The Rostov Ripper, Andrei Chikatilo, was a Soviet serial killer active from 1978 to 1990, responsible for the brutal murders of at least 52 women and children across Russia and Ukraine. His crimes were marked by extreme violence, including sexual assault, mutilation, and cannibalism. Chikatilo evaded capture for years due to investigative errors and the limitations of Soviet law enforcement at the time. He was finally arrested in 1990, confessed to his crimes, and was executed by firing squad in 1994.

Yelena Zakotnova (9F)

22 December 1978
Chikatilo's first victim. Accosted while walking home from an ice-skating rink. She was killed inside a small hut Chikatilo had secretly purchased in Shakhty.

Larisa Tkachenko (17F)

3 September 1981
Approached by Chikatilo while waiting for a bus back to her boarding school. Her body was found the following day.

Lyubov Biryuk (13F)

12 June 1982
Biryuk was abducted while returning from a shopping trip in the village of Donskoi. She was the first victim linked to the manhunt.

Lyubov Volobuyeva (14F)

25 July 1982
Killed in an orchard near Krasnodar Airport. Her body was found on 7 August.

Oleg Pozhidayev (9M)

13 August 1982
Chikatilo's first male victim. Pozhidayev was killed in woodland near the settlement of Enem in the Republic of Adygea. His body was never found.

Olga Kuprina (16F)

16 August 1982
A runaway from the Semikarakorsky District. Kuprina was killed in Kazachi Lagerya. Her body was found by a soldier gathering logs on 27 October.

Irina Karabelnikova (18F)

8 September 1982
A vagrant lured away from Shakhty station by Chikatilo. Her body was found on 20 September but remained unidentified until 1985.

Sergey Kuzmin (15M)

15 September 1982
Kuzmin was a runaway from a boarding school. His body was found in woodland close to Shakhty station on 12 January 1983. No soft tissue was left upon his remains, which were initially determined to be those of a female.

Olga Stalmachenok (10F)

11 December 1982
Lured off a bus while riding home from her piano lessons in Novoshakhtinsk. Her body was found in a cornfield on 14 April 1983.

Laura Sarkisyan (15F)

After 18 June 1983
A runaway from Armenia killed in woodland near an unmarked railway platform close to Shakhty. Chikatilo was cleared of this murder at his trial.

Irina Dunenkova (13F)

July 1983
Dunenkova was a mentally disabled student whom Chikatilo had known prior to her murder. Her body was found in Aviators' Park, Rostov, on 8 August.

Lyudmila Kutsyuba (24F)

July 1983
A homeless mother of two children killed in woodland near a Shakhty bus station. Her body was found on 12 March 1984.

Igor Gudkov (7M)

9 August 1983
Chikatilo's youngest victim. He was killed in Aviators' Park. Gudkov was the first male victim linked to the manhunt.

Unknown woman (18-25F)

July–August 1983
Chikatilo claimed he encountered this victim at Novoshakhtinsk bus station while she tried to find a "man (client) with a car." Her body was found on 8 October.

Valentina Chuchulina (22F)

After 19 September 1983
Chuchulina's body was found on 27 November in a wooded area near Kirpichnaya station.

Vera Shevkun (19F)

27 October 1983
Killed in a mining village near Shakhty. Her body was found on 30 October.

Sergey Markov (14M)

27 December 1983
Disappeared while returning home from work experience. His body was found near Novocherkassk on 4 January 1984.

Natalya Shalapinina (17F)

9 January 1984
Killed in Aviators' Park. Shalapinina had been a close friend of Olga Kuprina, killed by Chikatilo in 1982.

Marta Ryabenko (44F)

21 February 1984
Chikatilo's oldest victim. She was killed in Aviators' Park. Her body was found the following day.

Dmitriy Ptashnikov (10M)

24 March 1984
Lured from a stamp kiosk in Novoshakhtinsk by Chikatilo, who pretended to be a fellow collector.

Tatyana Petrosyan (29F)

25 May 1984
Murdered together with her daughter in woodland outside Shakhty, close to Kirpichnaya station. She had known Chikatilo since 1978. Her body was identified in 1985.

Svetlana Petrosyan (10F)

25 May 1984
Svetlana saw Chikatilo murder her mother before he chased her for almost half a mile and killed her with a hammer. Her decapitated body was found on 5 July.

Yelena Bakulina (21F)

22 June 1984
Bakulina's body was found on 27 August in the Bagasenski region of Rostov. She had been stabbed to death, and her body covered with leaves and branches.

Dmitriy Illarionov (13M)

10 July 1984
Vanished in Rostov while on his way to get a health certificate for summer camp. His emasculated and stabbed body was found in a cornfield on 12 August.

Anna Lemesheva (19F)

19 July 1984
A student who disappeared on her way home from a dental appointment. She was killed near Kirpichnaya station.

Sarmite Tsana (20F)

28 July 1984
Originally from Riga. Her body was found on 9 September 1984 in Aviators' Park. Tsana's murder was the final to which Chikatilo confessed.

Natalya Golosovskaya (16F)

2 August 1984
Vanished on a visit to Novoshakhtinsk, where she was to visit her sister. She was killed in Aviators' Park.

Lyudmila Alekseyeva (17F)

7 August 1984
A student lured from a bus stop by Chikatilo, who offered to direct her to Rostov's bus terminal.

Unknown woman (20-25F)

8–11 August 1984
Chikatilo encountered this victim on the banks of the Chirchiq River while on a business trip to the Uzbek SSR. Her decapitated body was found on 16 August, but was never identified.

Akmaral Seydaliyeva (10F)

13 August 1984
Seydaliyeva was a runaway from Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, whom Chikatilo lured off a train in Tashkent. She was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in a cornfield.

Aleksandr Chepel (11M)

28 August 1984
Killed on the banks of the Don River, near where Alekseyeva had been killed. His strangled body was found on 2 September.

Irina Luchinskaya (24F)

6 September 1984
A Rostov librarian. Luchinskaya disappeared on her way to a sauna. She was killed in Aviators' Park.

Natalya Pokhlistova (18F)

1 August 1985
Pokhlistova was killed by Chikatilo near Domodedovo Airport, Moscow Oblast. Her body was found on 3 August, just 200 metres from her home.

Irina Gulyayeva (18F)

August 1985
Killed in a grove of trees near Shakhty bus station. Her body was found the following day.

Oleg Makarenkov (12M)

16 May 1987
A boarding school student killed in Revda, Sverdlovsk Oblast. Chikatilo led police to Makarenkov's remains after his arrest.

Ivan Bilovetsky (12M)

29 July 1987
Bilovetsky was killed in woodland alongside a rail line in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia. His body was found by his father on 30 July.

Yuri Tereshonok (16M)

15 September 1987
A vocational school student whom Chikatilo lured off a train in Leningrad. Chikatilo led police to his remains after his arrest.

Unknown woman (22-28F)

1–4 April 1988
Killed in the grounds of a metals factory near Krasny Sulin station. Her body was found on 6 April.

Aleksey Voronko (9M)

15 May 1988
Chikatilo encountered Voronko while on a business trip to Artyomovsk. He was killed in Ilovaisk, Ukraine.

Yevgeny Muratov (15M)

14 July 1988
The first victim killed near Rostov since 1985. Muratov's body was found in a forest close to Donleskhoz station on 10 April 1989.

Tatyana Ryzhova (16F)

28 February 1989
A runaway from Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, she was killed inside Chikatilo's own daughter's apartment in Shakhty. Her dismembered body was found on 9 March.

Aleksandr Dyakonov (8M)

11 May 1989
Killed in a thicket of bushes near Rostov city centre the day after his eighth birthday. His body was found by a taxi driver on 14 July.

Aleksey Moiseyev (10M)

20 June 1989
In his confessions, Chikatilo described Moiseyev as "a boy from Kolchugino, Vladimir Oblast, whom I took from the beach into the forest". Chikatilo confessed to this murder after his arrest.

Yelena Varga (19F)

19 August 1989
A student from Hungary who had a child. She was lured from a bus stop and killed in woodland close to a village near Rostov.

Aleksey Khobotov (10M)

28 August 1989
Encountered Chikatilo outside a theatre in Shakhty. He was buried in a shallow grave in a nearby cemetery. Chikatilo led police to his remains after his arrest.

Andrei Kravchenko (11M)

14 January 1990
Kravchenko was abducted from the streets near his Shakhty home. His emasculated body was found in a section of woodland on 19 February.

Yaroslav Makarov (10M)

7 March 1990
Disappeared from Rostov railway station while truanting from school. Makarov was killed in Rostov's Botanical Gardens. His body, missing the tongue and sexual organs, was found the following day.

Lyubov Zuyeva (31F)

4 April 1990
Encountered Chikatilo while travelling from Novocherkassk to Shakhty. Her skeletonized body was found in woodland close to Donleskhoz station on 24 August.

Viktor Petrov (13M)

28 July 1990
Chikatilo lured Petrov from the Rostov-Glavny station, where the boy and his family had chosen to await an early morning bus. He was killed in Rostov's Botanical Gardens, a few yards from where Makarov had been murdered.

Ivan Fomin (11M)

14 August 1990
Fomin was killed at Novocherkassk municipal beach when he entered a thicket to change his clothes. He was emasculated and stabbed 42 times. His body was found on 17 August.

Vadim Gromov (16M)

17 October 1990
A mentally disabled student from Shakhty. Gromov vanished while riding the train to Taganrog.

Viktor Tishchenko (16M)

30 October 1990
Killed in Shakhty. Tishchenko fought hard for his life; he was the victim who bit and broke Chikatilo's finger.

Svetlana Korostik (22F)

6 November 1990
Korostik was a homeless woman whom Chikatilo killed in woodland near Donleskhoz station. Her body was found on 13 November.

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