Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
A series of brutal murders of 15 homeless people, which took place in Moscow between July 2014 and February 2015, shocked the whole of Russia. The victims were simply slaughtered like animals in remote locations away from CCTV cameras, suffering numerous stab wounds and blows from a hammer. The bodies that were found had also been horribly mutilated. For instance, a body found not far from Belorussky Station had 44 stab wounds, whilst another victim, found dead at the Moscow Hippodrome, had suffered 51 stab wounds and 18 hammer blows. The murders were so brutal that parts of one victim’s brain were found 5 metres away from the body. Who was behind this horrific series of murders, which must have been committed by several perpetrators? To answer this question, mobile phones were tracked in the areas where the murders had taken place. This enabled several of the same phone numbers to be pinged from nearby mobile phone masts. As a result, the owners of the mobile numbers could be identified. This is how the Russian police got on the perpetrators’ trail. Furthermore, there was another witness. During an attack on 15 February 2015 by two men on a caretaker in Vykhino – who put up such a fierce defence that the attackers were forced to flee – the caretaker was able to provide a detailed description of the perpetrators. It transpired that they were a gang of five young people, led by the far-right extremist Pavel Voitov. Other accomplices were Vladislav Karataev, Artur Narcissov, Maxim Pavlov and Elena Lobacheva. The latter was considered particularly creepy, as she had even had a tattoo of the doll from the horror classic Bride of Chucky on her arm. This had apparently inspired Elena’s murder fantasies. The public was shocked that a young woman had been involved in the murders of homeless people and alcoholics. During a search of Elena’s flat, the police found photographs of the mutilated victims with their stomachs slit open and limbs severed, as well as detailed descriptions of the murders. Elena herself stated that the killings had given her sexual pleasure. Alongside Chucky, a doll possessed by a mass murderer, Elena’s role model was the serial killer Alexander Pichushkin, better known as the Chessboard Killer. He was arrested in 2006 before he had completed his plan to murder one person for each of the 64 squares on a chessboard. By that point, he had murdered only 48 people. The group of five had met via social media. Their exchange of fantasies quickly turned into reality. The group saw themselves as ‘cleaners’ who, according to their leader Pavel Voitov, regarded homeless people as biological waste. For these reasons, the group was referred to in the media as ‘The Cleaners’. Elena, who had grown up on the outskirts of Moscow, had initially worked as a courier and then as an accountant. Although she had been given a suspended sentence for theft, Elena was otherwise a rather unremarkable figure. But after finding like-minded people on social media, she was finally able to act on her desire to kill. Stabbing homeless people was like a gigantic orgasm. Following the gang’s arrest, they confessed to the murders during their very first interrogation, without the authorities having even voiced any suspicion. On 21 June 2017, the jury found all five defendants guilty and unworthy of any mitigating circumstances. On 23 October 2017, the Moscow City Court sentenced Pavel Voitov to life imprisonment, Elena Lobacheva to 13 years’ imprisonment and Maxim Pavlov to 9 years and 6 months’ imprisonment in a penal colony. Vladislav Karataev was sentenced to 16 years and Artur Narcissov to 9 years and 6 months’ imprisonment, to be served in a correctional facility. This brought an end to the brutal series of murders targeting Moscow’s homeless people.
