Siberian man murders two women from Omsk bar
Yekaterina Gorbunova and Tatyana Yevtushenko were both 32 years old. The women had been friends for several years, so they decided to celebrate a birthday together one April day. Both had children and husbands, but they wanted to celebrate not in the family circle, but in a fun and memorable way.
The friends went to the Omsk bar «Doski» (now «Druzya»), but they never returned home. Their bodies were found in their underwear, buried in a garage. Who and why brutally killed the women is explored in the «Criminal Sunday» column by Anastasia Chesnokova.
Day of Disappearance
On 1 April 2017, Yekaterina wanted to celebrate her 33rd birthday. For this, she chose the bar «Doski», and her best friend Tanya joined her.
«Doski» on Karl Liebknecht Street has long had a bad reputation in the city. There are many stories about fights near the bar. Therefore, relatives immediately became alarmed when they did not return home. Phones were not answering. They started searching through social networks. After the relatives of the missing contacted the police, law enforcement began working. They interviewed witnesses, collected CCTV footage, and clarified details of the friends« time at the bar. Thus, the clues led to 30-year-old Roman Gladkov.
The man met the Omsk women at the bar. He appeared handsome, tall, dark-haired, with a strong build. After a couple of glasses of alcohol, the friends agreed to continue celebrating the birthday at Gladkov«s home.
According to CCTV footage, the group left the bar around 05:45. All three got into a taxi and went to the man«s apartment on Batumskaya Street. On the way, they stopped at a store for alcohol.
After 1.5–2 hours, Yekaterina and Tatyana started to get ready to leave. When Gladkov went to see them off, he saw that 17,000 rubles (approximately $280 at current rates), two wedding rings, and a chain were missing from a shelf in the hall. The man began demanding the stolen items, but the women denied everything. After that, Roman hit one of the friends.
«What are you doing? She»s not breathing«
The first to be hit was Yekaterina. During the argument, Gladkov struck her on the nose. The woman fell to the floor, then he pressed his knee on her neck. Katya suffocated. Roman slapped her cheeks and realized he had killed her.
Tatyana watched everything happening and shouted: «What are you doing? She»s not breathing!« The friend tried to run out of the apartment, but Roman understood that witnesses were unnecessary. He hit the second victim in the face, breaking her nose, and then strangled her from behind.
«After that, he took measures to hide the evidence. He threw some things out the window, shoes, a woman»s bag. On the balcony, he took construction bags and started putting the girls« bodies into them. Then he wiped the blood in the house and cleaned up. He called his father and asked him to come to his home. When his father arrived, he told him that he had killed two people in the apartment,» shared with NGS55.RU correspondent investigator, Lieutenant Colonel of Justice Sergei Verpatov.
The murderer«s father was shocked. Roman asked for help. They needed to take the bodies away. Loading the women»s bodies into the trunk, the Gladkovs went out of town. In the area of the village of Morozovka in Omsk District, they poured gasoline on the remaining clothes and burned them. Then they took the bodies to a forest belt, where they buried them near a garage belonging to relatives, in the settlement of Ptitsefabrika. According to the investigator, everything happened during the night of 1 to 2 April.
«They brought the girls» bodies with his father. They unloaded them, dug a small hole, placed the bags with corpses there, and covered them up. After that, the father and son went to a car wash, where employees found traces of blood in the trunk. They said they were transporting meat from the village,« added the investigator.
Wanted to Bury
The investigation was able to track Gladkov thanks to footage from the bar«s CCTV cameras. His home address was established through the taxi driver. In the apartment and in the Kia Rio salon, criminologists found washed traces of blood. They were helped to detect by the expert light source »IKS 450«. After that, the murderer, under the pressure of evidence, began to tell how everything happened. He demonstrated his actions to investigators on a mannequin.
According to him, the second girl admitted that the money was in her purse. She took it out and gave it back. Tatyana started to panic when she realized that her friend wasn«t breathing. Gladkov tried to resuscitate the deceased with indirect heart massage, but got angry because of the second girl»s hysteria. He grabbed her neck and flipped her over.
«I held her until she calmed down,» concluded Roman.
In the second video, Gladkov at the garage said that he dug the holes himself and did it to «bury» them. When asked why he decided to «bury» them there, the man answered: «I was confused.»
«At first, he did not admit guilt, fainted. But under the pressure of evidence, he told about what he had done. With the help of special equipment, we found the place where he burned the clothes—he had taken them off the victims. He threw away the things and documents—most likely to make it harder to find. The suspect hid the evidence while still intoxicated, so not all of his actions can be logically explained,» told NGS55.RU the head of the criminalistics department of the Investigative Committee for the Omsk Region, Ivan Kozlov.
«Forgive me, if you can»
After what happened, investigators opened a criminal case under the article «Murder of two persons». Gladkov was taken into custody. The investigation of the case lasted six months. Law enforcement found out that the man had not committed any violent actions against the friends. Moreover, he was recognized as completely sane.
Later, new details of the murder emerged. Gladkov hit the resisting Yevtushenko 49 times with his hand and twice—Gorbunova. The second he ultimately strangled with a belt from her purse. The forensic examination showed that the birthday girl died from asphyxia, and Tatyana—from closed craniocerebral trauma and asphyxia. At the moment of death, both were drunk.
Then the chief prosecutor of the Omsk Region, Anastas Spiridonov, demanded to send the murderer to a strict regime colony for 19 years.
Gladkov himself told in the courtroom that the girls tried to leave the apartment by force, pushing him away. One blow hit the man in the groin, because of this he got angry. After the murder, he found the stolen money and jewelry in one of the purses. Yevtushenko had a traumatic pistol. He went to «Doski» because he «had never been there before». First, he drank tea there, and then met the girls.
«I had no intent to kill. I suddenly felt pain. I assume that the instinct of self-preservation played its role. I became a hostage of the situation. I did not assess the situation, but it was too late. After what happened, I don»t care what happens to me. I killed two people. Forgive me, if you can,« said Gladkov in the courtroom.
Roman«s lawyer, Pavel Plekhanov, asked to mitigate the punishment. Allegedly, the death of the girls was unexpected for the man. Besides, the murderer tried to bring them to their senses.
«The death of the victims was unexpected for him. He tried to bring them to their senses, and then, frightened, tried to get rid of the bodies. He did not call for help. Previously, Gladkov had not been held accountable. The girls came to Gladkov»s apartment of their own free will. I ask to consider the immoral behavior of the victims and cooperation with the investigation as mitigating circumstances,« said the defendant»s defender.
Punishment
On 5 September 2017, Gladkov was sentenced. He was sent to a strict regime colony for 19 years and restricted freedom for 1.5 years. Also, he must pay the relatives of the killed 1 million rubles (approximately $16,700 at current rates) each in compensation for moral damage. The man was obliged to compensate 27,000 rubles (approximately $450 at current rates) in material damage to the relatives of Tatyana Yevtushenko.
When Roman was being led out of the courtroom, one of the women present said after him: «Hold on, son!»
At that time, Yekaterina left a seven-year-old daughter, and Tatyana—a son. Now the children are 15. Gorbunova«s daughter was raised by her grandmother, and Yevtushenko»s son—by his father.
