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[[Image:Sayenko and Suprunyuck with Dead Cat.jpg|thumb|left|Sayenko and Suprunyuck with a dead cat]] |
[[Image:Sayenko and Suprunyuck with Dead Cat.jpg|thumb|left|Sayenko and Suprunyuck with a dead cat]] |
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The suspects' cell phones and personal computers contained multiple video recordings of murders taking place. At least one full video |
The suspects' cell phones and personal computers contained multiple video recordings of murders taking place. At least one full video was leaked to the internet, showing an unidentified male victim laying prostrate in a wooded area. He is repeatedly struck in the face with a hammer held inside a plastic bag. The murderers then poke out the victim's eyes with a screwdriver, and stab him with the screwdriver elsewhere. The victim is then repeatedly struck with the hammer to ensure he's dead. The murderers walk back to their car, showing that the crime took place just a few feet away from the side of the road, right next to their parked car. They calmly discuss the murder, expressing mild amazement that the victim was still breathing after a screwdriver was plunged into his exposed brain. The suspects then wash their hands and the hammer in a puddle and with a water bottle, and begin to laugh. Only two suspects appear to be present in the video, one always behind the camera. |
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The suspects were also found in possession of multiple photographs showing them attending victim's funerals and smiling and "flipping off" the coffins and gravestones. Evidence of animal abuse was also shown, with suspects posing with mutilated animal corpses. |
The suspects were also found in possession of multiple photographs showing them attending victim's funerals and smiling and "flipping off" the coffins and gravestones. Evidence of animal abuse was also shown, with suspects posing with mutilated animal corpses. |
Revision as of 00:15, 30 December 2008
Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs | |
---|---|
File:Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs in Court.jpg | |
Born | Viktor Sayenko Alexander Hanzha Igor Suprunyuck |
Details | |
Victims | 21 |
Span of crimes | June 2007 – July 2007 |
Country | Ukraine |
Date apprehended | July 23, 2007 |
The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs is the media epithet for the killers responsible for a string of brutal murders in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine in June and July of 2007. The case gained additional notoriety due to the fact that the killers videotaped many of the murders, with some of the videos leaked to the internet. Three 19-year-old locals, Viktor Sayenko (Виктор Саенко), Alexander Hanzha (Александр Ганжа) and Igor Suprunyuck (Игорь Супрунюк), were arrested and charged with 21 murders.[1] As of December 2008, the youths were on trial, with the investigation ongoing.
Murders
The first two murders took place late at night on June 25, 2007. The first victim was a 33-year-old local woman named Katya Ilyichenko,[2] who was walking home after having tea at her female friend's nearby apartment. According to Sayenko's confession, he and Suprunyuck were "out for a walk" with a hammer. As Ilyichenko walked past them, Suprunyuck "spun around" and struck her in the side of the head. Ilyichenko's body was found by her mother at 5 am.[3]
The next victim was Roman Tatarevich, a local man who was sleeping on a bench a short walk away from the first murder scene. His head was smashed with blunt objects multiple times, rendering him unrecognizable. The bench he was discovered on was located across the street from the local Public Procurator office.[3]
19 more murders followed, often with multiple bodies found in the same day. Two were found on July 1st, three on July 7th, and two each on the 14th, 15th and 16th. Victims were seemingly selected at random. Many victims were vulnerable to attack, including women, children, the elderly, vagrants, or people under the influence of alcohol.
Most of the victims were killed by blunt objects, including hammers and steel construction bars. Most blows were directed at the victim's faces, leaving them unrecognizable. Many victims were also mutilated and tortured; many had their eyes poked out while they were still alive. One of the victims was a pregnant woman; her fetus was cut out of her womb. No sexual assaults on any victims were reported.
Some of the victims were also robbed of their cell phones and other valuables, their possessions pawned to a large network of second-hand shops in the area.
Investigation
The manhunt quickly grew to encompass most of the local law enforcement. Reportedly over 2,000 investigators were working on the case,[4] and thousands of suspects were identified and interviewed during the final weeks of the investigation. Most of the breaks came from the suspects selling the victims' possessions, with major clues also coming from several victims who managed to escape.
Sometime during the murder spree (the exact date is not clear), a local man was attacked but managed to escape. He provided investigators with a description of the attackers and their vehicle.
Several days later, two 14-year-old boys from Podgornoye, a local village, were attacked as they went fishing. One of the two friends, Andrei Sidyuck, was killed, but a second boy named Vadik Lyakhov managed to escape. He was placed under arrest, suspected of murdering his friend. He was reportedly denied access to counsel and beaten by police during questioning. However, it quickly became clear that he was not responsible for his friend's death, and that the murder was connected with the Dnepropetrovsk murder spree. Vadik сooperated with the investigators to create sketches of the attackers.[5]
Arrest and trial
The three suspects were finally arrested on July 23, 2007. They were charged with multiple serious crimes. Suprunyuck was charged with 21 counts of capital murder, 8 armed robberis, and 1 count of animal cruelty. Sayenko was charged with 18 murders, 5 robberies and 1 count of animal cruelty; and Hanzha was charged with a single count of attempted murder and one armed robbery.[6]
All three quickly confessed; however, Suprunyuck recanted his confession. Their trial began in June of 2008. Suprunyuck plead not guilty. The other two suspects plead guilty to all charges.[7]
Prosecution evidence included blood stains on suspects' clothing and video recordings of the murders; however the defense denied that the people in the videos were the suspects, and claimed serious problems with the investigation, including at least 10 more murders covered up by prosecution,[8] supposed cover-up 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.[9] The trial is expected to last well into 2009, the last session taking place in September of 2008, and the next not expected until March of 2009.
Defense claims
The legal team defending the suspects consists of three lawyers, one assigned to each suspect. All three lawyers were originally court-appointed, however after the initial hearings Viktor Sayenko requested to be represented by his father instead of his previous lawyer who had apparently just graduated from law school 2 months prior. The request was granted, which led to a significant delay in the proceedings as older Sayenko familiarized himself with multiple volumes of evidence. Since then, Igor Sayenko became the most prominent figure on the defense side, giving numerous interviews and taking a leading role in the court proceedings.
The defense strategy is to attack the prosecution on a wide front. Multiple investigators have been called to the stand, including the leader of the arrest team and the lead investigator in the case. The defense is claiming illegal searches, improperly kept records, and problems during questioning. Sayenko Sr raised questions about the videotape of the searches conducted in the suspects' apartments. According to Sayenko, the tape constantly stops and restarts, and only shows the evidence after being picked up by investigators, but never the actual moment of discovery.[9] The legal team also denies that the people shown in the murder videos are the suspects, claiming they are instantly recognized as different individuals.
Sayneko Sr also continues to speculate on the influence of the families of the 'real killers', claiming that he conducted interviews with a supposed escaped victim who wants his identity kept secret out of fear for his life. This unnamed victim claims that he identified the suspects in his attack, and two of other men were identified and arrested. However the suspects were released hour later due to pressure from their families, and two of the investigators were fired.[10] Sayenko Sr also stated in court that four days before the three suspects were arrested, police caught two men and a woman in the act of committing one of the murders. The suspects attacked the police officers but were arrested and were booked under the names of Sayenko and Suprunyuck; however they were not the men currently on trial. "But now these details are being covered up," Sayenko said in court. "The investigators claim that this did not happen. But there are people, officers in the Militsiya, who on July 19 2007 have received reports that those three were arrested. [...]But, alas, it turned out that the persons arrested had powerful parents. So the information was quickly suppressed, and instead my son and two of his friends were railroaded. I also believe that the girl arrested on that day has since left the country and is now in Germany."[9]
The legal team also claims that the prosecution is withholding information from the court that exonerates their clients. Sayenko Sr claims that the police interviewed witnesses and recovered evidence from two additional murders. However the suspects have a strong alibi for the time of the murders, and so all information on these crimes was removed from the case.[11]
In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, a major Russian-language newspaper, Sayenko Sr also claimed that a fourth suspect named Kozlov (first name unknown) was also initially charged with the murders. According to Sayenko, Kozlov was a classmate of his son as well as a friend to the men Sayenko claims were the actual murderers. Supposedly, Kozlov's familiarity with the men currently on trial was the reason the real killers gave their names in the supposed July 19th arrest. Kozlov is also claimed to have influential parents, which is why Sayenko says he was released and not put on trial.[9]
The legal defense strategy found some resonance with the victims' families, who are reportedly unsatisfied with the slow-moving process as well as alleged cover-up by the investigators. Some of the victims' relatives stated to the news media that they are planning to set up an independent organization to monitor the court proceedings.[12]
Murder videos
The suspects' cell phones and personal computers contained multiple video recordings of murders taking place. At least one full video was leaked to the internet, showing an unidentified male victim laying prostrate in a wooded area. He is repeatedly struck in the face with a hammer held inside a plastic bag. The murderers then poke out the victim's eyes with a screwdriver, and stab him with the screwdriver elsewhere. The victim is then repeatedly struck with the hammer to ensure he's dead. The murderers walk back to their car, showing that the crime took place just a few feet away from the side of the road, right next to their parked car. They calmly discuss the murder, expressing mild amazement that the victim was still breathing after a screwdriver was plunged into his exposed brain. The suspects then wash their hands and the hammer in a puddle and with a water bottle, and begin to laugh. Only two suspects appear to be present in the video, one always behind the camera.
The suspects were also found in possession of multiple photographs showing them attending victim's funerals and smiling and "flipping off" the coffins and gravestones. Evidence of animal abuse was also shown, with suspects posing with mutilated animal corpses.
Suspects
The three suspects were life-long friends who attended school together.
According to the interviews with the suspects' families, Sayenko and Hanzha were friends from an early age. Suprunyuck moved to the area later, and the three became friends in the third grade. The two other boys had been good students before making friends with Suprunyuck, when their grades began to slip. One of their teachers reported that Suprunyuck was shy and withdrawn, but always picking fights and getting into trouble.
By the fifth grade, the boys had their first brush with the law when they were caught throwing rocks at passing trains. By the seventh grade Suprunyuck reportedly started killing stray cats. When the boys were 17, Suprunyuck beat up a local boy and stole his bike, which he then sold to Sayenko. Both were arrested, but did not go to jail due to their age.[13]
At the time of arrest, two of the suspects were unemployed, and the third was working as a security guard.[14]
Local media also reported that the suspects had wealthy influential parents with ties to local law enforcement. Suprunyuck's father was reported to be a well-known lawyer, and Hanzha's father was described as a local prosecutor. Local authorities, including deputy interior minister Nikolay Kupyanskiy, initially supported the claim,[14] but later began to deny the assessment, claiming that all three suspects came from poor families; however, Sayenko is represented in court by his father Igor Sayenko, a lawyer.[9]
Motive
Prosecution did not establish specific motive behind the killings. However, local media widely reported that the killers had some sort of a plan to get rich off of the murder videos they recorded. One of the suspects' girlfriends reported that they were planning to make 40 videos of 40 separate murders. This is corroborated by the suspects' classmate, who has often heard that Suprunyuck was in contact with an unknown "rich foreign website operator" who ordered 40 snuff videos, and would pay a large sum of money once all 40 videos were made.[15]
References
- ^ "Three 19-year-old youths committed 19 murders in Dnipropetrovsk during a month". UNIAN.
- ^ "Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuck Murder 19 in a Month". Gazeta (in Russian).
- ^ a b Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs: Details and victims' names. (Russian)
- ^ Teenagers had Fun Murdering 19
- ^ Survived Victim Afraid the Murderers will not Go to Jail (Russian)
- ^ "They don't even Deserve Life" (Russian)
- ^ Dnepropetrovsk maniacs plead guilty (Russian)
- ^ Maniacs' Case Takes Longer (Russian)
- ^ a b c d e Suspect's Father is his Lawyer (Russian)
- ^ Justice on Credit: The Case of Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs (Russian)
- ^ Igor Sayenko: I'm 100% Convinced that my Son did not Murder Anyone!
- ^ Sayenko from Dnepropetrovsk innocent? (Russian)
- ^ The Guys First Practiced on Cats (Russian)
- ^ a b Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs Captured! (Russian)
- ^ Lowlifes Planned 40 Murders (Russian)