Balagansky District sentences teen for 12-year-old girl's murder

Balagansky District Court has handed down a sentence in the case of the murder of 12-year-old Yulia Zyryanova, which occurred in September 2024 in the village of Tarnopol. A 17-year-old acquaintance of the victim will spend 6 years in a juvenile colony. We recall this painful story.

«The Light of Her Life Illuminated Everything Around»

A 17-year-old teenager stabbed 12-year-old Yulia Zyryanova to death on 21 September 2024. The Telegram channel Babr Mash reported that the girl sustained more than 40 stab wounds, but the Investigative Committee of Russia (SKR) denied this information.

— According to residents of Tarnopol village in Balagansky District, after a quarrel with a friend, the boy became enraged. He came to her house, called her outside, and attacked her with a blade. The suspect has already been detained, and the Investigative Committee is handling the case, — Babr Mash reports.

The administration of Balagansky District expressed condolences to the girl«s relatives and loved ones in its official VKontakte group.

— She was a kind, responsive, and simply wonderful person. Every moment spent with her left an unforgettable mark in the hearts of those who had the fortune to know her. With her kindness, attention, and sincerity, the light of her life illuminated everything around. We will remember her smile, vitality, and the warmth she brought into our world, — was said in the administration»s message.

Later, the Investigative Committee of Russia (SKR) clarified that the murder did not occur near Yulia«s home, but on the sports ground of Tarnopol village. The children quarreled, and the boy inflicted multiple stab wounds on the girl. The teenager was arrested and taken into custody. The case was immediately taken under control by the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin.

— The accused completed nine grades. According to specialists, he did not show aggression towards school students or teachers and was not registered with prevention system authorities. He is being raised in a single-parent family by his mother, — wrote the Commissioner for Children»s Rights in Irkutsk Oblast, Tatyana Afanasyeva, in her Telegram channel.

She added that the teenagers were acquainted with each other, communicated, and lived near each other, but Yulia Zyryanova«s father, Yevgeny Anchutin, denied this information in a conversation with a journalist.

According to social media, the arrested boy was fond of anime. His friends refused to speak with the IrCity journalist. But a former classmate of the teenager shared some details.

— He really wasn»t conflict-prone, calm, sometimes quick-tempered. In the summer, he played football with us, often broke his limbs. It seems like he was often invited to drink alcoholic beverages, I«m not sure exactly, but often some people would pick him up. And I didn»t communicate with the deceased, I saw her either at the stadium when we were playing, or near her house when we were returning from football, — the interlocutor said.

He suggested that the teenager was not friends with the schoolgirl. He also couldn«t say anything about the family. “I saw his mother, but not his father. I also know that he has a grandmother and grandfather,” — the guy specified.

— She was interested in everything, and she succeeded at everything: she went to dances with her girlfriends — and right away to the sports ground with the boys. Sometimes she came home crying: ‘Papa, the boys didn«t take me to play football.’ She was good at bead weaving. Once she wove a heart for me, I still carry it in my wallet. And recently she got into shooting — I ordered her dummy assault rifle and pistol, looking like a ‘Kalashnikov’ and ‘Makarov’, but they shoot pellets — she practiced so diligently that she quickly learned to hit the bullseye. Everything interested her. She loved life and knew how to enjoy it, — said Yevgeny.

Yulia»s father still tenderly rewatches a video where the girl is not visible, but her voice can be heard. That day, Yevgeny decorated his car with flickering lights and showed the result to his daughter. The girl in the video says “Wow! How beautiful!”

— She was a very tender child. Mostly, of course, with her mother. I«m mostly on shifts. And with her mother, they were like best friends, Yulia told her everything that was on her mind and in her heart: which boy she liked, what was new at school. But she loved me too… After the funeral, we found her diary, she writes there: ‘I really look forward to when papa comes back from his shift and buys me 11 ice creams.’ She also wanted a new phone, I was supposed to buy it for her after my shift. But I bought her a coffin, — Yevgeny recalled.

Everyone loved Yulia. According to Yevgeny, many teachers went on sick leave after the girl«s death. Older female teachers couldn»t handle the stress, it was hard for them to work.

— She was very good. I«m not saying this just as her father, everyone thinks so. When we buried Yulia, we carried the coffin through the streets on a funeral car, almost the whole village came out to say goodbye. Some couldn»t come to the funeral, grandmothers stood along the street crossing themselves after us. And there were many people at the funeral, not just relatives, the whole of Tarnopol saw off my Yulenka, — Yevgeny said.

Yulia was born on her mother«s birthday — 23 December, and she was buried on her father»s birthday — 25 September. The family is bearing the loss of Yulia very hard. Yevgeny believes this wound will never heal.

In early 2025, the head of the regional department of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Anatoly Sitnikov, named the main motive for Yulia«s murder.

— A child»s grievance sounds as the main motive, [a child«s grievance] over words, — Sitnikov reported.

Investigators do not see the family»s influence on the teenager«s actions, he clarified.

— Thousands of families in Irkutsk Oblast are in a similar situation. Only one ended up committing a crime, it»s unlikely this can be linked in a cause-and-effect relationship. Rather, all this lies somewhere in the area of general embitterment, general malice, a feeling that for such an offense someone must pay with their life. The lack of self-regulation, the ability to weigh actions is generally characteristic of minors, but [it is also influenced by] the cruelty of modern society, the transmission of this cruelty, putting it on public display, — emphasized the head of the regional department of the Investigative Committee.

The young man partially admitted his guilt in the imputed crime. He was sentenced to six years of deprivation of liberty in a juvenile colony. Also, the claim by Yulia«s mother for moral compensation in the amount of 1.5 million rubles (approximately $15,000 at current rates) was satisfied.

And also, the prosecutor»s office of Irkutsk Oblast brought disciplinary action against 11 officials of the prevention system authorities.