In early 2017, it became known that the ex-police officer ( Note. ed. until 2010, the police were called) Mikhail Popkov, who was convicted in 2015 for 22 murders of women, confessed to another 59 crimes. The man is known in the press as the "Angara maniac."
He could not be found for about 20 years, as the investigation more than once came to a standstill. When Popkov worked in the authorities, he could personally go to the scene of crimes that he committed himself, earlier than forensic specialists and the investigative team.
Popkov's mother Antonina came to the studio of the program "Live". She said that her son grew up athletic and well-mannered. From an early age, she instilled in him a love of cleanliness. Colleagues of the ex-policeman also noted that he was always neatly dressed and ironed. Despite the fact that the mother of the serial killer was shown footage of Mikhail's confession, she refused to believe it. The woman believes that her son was not capable of this.
“Maybe he was under pressure,” said Antonina Popkova.
An elderly woman said that she had never noticed any oddities in her son. She has not seen Mikhail for four years, since his arrest.
“When he was arrested, they sent me a newspaper. I was slandered in any way. They didn't ask. That his mother was a "drunk", beat him, he had a head injury. Immediately the investigation began with a lie. Someone gave the same information to local journalists,” my mother said.
In parallel with his work in the police, the man was digging graves in the cemetery, since in the early 90s there was not enough money. “The times were hard. Came from the army, got married. He graduated from a police school,” recalls Antonina Popkova.
According to various sources, he committed the first crimes in 1992-1994. However, it was not until 1998 that an investigation into the brutal murders was launched. Popkov's ex-chief Andrey Shestopalov noted that Mikhail fell under suspicion.
“For one of the crimes, the woman remembered that he showed a police ID. And there was a name "Misha", - said the ex-law enforcement officer.
Studio guests could not understand why the rapist and murderer had not been caught for so many years. According to Shestopalov, the investigators first found his accomplice, who served as a colonel. However, now the second suspect is no longer alive: he was killed in 2005.
Popkov himself called himself "a cleaner who killed fallen women." As Shestopalov clarified, very often before that he tracked the representatives of the weaker sex, who caught the car on the road and were drunk. Former colleagues said that two years before the first murder, Mikhail's wife cheated on him. “He began to take revenge on women,” Andrey noted,
Popkova's sister Elena said that her brother's family had always been exemplary for her, so she did not believe all the information that was spread about him. “A word is not a fact,” said a relative.
“I don’t understand why he confesses to these murders. Soon there will be 100 of them,” said Antonina Popkova. Judging by one video interview of Mikhail for the Honest Detective program, he is not at all tormented by remorse for the murders committed.
The search for a maniac
In one of the regions of Russia, young women began to disappear. All the girls were about the same age, they were attractive. The scenario was the same, the girls stood on the road and waited for the bus. All relatives were sure that their daughters were in sexual slavery. Relatives desperately wrote to the program and Leonid Konovalov and Zuliya Radzhabova went to Orsk to help them. People gathered, there were a lot of them, the girls disappeared by the dozens. The investigation did not expect miracles from psychics, but the staff came to observe the experiment. Psychics said that the girls were dead, and a maniac killed them. The detectives perked up. Psychics noted that the man is 50 years old, he has eyebrows like Brezhnev, he is a trucker, and he tortured the victims in a barn or garage. It turned out that the investigation already knew some details, the description of the psychics coincided with the orientation of the detectives, they knew the man, but could not catch him. The criminal with the surname Andreev was an exemplary father and husband. The last girl, whom the killer raped and killed, grew up before his eyes, she was not afraid of the criminal. The name of the perpetrator was known, but he fled. The psychics went with the police to the man's garage. They described exactly what happened. The criminal in the garage mocked the girls. Thanks to psychics, a sadist's grave was found. There were bloodstains on the walls of the cellar, they had been hastily whitewashed. The maniac fled, he had to be caught by all means. Psychics described to the employees of the authorities the places where the corpses could be hidden. Psychics traveled with employees of the reservoir. Psychics worked for 4 days, they found evidence and gave information about where the maniac was.
Missing student
The mysterious disappearance of a student thundered throughout Tver. Sergei was only 20 years old. In the evening, the guy called his mother and said that in 15-20 minutes he would be at home. It happened on October 21, 2011. The boy's mother did not sleep, the son went to the wedding, and then went to the club with friends. The club's security guards did not let the company into the establishment. The guy separated from the company, but did not reach the house. The police said the boys would walk up and show up. For the first three days, only relatives were looking for a guy. Then the police and volunteers began to search the area. The guy could not be found for a month, the guy fell through the ground. Only the mother hoped that her son would return. The woman turned to Anatoly Ledeneva, because he is known for his ability to find people. Ledenev was sent a photo of the guy. The psychic saw that the boy was dead. He insisted that he was killed, and saw how it happened. The guy was bullied before he died. The psychic noted where the guy's body could be, but in that river they were already looking for his corpse. The boy's body was found.
The news that a maniac appeared in the Orenburg region shocked the locals. It was published on social networks in the spring of 2013. Some time later, employees of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported that the identity of the suspect in committing violent crimes had been established - he was a 55-year-old truck driver Andreev Valery Nikolaevich. The murderer reportedly abducted and raped women ranging in age from 17 to 40. He was immediately put on the international wanted list, and for information about where the rapist might be, a reward of half a million rubles was promised.
When did it all start?
“Andreev Valery Nikolaevich could not have committed such atrocious crimes,” the friends of the suspect and his work colleagues answered.
They were simply dumbfounded and stunned to hear that a man they know well is a rapist and murderer. Turns out they don't know him very well. They did not suspect the criminal thoughts that Andreev Valery Nikolaevich, his wife and children were hatching. Detectives say that for the first time the trucker embarked on a criminal path back in 2006, but they did not find direct evidence that would prove his guilt. And only six years later, the investigators managed to get on his trail, when the eighteen-year-old girl Olga Zhuravleva disappeared. She was last seen getting into a white foreign-made car. It was not difficult for law enforcement agencies to check the vehicles that matched the description in the database.
The offender has been identified
It was established that the owner of the white foreign car SsangYong was none other than Andreev Valery Nikolaevich. It was in his car that traces of biological material were found. It became clear that in his own car the maniac committed violence against the girl.
Investigators found that condoms and hair clips were often “forgotten” in the interior of the truck, the driver of which was the suspect. Although in most cases the traces of crimes Valery Nikolayevich carefully destroyed after each episode. He closed the raped women in his own garage and kept them there for several days.
Victims of the perpetrator
Of course, Andreev Valery Nikolaevich is a maniac who has developed his own style of committing crimes. As already emphasized, he was interested in young and middle-aged women. In addition, he gave preference to the fairer sex with a slender figure, who often hitchhike.
In the summer of 2012, when they came close to solving the crimes, Andreev immediately disappeared, leaving his wife and child.
Rumors and speculation
This fact is noteworthy: initially, even the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from the regional department did not believe that Andreev Valery Nikolaevich was a maniac from the Orenburg region, moreover, cruel and cynical.
Back in the period from January to October 2009, 29 women aged 15 to 30 were listed as missing. Then rumors began to circulate that a maniac was operating in the region. However, law enforcement structures hastened to declare that this is not true. But after a while they changed their position, linking the fact of the disappearance of women with the criminal activities of the rapist.
Television has also been involved in unraveling this mystery. The “Battle of Psychics” program aired on the TNT channel helped to make significant progress in the investigation of the atrocities of a truck driver from Orenburg.
Caught another...
In 2012, information suddenly appeared that Andreev Valery Nikolaevich was detained. However, as it turned out, this is another person who was the namesake of the "Orenburg maniac."
He fell under the suspicion of investigators after a diary was found in the apartment, which described in detail the sexual activities against children. He circled the dates of his atrocities. Since 2010, there have been approximately five hundred such marks. As a rule, the pedophile operated in the village of Luzino, Orenburg region. succeeded just after another sexual act: several schoolgirls ran to the police station, who reported that they had been tried to rape them in one of the basements. Subsequently, the pedophile was charged and sent for compulsory treatment. The fact that Andreev Valery Nikolaevich was detained was received with relief and joy on social networks. However, it was premature, since the serial killer and rapist was still at large and posed a serious threat to society.
Where could the perpetrator potentially be?
After some time, the public became aware that the information that the maniac Valery Nikolaevich Andreev was detained was false. A person who committed a whole series of brutal murders and rapes in the Orenburg region should suffer the most severe punishment, so he was put on the international wanted list, and those who have reliable information about the whereabouts of the murderer were promised a substantial monetary reward by law enforcement agencies.
Subsequently, information appeared that allegedly the maniac Andreev Valery Nikolaevich was detained in the Karaganda region. However, the local followers did not confirm it, although they did not deny the fact that they received an orientation for the Orsk trucker back in 2012. The Karaganda policemen stated that they did not find the above criminal in their region.
After that, there were rumors that Andreev Valery Nikolaevich (maniac) was found in Omsk. And again, representatives of law enforcement agencies reported that this was just a myth, and there was no rapist in the West Siberian city.
Subsequently, information about the whereabouts of Andreev began to appear regularly: they say that the trucker rapist was seen in Samara, and in Rostov-on-Don, and in Novosibirsk, and in Kaliningrad. Some media again began to write that the attacker was arrested, but this is not so.
The Investigative Committee keeps the case under control
A press conference was organized in Orsk, at which the head of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexei Smolkov, tried to put an end to the discussion about whether Andreev had been arrested or whether he continued to walk free.
“Operative-search activities are carried out by the Investigative Committee, and the police provide all possible assistance in this. I can definitely say the following: the investigation is being carried out in the most thorough way, and the perpetrator will sooner or later be brought to justice for his atrocities,” Smolkov said.
Some time ago, the identikit of the rapist and murderer was updated. It also has a beard. It is likely that over the few years that Andreev has been hiding from the police, he has greatly changed his appearance.
A maniac from Gelendzhik began to pursue 21-year-old Nikita Turchin, who was a participant in the Battle of Psychics. The magician was frightened of such a turn, and decided to seek help from law enforcement officers.
The pursuer threatened to kill the young man and throw his body into the Moscow River.
Barely appearing in the "Battle of Psychics" program, 17-year-old Nikita Turchin instantly attracted everyone's attention. A young man of pleasant appearance liked both impressionable girls and not quite balanced men. One of them went so far as to start stalking the young man online.
At first it all started out harmlessly enough. The youngest contestant of this season of the show began to be aggressively approached by his fan. The action began with declarations of love, and ended with threats not only for the clairvoyant, but also for his family members.
The pursuer calls himself Dmitry. Nikita considered his threats to be quite real and intends to resort to the help of human rights activists. He considers what is happening "just terrible."
The young man decided that his admirer was seriously ill. After Dmitry's messages on the network, according to Nikita, his real persecution began.
“He writes everywhere that he loves me, questioning my reputation and orientation. Somehow he even called and personally confessed his feelings "-" I replied that he had addressed to the wrong address. I have a girlfriend that I'm dating. So he began to threaten her too, ”said Nikita Turchin. After that, the pursuer switched to the parents of his object of unhealthy love.
“When I realized that reciprocity would not wait, he said that he would kill me, and they would find me somewhere in the Moscow River. A real maniac, ”the young man is sure. “At first I thought that this was an ordinary crazy fan - Buzova has a lot of them, but it turned out that he was sick,” he said.
The young psychic managed to find out the identity of the obsessive boyfriend. “He lives in Gelendzhik, doesn’t work anywhere, spends days and nights at the computer and hangs out in social networks under an assumed name,” Nikita Turchin said about the maniac. For help, he turned to law enforcement officers. “I really hope that the relevant authorities will suggest to him,” the psychic noted.
During his participation in the show, Nikita managed to please many viewers. The number of followers of his Instagram page has increased significantly. The young man noticed. that he did not go on the show out of a desire for PR.
Otherwise, he could have gone to other programs, for example, to Dom-2. “I initially knew about the abilities and therefore wrote an application for the “Battle of Psychics”. Perhaps I'm just an empath and I know how to feel people well and empathize with them, ”said the young man.
The young man asks for the protection of law enforcement officers.
Thanks to the popular TV show "The Battle of Psychics", it was possible to expose the maniac who killed three girls.
Thanks to the popular TV show "The Battle of Psychics", it was possible to expose the maniac who killed three girls.
The detention took place immediately after the scene of the brutal murder of a young nurse was visited by the heroes of the famous program of the program. The clairvoyants told in detail what happened on that fateful day when Andrei S., a 30-year-old resident of Naro-Fominsk, came to the treatment room of a boarding house near Moscow, writes Life.ru.
Five years ago, the adopted son of the director of the meat-packing plant, Andrey S., worked as a traffic inspector. “He doesn’t even take bribes,” the colleagues were surprised at the correctness of the traffic cop. Imagine their surprise when it turned out that an exemplary traffic policeman was involved in a whole series of murders of drivers and theft of their cars. The gang was detained, but through the efforts of an influential businessman father, Andrei managed to avoid prison. He was declared insane and put in a psychiatric hospital, - reports "donbass.ua".
After leaving the hospital, Andrei continued his bloody adventures. He became interested in voodoo rituals and satanic literature. In addition, he was always attracted to edged weapons - a whole collection was kept at home, including throwing knives. It was with them that the maniac armed himself when he again went on a bloody hunt. His first victim, 16-year-old Muscovite Maria V., was found in a forest near a summer cottage. The girl's body was mutilated with terrible stab wounds. In addition, the maniac strangled the unfortunate wire. In the same way, the killer dealt with the 22-year-old resident of Naro-Fominsk, Marina K. While the operatives puzzled over the disclosure of these terrible crimes, a month later, the fanatic killed another girl. 20-year-old nurse Olga P. was found in a pool of blood in the treatment room of her boarding house.
The sophisticated killer, as if wanting to "link" his crimes into a single chain, near the body of each subsequent victim left an object belonging to the previous girl - a ballpoint pen, a watch. This is what played a cruel joke with the murderer - on the glass of Marina's watch, found near Olga's body, he left fingerprints.
Just on the eve of the detention in the ill-fated boarding house, the shooting of the program “The Battle of Psychics” took place. Clairvoyants described in detail what happened that terrible September evening. Surprisingly, later their data almost completely coincided with what the maniac himself told during interrogation.
When the bastard was detained, the experts compared his fingerprints with those in the database and realized that they were facing the same elusive maniac that they had been chasing for more than a year.
