Chief investigator reveals details on Baykalsk teen murder suspects

At a press conference on January 21, the head of the regional directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) for Irkutsk Oblast, Anatoly Sitnikov, disclosed information about two individuals involved in the mass murder case of teenagers in Baykalsk, who bought alcohol for the schoolchildren at a dacha.

The tragedy occurred in the «Gorny Baikal» gardening partnership on the night of May 28, where children, with parental permission, were celebrating a birthday in one of the dacha houses. Some of the kids went home, while others stayed overnight. At some point, one of the teenagers attacked his friends with a knife. Four died on the spot, and four managed to escape. After the massacre, the alleged attacker set the house on fire and died in the blaze.

The head of the regional ICR directorate, Anatoly Sitnikov, stated that two factors led to the tragedy: children being unsupervised away from adults and relatively easy access for minors to alcoholic beverages. According to the Investigative Committee, an 18-year-old young man bought the alcohol for the children. A criminal case has been initiated regarding the involvement of teenagers in antisocial actions, and two people have been detained.

Sitnikov noted that children from various social backgrounds, from both complete and single-parent families, were at the dacha.

“For everyone, at least for those who actively participated in gathering this group, and in the development of the criminal events, the stories are different, but the common thread is loneliness and uncontrolled use of the Internet, the information that comes from there,” said the head of the ICR directorate for Irkutsk Oblast.

In his opinion, “children«s desire and aspiration to be more adult, to appear more grown-up than their family allows,” led to “uncontrolled acquisition of alcoholic beverages.”

One of the individuals in the case, accused of purchasing alcohol for the schoolchildren, has been previously charged with criminal offenses and spent some time in a temporary detention center, Sitnikov said. According to the investigation, he also bought drugs through a drop and used them with the children who were at the dacha.

“Of course, he is now facing criminal charges, including for involvement in drug use, acquisition, and distribution of narcotic substances, just as we continue to suspect him of involvement in the consumption of alcoholic beverages,” he noted.

The investigation also established that on the night of the tragedy, a close relative of the suspect in the murder of the schoolchildren came to the dacha and brought alcohol.

“The study of his personality showed that he repeatedly involved his brother in alcohol consumption. We are not charging him with distribution of narcotic substances, due to lack of evidence, but the study of his personality indicated that there are grounds for bringing criminal charges against him for a crime against the sexual inviolability of a minor,” Sitnikov added.

The head of the regional directorate recounted that after the tragedy in Baykalsk, extensive work began in the city not only with schoolchildren but also with their parents, and law enforcement intensified efforts to identify crimes in the drug trafficking sphere.

“We are continuing to structure this experience on all available coordination platforms and plan in 2026, together with colleagues from the government and juvenile crime prevention agencies, to scale this situation across Irkutsk Oblast. We need to stop deceiving ourselves, hiding behind some reports that in Baykalsk, for example, only five drug crimes were detected in a year, which means the drug situation in Baykalsk is under control,” Sitnikov remarked.

According to him, in Baykalsk, testing schoolchildren for drugs previously consisted of surveying students.

“By dispelling misconceptions, we are at least approaching an understanding of the scale of the problem, both its external manifestations and internal, deep-rooted primary causes and foundations, and accordingly, we can select a remedy that may be bitter but should still lead to the healing of the situation in specific segments of society,” summarized the head of the ICR directorate.