Murderer of 11-Year-Old Girl Sentenced After 25 Years in Ural
Semenov was brought to the sentencing from the colony where he was serving time for another crime.
In Karpinsk on November 25, a verdict was delivered for the murderer of an 11-year-old girl. The crime was solved after nearly a quarter of a century. The schoolgirl«s mother did not live to see this day; her body had to be exhumed from the grave to conduct a genetic examination of the found remains of the deceased child.
It has now been established that in 2002, Vladimir Semenov, who was only 23 at the time, strangled a neighbor»s girl and hid her body under the floor of his house. Later, his relatives helped retrieve the corpse from there and burn it in the forest. A year later, the child«s remains were discovered, but it was impossible to identify them, and the murderer was only identified 23 years later.
A relative of Vladimir Semenov, whom we found in Karpinsk, knew nothing about this crime. She told E1.RU how he lived all these years and what he managed to do.
His future wife was just a child when he seduced her.
The girl«s close relatives heard that in the past, her lover had done something terrible. Such rumors circulated in the city. But he told his wife»s relatives nothing about it. They hardly communicated at all. The young wife gave birth to two daughters for him. When the eldest was only two years old, the grandmother won custody of her.
«Before the trial, when the granddaughter was already living with me, they kidnapped her from kindergarten. She was with them for two months, and when we took her back — she was like Mowgli, wild. With us, she»s a princess, we pamper her. Then there was a trial for deprivation of parental rights. A friend of my daughter testified there. She told how he punished the little one, put her in the corner. Thanks to that friend, they were deprived of their rights,« said Semenov»s mother-in-law.
The young wife posted such messages on his page when they started living together.
Murder of the Schoolgirl
Now Vladimir Semenov will be released from the colony when his daughters are already adults. For the murder he committed in December 2002, he was sentenced to 25 years in a strict regime colony.
The victim was a neighbor«s girl. Her parents were alcoholics, and she often visited Vladimir and his first wife (the murder occurred several years before he met his second wife. — Ed.). Sometimes the schoolgirl stayed with them for several days, helping with household chores.
On the day of the murder, the spouses were drinking. The wife went to the store for more alcohol, and when she returned — the child was gone. The husband told her that the girl had gone home, but that evening she disappeared without a trace.
»The child«s remains were discovered only in June 2003 in a forest area near Volchansk. The bones were severely burned, which initially prevented establishing the cause of death and identifying the deceased,» said the press service of the courts of Sverdlovsk Oblast.
Semenov was already on the list of suspects then, but since the child was not identified, his guilt could not be proven. And the case remained unsolved for many years.
Only in 2023, thanks to modern examination methods, investigators were able to establish that the burned remains belonged to that missing girl. For genetic analysis, they had to exhume the body of her mother, who had already died by that time.
«According to expert conclusions, the girl»s death could have resulted from mechanical asphyxia, from compression of the neck by hands,« said the prosecutor»s office of Sverdlovsk Oblast.
Investigators managed to prove that it was Semenov who killed the child. For this, they re-examined the incident and interviewed witnesses.
«According to the results of a psychiatric examination of the accused, it was established that the defendant is sane, as he was aware of the nature of his actions. Under the weight of irrefutable evidence, he confessed to the deed.»
Recently, in the Ural region, murders from 20 and 30 years ago have been solved more often. For example, in September 2025, in Bogdanovich, the investigation of a criminal case about the murder of a woman committed back in the 1990s was completed. She was one of the victims of serial killer Sergei Paukov nicknamed Spider. Later, however, the court terminated the criminal case against him.
We also reported how a nine-year-old girl who disappeared in the Ural region was searched for 26 years. Her murderer confessed and revealed the reason for the killing.
All materials about how unsolved cases are being solved in Sverdlovsk Oblast are covered in a special section.
