonsense. It is okay to be disgusted by people torturing innocent animals. So with that in mind, we'll get off our soapbox. I could go on for a really long time. I know. So when the boys were 17, Sopraniuk beat up a local boy and stole his bike, which he then sold to Sienko.

Both were arrested, but did not do any jail time due to their age. After high school, Hansa drifted between odd jobs, which include a pastry chef and a construction worker. He should have stayed pastry chef. That's pretty cool. At his arrest, he had been unemployed for some time. Sienko went on to be a metallurgy institute part-timer and worked as a security guard.

Supraniuk remained officially unemployed but made a living driving his green DeWu Lanos as an unlicensed taxi. So basically he was... He was an Uber driver before there was Uber drivers. They even make daywus. At least not in the States. Yeah, I'm not sure. I haven't seen a day woo in a very long time. I don't think I've ever seen one.

I was quite young. Yeah, but this car was reportedly a gift from his parents. Some months before the murder spree, Sopranyuk, with the help of Sayanko and Hansa, began picking up passengers and robbing. A green day-woo with taxi cab checkerboard markings was often described as the vehicle used in the murders. According to the suspect's confessions, some murder victims were picked up as passengers in the cab. Hansa reportedly participated in one where two men were robbed and then declined to take part in any further attacks, which is why he got,

I believe, conspiracy and armed robbery. Yeah, he got a very sure. short sentence, which you'll hear about. Short sentence comparatively. Yeah. Local media reported the suspects had wealthy, influential parents with ties to local law enforcement. So Vladimir Soprnyuk, who is Igor's father, said in an interview that he had been employed at Yutzmach is a test pilot, often flying Leonid Kuchma, the future president of Ukraine, and continue to serve as his personal pilot on domestic flights after Kuchma's rise to power. Local authorities including deputy interior minister Nikolai Kampianski initially referred to the

supposed influence of the suspected families, but later denied the assessment, claiming that all three suspects came from poor families. However, Sienko was represented in court by his father, Igor Sienko, who is a lawyer. So it's hard to say that at least two of them didn't come from money or status, especially when daddy comes to your defense in the courtroom. The three men were charged with involvement in 29 separate incidents, including 21 murders and eight more attacks where victims survived. Supreniuk was charged with 27 of the cases, including 21 counts of capital murder, eight armed robberies, and one count of animal cruelty. One.

Just one. Sayenko was charged with 25 instances, including 18 murders, five robberies, and one count of animal cruelty. Hansa was charged with two counts of armed robbery stemming from a March 1st, 2007 incident. All three of them quickly. confessed, although Sopraniuk later withdrew his confession. Their trial began in June of 2008. Sopranyuk pleaded not guilty, while the other two suspects pleaded guilty to all charges. Victor Shavgas, who is Sopranyak's original defense lawyer, left the case after reportedly being disappointed that his client's plea of insanity was not accepted by the court.

Lawyers with the victim's families argued that the level of care taken by the killers during their crime spree meant that they were fully aware of their actions. Prosecution evidence included bloodstains on the suspect's clothing and video recordings of the murders. The defense denied the people in the videos were the suspects. They claimed there were serious problems with the investigation, including at least 10 more murders that were covered up by the prosecution, as well as supposed cover-ups of additional arrests of people with powerful connections who were released without being charged. Even naming some of the additional people supposedly involved with the murders and courts, The case was heard by a panel of judges chaired by Judge Ivan Sanchenko.

The prosecution asked for life imprisonment for Sayenko and Soprnyuk and 15 years of hard labor for Hansa. Ukraine has no capital punishment since February of 2000 after the Constitutional Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in December of 1999. Missed it by a few years. That's unfortunate. It's just crazy that they're just like, yeah, already these two come from money and status. And they're just like, yeah, this is a conspiracy higher up in the government. And they're being framed. There was people who were arrested and let go and there was 10 more murder.

Like, I just can't believe that. That is such a ridiculous defense, especially with no proof of such. The prosecution did not, however, establish a motive behind the killings, clearly because it was a spree killing. Local media reported the killers had a plan to get rich from the murder videos they recorded. One suspect's girlfriend reported that they planned to make four. separate videos of murders. This was corroborated by a former classmate who claimed he had often heard Soprana was with a, quote, unknown, rich foreign website operator who ordered 40 snuff videos and would pay

much more money once they were made. Maybe. I don't know. So regional security chief Ivan Stupak rejected the claim that the murders were committed to make internet snuff videos saying there was no evidence of this. I mean, I just think that they wanted to do the spree killing just because of the, you know, they wanted to kill first and foremost. The videos were just a souvenir and afterthought. It wasn't that they killed because they wanted money. That's my belief anyways. Right. So Detective Bogdan Valsenko

stated, we think that they were doing it as a hobby to have a collection of memories for when they got old. Deputy Interior Minister Nikolai Kupiyanski, I said that right, commented, commented, quote, for these young men, murder was like entertainment or hunting. At the trial, it emerged that Sopranya collected newspaper cuttings about the case. Some photographs of the crimes had captions added, including The Week Must Die and the Strongest Will Conquer. In an interview, Igor Sienko claims that a fourth suspect named Danela Kozlov was initially charged with the murders. Tatiana Shrem, sister of victim Elena Shrem, also stated in an interview that she saw Kozlov's name mentioned in court documents, and that Kozlov was reportedly aware of the murders and was with the suspects just before her sister was murdered.

murdered. Shrum further stated that the investigators told her that cause law remains free because he did not murder anyone and that when her attorney attempted to bring the matter up in court, the judge asked him to sit down. So I just think these, oh, my son and his friend were framed is just silly. Is there a possibility that there could be a fourth person that was just too powerful, had too powerful of connections? I don't know maybe, but. It's really hard to say. I don't believe, obviously that there were fake photos. No. There were fake videos.

All that is just crap. Yeah. However, could there be other people? Sure. The defense's entire strategy was to prove that the photos were photoshopped and that the video was

faked. In 2007, this would require an insane budget in a studio. But regardless, Igor Sienko continued to speculate on the influence of the families of the quote, real killers, claiming that he conducted an interview

with an escape victim who wanted his identity kept secret for fear of his life. This is an absolutely laughable and disrespectful, to say disrespectful defense. Like, I would have understood seeking the insanity plea for them more, which I still wouldn't have agreed that they would have qualified for

insanity, but geez, there was real killers that were being covered up by the government. I just, I cannot believe this. The, the unnamed victim claimed that he identified the suspects in his attack, and that two other men were identified and arrested. The suspects were supposedly released an hour later due to pressure from the families, and two of the investigators were fired. This is according to Sayenko. He stated in court that four days before the three suspects were arrested, police caught two men and a woman committing

one of the murders. The suspects attacked the police officers, but were arrested and were booked under the names of Sienko and Sopranauk, but they were not the men currently on trial. Local unrest continued over the possibility of a fourth killer at large, but the authorities in Ukraine strongly denied that a fourth person was involved and said that rumors of similar crimes taking place since the arrest of the three suspects were unfounded. The suspect's mobile phones and personal computers contained multiple video recordings of the murders. A video was leaked to the internet showing the murder of 48-year-old Sergei Yetzenko. He's the gentleman that we spoke about at the beginning of the podcast.

He is seen lying on his back in a wooded hand. area and is struck repeatedly in his face with a hammer held inside of a plastic bag. One attacker stabs Yantzenko in the eye and in the abdomen with a screwdriver. Yatzenko is then struck with a hammer to ensure that he is dead. The attack lasts over four minutes, during which the victims lapses in and out of consciousness. It's absolutely gross. It is horrific. It is horrifying. One murder is seen smiling towards the camera during the video.

That is true. The murderers walk back to their car, showing, that the crime took place close to the side of the road next to their parked car. They discussed the murder calmly, expressing mild surprise that the victim was still breathing after the screwdriver was plunged into his exposed brain. The suspects then washed their hands and the hammer with a water bottle and begin to laugh. Only two suspects appear to be present in the video, with one always behind the camera. I believe the two that you see, and it is grainy, but I believe the two you see are Sienko and Soprania.

Yeah, Hans is not there. So the suspects were also found in possession of multiple photographs showing them attending the funerals of the victims. They can be seen smiling and flipping off the coffins and gravestones. Evidence of animal abuse was shown in court with the suspects posing alongside mutilated animal corpses. That was a widely spread photograph. Yes. The photographic and video evidence was shown in court on October 29th of 2008, and it was a part of a larger presentation of over 300 photographs in two videos. The defense objected to the presentation, claiming that the evidence was obtained illegally,

and that the subject shown in the video and the photographs were, surprise, surprise, digitally altered to resemble the suspects. So when Siyanko and Sopranyuk were asked if they recognized the people in the photographs, they replied that they did not. So Judge Ivan Sanchenko responded by stating, You are not blind. An expert on film weighed in on this in the courtroom and testified that the video was not faked or altered. The court rejected all defense objections, accepted the prosecution's argument that the material was genuine,

and showed the suspects in the act of murdering their victims. So the man whose murder is recorded in the leaked video was identified as Sergei Yitzenko from a nearby town. His murder took place on July 12, 2007, and his body was found on July 16th. Yet Zanko was 48 years old. He had recently been forced into retirement due to a cancerous tumor in his throat. The treatment left him unable to speak for some time. but Yatzenko was unhappy with being unable to work and continued to find odd jobs around his town. He took on small construction work, repaired cars, wove baskets, and cooked for his family.

He was beginning to regain his voice at the time he was murdered. Yatzenko was married and had two sons and one grandchild. He also looked after his disabled mother. At around 2.30 p.m. on the day of the murder, he called his wife to say he was going to fill his motorcycle and visit his grandchild. He never arrived at his grandson's house. and his mobile phone was turned off by 6 p.m. His wife called a friend and walked around the village, afraid that her husband might have fallen ill or had a motorcycle accident.

They could not locate any sign of him. They also could not file a missing person's report since in Ukraine, a person can't be declared missing until at least 72 hours after last being seen. The next day, his wife posted photographs of her husband around the village and enlisted more local help to search the surrounding area. Four days later, a local who saw one of the post, remembered seeing an abandoned bike in a remote wooded area by a garbage dump. He took Yatsenko's relatives to the scene where they unfortunately discovered his mutilated

and decomposing body, which I believe was out there for four days. Yes. The fact that Yadzenko's murder was captured on video was unknown to the public until the court session on October 29th of 2008. The unedited video of the murder was shown as part of a large presentation by the prosecution causing shock in the gallery. The court agreed with the prosecution that the video was genuine, and it showed Sopranaek attacking the victim, and that Siyenko was the man behind the camera. Unfortunately, the video showing the murder of Serga Yitzenko was leaked to a shock site based in the United States on December 4th of 2008.

And this is the reason why it went worldwide and, unfortunately, went viral. On February 11, 2009, the court in Deneppro found Siyanko and Soprana guilty of premeditated murder and both received life sentences. Sopreniak was found guilty of 21 murders Siyanko of 18. They also received an additional 15 years for the armed robbery charges. Alexander Hansa, who was not involved in the killings, was found guilty of robbery and sentenced to nine years in prison. Sienko and Sopreniak were also found guilty of the animal cruelty charges. Hansa said of Sienko and Sopraniuk, and I quote, If I had known the atrocities that they were capable of committing, I would not have gone near them at gunpoint.

The judge stated in the verdict that the main motive for the crime, crimes have been a desire for, quote, morbid self-affirmation. Referring to the accused, the court noted the poverty of their emotional world and the absence of interest in people immoral standards, and I would agree with that. The parents of Sayenko and Sopraniuk repeated their beliefs in the innocence of their sons. Vladimir Sopraniak claimed that Igor had been tortured to extract his confession, with the police covering his head and forcing him to inhale cigarette smoke. Speaking at a televised press conference, he cited irregularities in the investigation. and said that the case against his son was false.

Sayenko claimed that his son was a scapego and that the crimes were committed by relatives of senior officials. The parents stated their intent to appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine and the European Court of Human Rights. On the 18th of August 2009, the Supreme Court of Ukraine referred the case back to the Deneppra Regional Court of Appeal. The move was welcomed by Igor Sayenko, who stated that it was a step towards clearing his son's name. Speaking at a press conference, Igor Seyenko and Vladimir, Sopraniuk repeated their belief that the case was based on fabricated evidence. A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office said that the decision to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal was procedural and that they were confident that the verdict would be upheld.

The appeal was scheduled for October 5th, 2009. In an interview with the newspaper, Novi Most, the mother of Sainko and Sopraniak said that their children were being treated well in prison. It was also reported that Igor Sianco was considering setting up a website about the case. However, we have not found it, so I guess he didn't do it. Yeah, I don't believe that he did it. And also, it should be noted that considering their fathers both had esteemed positions, you know, they probably had some skin in clearing their son's name as well, or less their reputation be ruined alongside. Absolutely. On November 24, 2009, the Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld the life sentences passed on Siyanko and Sopranauk in February of 2009.

So Hansa did not appeal his nine-year sentence, as, well, he shouldn't have because perhaps he might have gotten more. So in April 2019, it was reported that Alexandra Hansa was released from prison after serving nine years. And obviously, the other two are rotting in prison. Yes. And we'll stay there for the rest of their lives. And apparently, Hansa is now married and has two children, which leads me to believe they probably allow conjugals.

Maybe. Maybe. Or maybe he just recently had newborn twins. Yeah, it's hard to say. I'm not sure. Yeah. So this is... This case is gross.

Yeah. This is a case that gets thrown around a lot. There's still a lot of interest in it to this day. And my belief in the reason why there's still a lot of worldwide interests to this day, much like the Luca Rocco Magnata case, is the fact that there is a snuff video. Had that video not seen the light of day, I don't believe this would have been a very well-known case.

No, I don't believe so either. I mean, there are other spree killings that have happened in, I want to say, in Eastern Europe, Europe as well as Russia. And I believe there's one, don't quote me on this, over like 12 people in China that was a stabbing spree. There's a lot that are like this. I mean, like, think about some of the things we have in the States. We have school shootings. We've got just spree shootings. I know there were some that happened in Japan where people go crazy wielding a knife. A lot of these, obviously, yes, they are shocking. They are newsworthy. And they're tragic. And they're tragic.

but people don't hang on to it because there was not a video. Yeah, that's why I bring those cases up. Yeah. Because you might not knowing a lot about spree killing cases, you might think, well, there's just a lot of people killed. Of course, this is going to be worldwide news. Well, unfortunately, not really. I can't back this up with any reference right now, but I'd wager to bet that there is a spree killing case out there with more victims involved. Could it be as graphic and heinous as this?

Well, that's to be argued. But I think the video. is the reason why this case is so known and continues to be researched. I also think it's because this took place in a very short amount of time and there was such a high body count with it. Like, yes, if you have some sort of spree shooting, that's a little bit different. But it wasn't like, say, a school shooting, which is done in a matter of hours. Right. I mean, this was done over the course of a few weeks and it was all blunt force trauma.

It happened in a big city and like the outlying towns around the big city. But, you know, during that time, had they not, one, messed up with allowing one child to live and, two, ponding those cell phones off, it probably would have went a lot longer before they got caught. And I don't think they would have stopped until they got caught. No, I don't think they would have either. I think that they were basically high off of this and they would have kept going and doing bigger and bigger things until they were caught, as is the case with a lot of spree and even serial killers. I can't think of another spree killing that involves this many people and blunt force trauma. No, a lot of them are shootings. A lot of them are shootings and some are stabbing.

Yeah, I was going to say, you know, one that is, was very tragic and had worldwide attention was the Anders Breivik one that happened up in Norway on the islands. But again, that was a shooting. That was a shooting. And that was the tragic thing about the Anders Breivik one was because he targeted children. and I believe it was on an island. So no one, he would shoot them in the water. Yeah, it was, oh, that, that, he walked in there having planned that for a while, knowing exactly what was to happen. That's a very calculated act, a very calculated and long premeditated act.

This, while technically premeditated, they were just looking for people that they thought they could get. It was random. It was very random. So I would draw the difference between those two cases. The Anders Breivik 1 is definitely something we can cover in the future because I remember... I remember when it happened. I was like, oh, my goodness. We were working at the same place.

And I had found out because the reason... Well, it got national attention for a lot of reasons. Overseas shootings don't always make it over here. There has to be some sort of quirk to go along with it. So, for example, the Christchurch shooting... Yes. The reason why that came over here was, one, there was racial motivation. Video.

And the live stream, as well as there was memes in it, like him telling people to subscribe to PewDie Pye on YouTube. The Anders Breivik thing, I think it still would have made it over here despite this, but there was this on 4chansby. There is the, and this is disgusting, don't think I'm making light of this, but there was these constant challenges for people to beat the high score. The high score being the most people killed in a school shooting, which at the time was held by Chosung Hui who did the Virginia Tech shooting.

So whether Anders Breivik was inspired by this, I don't believe he was, but that was something thrown around on B constantly. And when this happened, B exploded. So I think that had something to do with it too. We also lived in a time where, again, we've done two episodes on this with how the internet exploits these things. I think that that was probably one of the most exploited times without repercussion, meaning you could be just an edge lord without any sort of moral or social repercussion about it. Nowadays, you would have to do it more in secret, I think.

I think so too. And you have to think about the time in which we grew up and were teenagers and younger adults. We grew up where there were a lot of school shootings. At least I did. I mean, I remember I was young when Columbine happened. I was like, what? Yeah, I was a freshman. But just my freshman year into my sophomore year, there were multiple school shootings, many, many copycats.

There were. Some that, you know, obviously didn't get the same type of notoriety as Columbine, but it was a thing, you know, going to high school in the, early 90s into the like early 2000s. I theorized that a lot of kids growing up were desensitized to it. I think we are because this happened so much here. I remember Columbine. I was young. Oklahoma City bombing.

I was young. And I remember those two times. I just didn't really understand what was going on. I mean, I understood that like people died. But I didn't understand the weight behind it all. I didn't understand what goes into that, what leads up to that. And I think once you get to an age where you do.

start to grasp that and you try to understand why do school shootings happen more. I think the damage has been done in your formative years from just becoming so dead into hearing and seeing this all the time. I think there's a uniquely American thing to going into a group and starting to wonder where your exit is if people start shooting. For sure. For sure. I hear that talked about a lot.

Unfortunately, that's the case. I've had several military types tell me, you know, whenever you're in a building, always identify your exit points, multiple ones. This happens here a lot, but I mean, this is a completely different topic. I mean, obviously the case we're covering, they did not use guns, but... I guess it's just kind of tying into the fact where, yes, we have things here. Our crimes are generally shooting sprees, whereas this was, like, different methods were used. So I think that's why particularly in the West, people kind of,

hung on to this and it became a bit more viral. Yeah, I think this also supports the fact why I think that had the video not been made, this not would have made it over here, because we're already dead into school shootings. So what would somebody killing with a hammer do? Would that surprise most people who are dead into school shootings? Well, maybe because the effort it would take, but I still think the video is what does it. And if you think about any murder case involving a snuff film, it's hard to think of one that just didn't go viral or fall by the wayside or is just relatively unknown.

No, they all end up. I don't want to say popular. That's not a great word for it, but popular is the word for it. They become notorious. Notorious. I think that's probably the best word. I think that's really all we have. I know in the last few episodes, we felt those two serious a moment to promote ourselves.

So I'm happy to finally say thank you to our patrons who have been supporting us all this time. Yes, so thank you Eddie. Thank you, Rowan. Thank you, Marky, thank you Holly, and Voo, Anna and Serena, Chloe, Mark, and welcome Tara. We love you so much. Yes, we love you very much. Thank you for becoming a part of our community, join our Discord. And if you'd like to do the same, Patreon.com slash the Misery Machine, you can also go to our Facebook, join our group there. We also have a Discord that's fairly active. And if you become one of our 666 and up patrons, you get out. access to our secret chat group that's only for our patrons, but our other tiers are very active as well. You can just join. You don't even have to be a patron. Yeah, and you can hit us up on Snapchat. We can get you that info as well. From there, we do have a secret Misery Machine Snap Group, which is extremely active and oftentimes hilarious. Yes. So definitely, if you want part of that, we can, we can hook you up with our information regarding Snapchat. We also still have some stickers. Yes, we still have some stickers left.

They're a dollar. You can PayPal us, PayPal.com slash the misery machine. And yeah. We'll send them anywhere in the world. Yeah, I have a whole bunch of international stamps, so that's not even a problem. Yeah, if you don't think we can, try us. We will. We've done it.

Also, if you've gotten this far, thank you so much. Please make sure you hit the like and subscribe button. We are over 1,200 now. Thank you so much to everyone that has stuck with us along the way and gotten us this far. We're going to hit 2000 shortly, I believe. I believe so too. And, you know, don't forget Apple reviews. Definitely give us a written review and a five-star rating. We haven't read them in a little while, but we got one the other day that I thought was really special that I wanted to read. And it comes from this really sweet lady. So it's titled, hey, new listener here. I found you

guys on Twitter and have been binge listening like crazy. I really love your style and how authentic you too seem to be and I appreciate the research and time you guys put into each episode. I vived with you all instantly and I'm pretty sure Yergy is my spirit animal. I can't wait till my sticker comes so I can rep my new favorite podcast. And this is from Steph Marie. She is wonderful. And we love you so much. Yes.

Thank you so much. I feel so happy that you would rock our sticker like that for us and that you'd leave us such a sweet review. so thank you so much for that. Thank you so much. The stickers are great. Like I have the one on my car. These are high quality stickers. Okay, these are high quality stickers.

And we are selling them at a loss. I don't care. I don't care. I just want to get these out. Because they're just really cool. They really are. Okay. But get that out of the way.

We love you. We love you. Okay. All right. Until next week. Until next week. Bye. Bye.