Biography[]
Early life[]
Little is known about Kuzmenko's background, besides the fact that he was born in 1969 somewhere within the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast. For reasons unknown, Kuzmenko never acquired a proper passport, due to which he was homeless and frequently traveled.[1]
Murders and flight[]
His first known murder occurred in March 1990 in the village of Zelenchukskaya. After breaking the window of a random home and climbing inside, Kuzmenko proceeded to beat and rape the resident, 87-year-old Anna Tomashenko.[2] While he left after completing the rape, Tomashenko suffered complications from the attack and later succumbed to her injuries.[1]
In May 1991, Kuzmenko was out drinking alcohol with an unknown number of friends in the village of Kievo-Zhuraki. After the men ran out of booze, they climbed onto the roof of a house and broke through it, coming across 80-year-old Darya Kanychinova.[2] Kuzmenko demanded that she give them more alcohol, but before she could do that, the men began viciously beating and raping her, breaking several of Kanychinova's ribs in the process.[2] In order to finish her off, Kuzmenko stabbed her several times with an unidentified sharp object, killing her on the spot.[1] He and his accomplices then left empty-handed, as the woman had no valuables of note in the house.[2]
In November 1992, Kuzmenko and several unidentified accomplices broke into a home in Ust-Dzheguta, where they encountered 60-year-old Sofia Alentyeva. Similarly to the previous victim, the men viciously beat and gang-raped her before Kuzmenko himself strangled her to death.[1] After killing Alentyeva, they stole a TV set and promptly left the crime scene.[2]
Kuzmenko is not known to have committed any other crimes until sometime in 1994, when - possibly fearing arrest from law enforcement - he fled to Chechnya and got a fake passport with the identity of "Ruslan Burlutsky".[2] For the next 12 years, he traveled around various areas in the Caucasus region to avoid further scrutiny by law enforcement, who by then had identified him as a possible suspect in the murders, but were unable to pinpoint his location due to Kuzmenko's nomadic lifestyle.[3]
Arrest, charges and release[]
In February 2007, Kuzmenko was arrested and charged with hooliganism after getting into a fight, with the authorities still unaware of his true identity at first. When they ran his fingerprints through the national database, local law enforcement found that it was a near-perfect match to the 1990s crime scenes, leading to Kuzmenko being charged with the murders and fraud.[2]
In January 2008, Kuzmenko was found guilty on all counts and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, but due to the fact that the statute of limitations for the 1990s crimes had expired and his time in detention was counted as time served, he was released immediately after leaving the courtroom.[1] Despite the lenient treatment he was given, neither the prosecutor nor the victims' family members appealed the verdict, as they claimed that they wanted to move on and had accepted Kuzmenko's apologies for his past crimes.[3]
It is unclear what happened to Kuzmenko after his release, and his current whereabouts are unknown. The accomplices in the murders of Kanychinova and Alentyeva were seemingly never identified and presumably remain on the run.[2]
Victims[]
| Name | Age | Body Found | Cause of Death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anna Tomashenko | 87 | March 1990 | Beating |
| Darya Kanychinova | 80 | May 1991 | Stabbing |
| Sofia Alentyeva | 60 | November 1992 | Strangulation |
Timeline[]
Bibliography[]
Literature[]
Articles[]
Documentaries[]
Television[]
YouTube Documentaries[]
Podcasts[]
In popular culture[]
Film adaptation[]
Related Articles[]
See also[]
Links[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Kuzmenko was released with time served due to the statute of limitations expiring.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 In Karachay-Cherkessia, a criminal accused of triple murder has been released (Russian). Komsomolskaya Pravda (29 January 2008). Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 The court forgave the killer for his crimes (Russian). Komsomolskaya Pravda (31 January 2008). Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sentenced to release (Russian). NTV.ru (9 February 2008). Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.