Contract Killing of Svetlana Sitdikova in Serov

In April 2000, in Serov, the body of a woman was found at the bottom of a pond near a metallurgical plant. A concrete block was tied to her body, and her hands were bound with wire. The deceased was identified as Svetlana Sitdikova. Before her death, she was a defendant in a criminal case involving the murder of her partner and had received threats from his relatives. We bring you the details of this crime story.

‘The girl was very beautiful’

Shortly before the crime, Svetlana Sitdikova had taken a job as a saleswoman at a small kiosk near the railway station in Serov. A friend worked there with her.

‘The girl (Svetlana. — Ed. note) was very responsible. The nineties were very difficult. You know how it was—employees stole, all sorts of things happened—but this girl was very honest. Her friend Natasha worked with her; they both started with me at the same time. I became friends with them,’ said Galina, the entrepreneur who owned that kiosk.

Sveta did not work at the kiosk for long and soon moved to a store. According to Galina, everyone called the girl Lada. That was how she introduced herself.

‘The girl was very beautiful, slender. She took care of herself. All the guys looked at her, ran after her and courted her. She had many suitors. She was in a relationship with Oleg, but then for some reason she left him for Anatoly,’ Galina continued.

Svetlana was supposed to marry Oleg; their relationship was heading that way. According to our interviewee, Anatoly was connected to one of the local criminal groups. He showered his beloved with gifts and helped her buy furniture.

According to Galina, Anatoly, having left the underworld, went legitimate and entered business. He was involved in wholesale trade.

‘I don«t know why she chose Tolya. I didn»t like him at all, neither as a person nor in appearance: short, balding—but something connected them. When they started living together, he was jealous of her and wouldn«t let her go anywhere. One day they had a big fight. According to neighbours, on the day of the murder Tolya dragged her by the hair and beat her; a fight broke out. Sveta was defending herself, not deliberately killing him,’ Galina explained.

‘They thought the murder was the work of the mafia’

Anatoly died in May 1999. Svetlana was immediately detained, charged and sent to a pre-trial detention centre. The girl did not spend long there; soon the measure of restraint was softened to a written undertaking not to leave, and she was back home. At first Lada lived with her aunt, then moved in with a friend in the Sortirovka settlement—and on 22 April 2000, security forces came to her aunt and asked her to come to the morgue for an identification.

‘At first we thought her murder was the work of the mafia, with whom Tolya associated. They had a whole team; Anatoly worked in a criminal brigade. I don«t remember exactly which one. At that time we had the “Shchukinsky” group (their leader is said to be Vladimir Shchukin, nicknamed Shchukar; he died in 2021 from an illness. — Ed. note) and others. There were many groups; at that time I had to work under the roof of one of those gangs,’ said the entrepreneur Galina.

Svetlana Sitdikova was buried in the city cemetery. Galina and the girl«s classmates helped her relatives with the arrangements.

Who was detained for Lada«s murder

In the early 2000s, after the murder of Svetlana Sitdikova, security forces interviewed her relatives and acquaintances. Some of them said that the girl had been threatened with reprisal. According to witnesses, Anatoly«s relatives were responsible for the intimidation.

‘Sitdikova often told one of her friends that she was afraid. Supposedly Anatoly«s niece had come to her and said she did not have long to live,’ a source in law enforcement told E1.RU.

Ultimately, the investigation concluded that this was a contract killing. Last month, three defendants were brought to the Serov Court: Anatoly«s sister Natalya, Rinat Gaynutdinov and Dmitry Lobanov. The fourth accused was the mother of Tolya and Natalya. According to the source, she is currently in hospital. According to the latest information, no measure of restraint was imposed on her.

Rinat was placed under house arrest. Anatoly«s sister and Dmitry were less fortunate—they were taken into custody. The men probably also had ties to criminal groups at the time. In such circles, one of them was known by the nickname Yakut, and the other as Tatarin. Both had served prison terms for serious crimes.

A killer was found for money

The investigation believes that Svetlana was strangled, and then her body was taken in the boot of a car beyond the plant«s territory. There she was drowned. Anatoly»s relatives gave money to one of the men, and he in turn found a hitman. The women are now considered the organisers of the brutal reprisal.

‘Natasha and Sveta lived like cat and dog; they were not friends at all. In my opinion, Natalya openly said she would kill her. When Natasha found out that I had helped organise the funeral, she started threatening me too. She said: “Make sure you don«t end up in the same place,”’ Galina concluded.

E1.RU was unable to find out the position of the arrested. We are ready to give the defendants or their relatives a chance to speak if they contact the editorial office.

Recently, investigators have increasingly been solving crimes from past years. For example, a man was recently detained in Artemovsky who brutally killed his father 13 years ago and concealed it.

Also read how three Yekaterinburg residents in 2003 dismembered an acquaintance and scattered the remains around the city. Only two of them received a sentence.