Released Killer Tells of Slaying Brother's Family

More than 15 years ago, a triple murder occurred in the center of Yekaterinburg. Law enforcement officers arriving at the scene found the mutilated body of a woman in the entrance of a five-story building. In the apartment where she lived, there were two more corpses — her husband and the victim«s five-year-old son.

The massacre was carried out by the victim«s brother. He did not manage to get far. When the police arrived at the house, the criminal tried to escape by climbing down from the fifth floor via balconies, but he fell and crashed to the ground, breaking his leg.

As investigators established, the motive for the attack was a housing issue. The killer, together with his family, lived in his brother«s apartment, which the brother had inherited. The brother decided to sell the property and asked his relative to move out. Instead, the relative came at him armed with two knives.

For the triple murder, the criminal faced a life sentence, but the court relieved him of criminal responsibility and sent him for compulsory psychiatric treatment. An expert evaluation declared the convict insane. He spent many years in a psychiatric clinic and was recently released.

In an exclusive interview with E1.RU, the killer of his brother told journalist Daria Manokhina what led to the tragedy and how he lives with the heavy burden on his soul.

“I Did Not See Myself as a Killer”

At the end of November 2025, a new page was registered on one of the social networks. It has only one photo of a small room with a bed, wardrobe, and TV. The first and last name on the profile match those of the killer who was sent for compulsory treatment after the massacre of his brother«s family. We contacted him.

“Yes, it’s me. I got out of the hospital in October,” the page owner replied.

He didn’t agree to talk immediately. He was worried about his relatives: they wouldn’t want the tragic story that once made national headlines to be stirred up again, but on condition of full anonymity, he did answer a few questions.

In court, the investigator stated that immediately after his arrest, the killer confessed to the crime and described in detail how everything happened, but then began to insist he remembered nothing. During our conversation, he did not recall the details of the murder, although he says he constantly replays these events in his head.

“You know, every person, no matter how dark their soul may be, no matter what terrible thing they have done, always finds excuses for themselves. It’s a property of human nature: it’s not me, it’s not us like that, life is like that. Many patients in my place say, ‘It’s all because of the illness.’ I actually think differently. I know I am guilty, and I have to live with it.”

Neither the man himself nor those around him knew he had a mental illness before the murder. They never even suspected this disorder. From the outside, everything looked wonderful: he earned two higher education degrees, found a good job at a computer company, and started a family. His wife said in court that she noticed oddities in her husband’s behavior, but he always felt perfectly healthy.

“At the clinic where I underwent compulsory treatment, I worked with very good specialists. The doctors explained that my illness actually first manifested when I was finishing college. That was in the early 2000s. That’s when I started showing initial signs. There was suspicion, fixation, a feeling that I was being treated unfairly, and a very sharp reaction to it,” the man recounts.

According to him, he and his brother got along well, although investigators found that the relationship was strained. On the fateful night, the relative opened the door to the killer and let him into the apartment himself.

As established during the investigation, the attacker first stabbed his brother several times, and when the wife came out at the noise, he attacked her as well. The woman ran out into the stairwell, but he caught up and stabbed her to death. Returning to the apartment, he finished off his brother, and then also killed his five-year-old nephew, who had woken up from the screams. Before dying, the wounded head of the family managed to call the police and report the attack.

“I went there with the intention, as it seemed to me, of defending myself. The key words are ‘as it seemed to me.’ That is, I did not see myself in the role of a killer, that I was going there to kill. Now I realize everything and understand everything. I had paranoid delusions about him, delusional ideas regarding my brother. It was specifically related to my illness. I came to him in a state of exacerbation; it was the limit,” our interlocutor recalls.

The forensic psychiatric evaluation declared the killer insane. He spent many years in the clinic. Currently, he is in remission, but that doesn’t mean he is healthy. In his own words, he will be registered and undergo treatment for the rest of his life:

“I go to the hospital every ten days for tests (so the doctors can check that I’m taking my medication). I am currently on outpatient compulsory treatment. I go to check in, I buy the medicines — not at a discount, but at full price, I pay out of my own pocket. If any issues arise, I always discuss them when I go to the doctor for check-ups.”

“It’s Not So Simple”

Once outside the hospital walls, he began to build his life from scratch: almost nothing remained of his former life. He can’t go back to his old job with his diagnosis, so he got a job under contract as a warehouse security guard.

His marriage is also in the past. After he was arrested, his wife filed for divorce. He has not communicated with her or with his child since then. He says his ex-wife has a new family, and he doesn’t interfere.

“Even when I was in pretrial detention, I already had flashes of realization of what I had done! I asked my father to transfer the brother’s apartment, where my wife and I lived, to her name. After all, my dad inherited it. He did so,” our interlocutor says.

The parents, who lost their older child, daughter-in-law, and grandson, found the strength to accept the son who committed the murder. When the court was deciding whether to release him from the clinic to outpatient treatment, they wrote a positive character reference for him.

“I live with my parents. The relationship with them is not so simple, but I blame no one but myself. I have no complaints against friends or relatives who turned their backs on me, because they know I am guilty and that I have to carry this cross for the rest of my life,” he shares.

The man is trying to make new acquaintances — his doctors advise him to do so. In fact, that’s why he created the social network page, although he doesn’t upload his own photos there. He has no virtual friends yet, but in real life, he says, they have appeared.

“I need to constantly be in a circle of communication to share with others. The thing is, I might not notice when an exacerbation begins, but they will notice. So I need to be a more open person, more sociable,” our interlocutor explains. “To be honest, for now my friends are former patients of the psychiatric clinic. We support each other.”

He says he no longer intends to start a family — all life plans are only related to maintaining mental health. He has never been to his brother’s grave and is not sure he will ever dare to go there.