Early life[]
Roman Emelyantsev was born on 9 January 1981 in Shakhty, Rostov Oblast. His mother, Liliya, lost five children during childbirth, including Roman's twin brother, prior to his birth.[1] Despite the fact that he was a long-awaited child in the family, the series of deaths of his older siblings caused a strong mental impact on Emelyantsev's parents. This most heavily impacted his father, Vyacheslav, who started heavily drinking and physically abusing his wife and son.[1]
In 1990, Emelyantsev was playing a game on the street when he received a head injury, after which he began to experience mental problems. Shortly afterwards, he stopped socializing with other children and instead spent most of his free time in local cemeteries.[1] At one point in 1991, his mother caught him torturing and killing animals, after which she scheduled an appointment with psychiatrist Alexandr Bukhanovsky - at the time, Bukhanovsky was considered the biggest specialist on serial killers in Russia, as he made a psychological portrait of Andrei Chikatilo. During his time there, whenever Bukhanovsky discussed the case in the media, he referred to Emelyantsev by the pseudonym "Igor Elizarov".[1]
Bukhanovsky's diagnosis, treatment, and relapse[]
During his appointments with Dr. Bukhanovsky, Emelyantsev told him that he committed murders because he liked killing and that the sight of dead bodies excited him. Specialists from the Phoenix Treatment and Rehabilitation Research Center observed Emelyantsev for the next several years, during which Bukhanovsky concluded that the young boy suffered from a mental deficiency. According to the psychiatrist and parapsychologist Irina Baranova, after learning of his diagnosis, Emelyantsev began to study specialized literature, as he was supposedly fearful that sooner or later he would start committing murders against people.[1]
Initially, the treatment was not successful, as the teenager started digging up women's graves and looked at their naked corpses, which later escalated into attempting to fake a railroad accident and attempted to start fires.[2] As it progressed, however, Emelyantsev started showing signs of improvement, as he did well in school, improved his communication skills, made friends and even started dating a girl.[1] In the late 1990s, Emelyantsev successfully graduated from high school and left for Rostov-on-Don, where he enrolled at the Rostov State University to study economics.[3]
After some time, Emelyantsev refused to continue treatment, and his mental state started to deteriorate rapidly. He lost interest in studying and was eventually expelled in the early 2000s due to poor grades and chronic abseenteeism, after which he returned to Shakhty to live with his mother. Since he struggled with finding employment, he was dependant on relatives for survival.[3] During this period, Emelyantsev's old urges returned, due to which he attempted to get a job at the local morgue - however, according to him, the morgue administration demanded a bribe of $3,000 to be employed there, which he was unable to afford. As a result, Emelyantsev decided to carry out his fantasies by killing animals and digging up graves to have sex with the corpses.[2]
Murders[]
On 14 February 2002, Emelyantsev met 7-year-old Mikhail Raschepkin, whom he lured to an abandoned factory under the pretext of collecting scrap metal. He then beat, raped and stabbed the boy multiple times. After killing Raschepkin, he proceeded to mutilate his body and sever his genitals. In order to cover up traces of the crime, Emelyantsev attempted to set the body on fire, but was unable to do so.[4]
Shortly after the murder, Raschepkin's father, Alexander, was detained for questioning in his son's murder. He was later charged with the boy's murder, after Mikhail's older brother was instructed by his mother to claim that Alexander had beaten the boy to death. Since Alexander was often physically abusive, the older brother went along with it.[4] Despite initially claiming that he was innocent, after spending two weeks binge drinking, Alexander sporadically confessed to killing his son, claiming that he had cut off the boy's genitals to simulate an attack from a pedophile. Later at trial, he retracted his confessions and stated that he was at home with friends on the day of the murder, but since almost all of them had been drunk, the court decided that his alibi was not credible enough. As a result, Alexander Raschepkin was convicted of killing Mikhail and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.[4]
Approximately a year after the murder of Mikhail Raschepkin, Emelyantsev was hanging around at a cemetery when he came across a drunk homeless woman. He spontaneously decided to attack her, strangling her to death in the process.[3] On the evening of 7 May 2003, Emelyantsev lured a 6-year-old neighbor by the name of "Alexander" to the nearby woods, with the pair being seen by multiple witnesses who contacted both the boy's parents, as well as Emelyantsev's. Emelyantsev himself later claimed that the boy's parents almost caught up to him, but the moment he realized that he had managed to evade them, he strangled little Alexander to death. He then undressed him, had sex with the body and bit him in the abdomen and groin. He stated that while strangling the child, he could hear the desperate mother screaming for help.[3]
Arrest[]
On the following morning, Emelyantsev was arrested, after which he almost immediately confessed to murdering the homeless woman. He actively cooperated with investigators and reenacted how he carried out the crimes. At the end of 2003, at the request of his lawyers, Emelyantsev was transferred to the Serbsky Center to undergo a forensic psychiatric examination. By the end, he was diagnosed with an organic personality disorder and multiple other behavioral abnormalities, including necrophilia. At this time, he also confessed to killing Mikhail Raschepkin, but was not charged with the murder because the boy's father was still imprisoned for it.[5]
Emelyantsev's crimes caused a public outcry across the country after it was revealed that he had been the care of Alexandr Bukhanovsky for many years, leading to his methods being harshly criticized. The psychiatrist later explained that this was the result of shortcomings in his methods, and that he was currently unsure how he would reevaluate them for future cases.[3]
Investigation, trial, and detention[]
On 25 May 2004, Emelyantsev was convicted of killing the homeless woman and his neighbor, for which he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Three years later, he was indicted for killing Mikhail Raschepkin, leading to the release of the boy's father.[4] On 2 October 2008, he was convicted of the murder by the Rostov Regional Court and sentenced to 17 years imprisonment, which was incorporated into his existing sentence.[5]
Subsequently, Emelyantsev was incarcerated at a penal colony in Novocherkassk, where his mental state continued to deteriorate. Due to his uncontrollable outbursts and homicidal mania, he required weekly assistance from the prison psychiatrist. At some point, he was visited by journalists for an interview, in which he threatened to "make Chikatilo look like a child" if he ever got out, claiming that he cannot be cured.[5]
Release and life after prison[]
Despite his violent outbursts, Emelyantsev was eventually released on 8 May 2020 after serving out the entirety of his sentence. He then returned to Shakhty and moved into a house on Shchadenko Street, where he lived isolated from others, as he feared reprisal from local residents. He was required to periodically visit a local psychiatric hospital for treatment, and while he initially struggled with employment, he eventually found a job at a local car wash. At some point, he became addicted to drugs.[6]
On 4 May 2021, Emelyantsev was detained by law enforcement officers and taken to a local police station, where they searched him. During said search, the officers found a Samsung cell phone with a gold-colored case, a bank card and a polymer bag with a powdery drug weighing at least 9.10 grams.[6] Emelyantsev fully admitted responsibility and repented for his actions, but was nonetheless convicted of drug possession and sentenced to 3 years and 9 months imprisonment by the Shakhty City Court.[6]
According to the Russian website Mediazona, Emelyantsev supposedly signed a contract with a PMC and was sent off to fight in the Russo-Ukrainian War, where he supposedly died in combat in February 2023 in the Luhansk Oblast. However, this is currently unverified.[7]
Victims[]
| Name | Age | Body Found | Cause of Death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mikhail Raschepkin | 7 | 14 February 2002 | Stabbing |
| Unnamed woman | February 2003 | Strangulation | |
| "Alexander" | 6 | 7 May 2003 | Strangulation |
Timeline[]
Bibliography[]
Literature[]
Articles[]
Documentaries[]
Television[]
- The case was covered on the 2005 episode "Birth of a Maniac" (Russian: Рождение маньяка) from the series "Profession-Reporter" (Russian: Профессия-репортер)
- It was covered a second time in the documentary film "Stop Chikatilo" (Russian: Остановить Чикатило), released in 2013.
YouTube Documentaries[]
Podcasts[]
In popular culture[]
Film adaptation[]
Related Articles[]
See also[]
Links[]
Notes[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Igor Kiyan (9 March 2015). There's a maniac waiting for us at the gateway (Russian). Versia.ru. Archived from the original on March 31, 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Svetlana Khlyustun (23 October 2016). A veteran of criminal investigation about Chikatilo, Mukhankin, Burtsev and many others (Russian). MK.ru. Archived from the original on March 31, 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 A sadist from childhood (Russian). Phoenix Treatment and Rehabilitation Research Center (6 May 2004). Archived from the original on March 31, 2025.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Irina Poterya (26 June 2009). A resident of Shakhty served five years for the murder of his son, which he did not commit (Russian). Komsomolskaya Pravda. Archived from the original on March 31, 2025.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Stop Chikatilo
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Russia v. Emelyantsev (2021)
- ↑ List of those killed in the war with Ukraine (Russian). Mediazona. Archived from the original on March 31, 2025.