Sweat Odor Analysis Leads to Killer of 12-Year-Old Girl After 8 Years

In April 2011, in Tambov Oblast, a bulletin began to circulate: 12-year-old Tanya K. was missing. On the 8th, the girl left school in the small town of Zherdevka (Tambov Oblast, Russia) and disappeared. She was found only five days later – dead. Her body was thoroughly washed, even her nails trimmed. And there were no witnesses who could suggest what happened to the girl.

The mystery of Tanya«s death would be fully revealed only 11 years later. Even participants of the show »Battle of Psychics« (16+) would search for the killer. And it turned out that the guilty one was all this time near the victim»s family. We tell the horrifying story that for years disturbed the residents of the small district center.

“Such a Thing Never Happened Here”

Zherdevka – a district center in Tambov Oblast, on the border with Voronezh Oblast. In the early 2010s, slightly more than 15,000 people lived there. For a small town, even the disappearance of a child, not to mention murder – is a shock.

In the bulletin on Tanya after her disappearance, it was reported: slender, brown eyes, light brown hair, with a small mole above the upper lip. She went to school in black pants, a white nylon jacket and a white cap. Relatives said that Tanya was an excellent student, while helping her grandmother with the household, loved to draw.

When Tanya did not return home on that terrible April day, her grandmother began to sound the alarm. She immediately called the girl«s mother, Nina, who lived and worked in Moscow. She came immediately and went to the police. Searches began, to which, it seemed, the whole town joined. Parks, abandoned buildings, dark streets – everything was searched. All of Zherdevka waited for good news to arrive at any moment… But people waited in vain.

Tanya was found raped and dead 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) from Zherdevka. A tractor driver plowing a field noticed a bag with legs sticking out of it. On the cleanly washed body, law enforcement did not find any clues.

The news of the murder horrified the town«s residents. Parents were afraid to let children go out alone on the streets, and teachers in schools did not know how to talk to children about what happened.

“The case is unprecedented, of course, and horrifying,” one of Tanya«s teachers said. “Such a thing never happened here in my memory.”

“He Knew He Wouldn«t Be Found”

The investigation had practically no versions of who could have done such a thing to the girl. All local men previously involved in similar crimes were questioned. Suspects also included acquaintances of the victim«s family, even Tanya»s father was called in for interrogation. But finding the guilty one was not successful. Rumors reached that the police themselves were involved in the murder and therefore the investigation was taking so long.

By autumn, no suspect had appeared in the case. And Tanya«s desperate mother turned to the show »Battle of Psychics«. The hope was for help not only from supernatural forces, but also from elementary publicity. However, neither one nor the other helped much.

The psychics did not give the mother of the murdered girl a single version of what happened. They repeated rumors that the criminal was a policeman. Participant of the ninth season of the show, Natalya Banteeva, especially insisted on this version.

“She got into the killer«s car herself,” the psychic was sure.

Another clairvoyant, Zuliya Radzhabova, insisted that the girl was attempted to be used in the filming of child pornography. Also, the psychic believed that the killers would not be caught.

But the killer was eventually found. However, for this, several more years were required.

Lie Detector

When the psychics left, investigators continued with the routine of the investigation. Among other things, they checked the friends and acquaintances of the girl«s family on a polygraph – a lie detector. And here, suddenly, luck: one of the acquaintances of Tanya»s mother had ambiguous answers. His name was Igor Skorokhodov.

45-year-old Skorokhodov was the cohabitant of Nina«s best friend, Marina. He took the polygraph in 2013, then he was first detained. But the evidence against him was only indirect. On the day of Tanya»s murder, he was home alone and did not answer calls – that«s all. Investigators suggested that the girl might have gone to Igor and Marina»s house to congratulate her mother«s friend on her birthday.

Marina immediately began to stand up for her common-law husband.

“Two years passed, and local men continued to be called to the police. Igor also went, moreover on his own, at the first call,” the woman told journalists. “I don«t think the girl remembered my birthday and could have come to us. Moreover, there is evidence that Tanya passed by our house and was seen further down the street. But these facts no one even considers.”

The suspect himself also denied his guilt.

“Before detention, I was repeatedly called as a witness, without summons. They forced me to take the blame for Tanya«s murder, said that everyone was against me, and after refusal threatened to find a reason to arrest me. <…> When I was detained as a suspect, in the cell they again began to force me to sign their script of the murder. Interrogations were conducted day and night. I was beaten, and then accused of slandering the investigative bodies and inflicting the beatings on myself,” Skorokhodov claimed.

In the end, his guilt in 2013 could not be proven – the court did not consider the indirect evidence collected by investigators sufficient to keep the man in custody. Skorokhodov was released.

The Perfect Crime

For the next few years, the investigation was at a dead end, and then the case was even closed. Perhaps, the mystery of Tanya«s murder would have remained unsolved forever, if not for the perseverance of her mother Nina. In 2017, she, still not giving up, decided to turn to the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin. He ordered the investigation to be resumed.

New collection of evidence and testimony led to an unexpected result: suddenly new victims of Skorokhodov were identified. No, he did not kill anyone else, however several underage girls reported that the man harassed them at different times. Skorokhodov was detained again, an unusual examination was appointed – olfactory. It involves studying and comparing smells, and it had just begun to be applied at that time. An expert studied the smell of the suspect«s sweat and the smell from the bag in which Tanya»s body was found – everything matched.

“There were no direct clues. He got rid of everything, foresaw everything. The perfect crime. Neither his biological materials, nor her clothes, on which traces could remain, he threw everything away at the city dump. Only the smell of sweat from his hands on the bag in which she lay, and also on her hair elastic,” the girl«s mother recounted.

When Skorokhodov began to be asked how his smell could have ended up on one of the clues, the man gave up and confessed to everything. Showed where and how he killed the girl. Everything indeed happened at his home, where Tanya came to congratulate her mother«s friend. Marina was not home, but the girl could no longer escape. Initially, Skorokhodov did not intend to take the victim»s life, only to rape her. But, according to the killer, Tanya screamed too loudly – and he strangled her. Then he thoroughly washed her and, naked, in a bag, took her to a field beyond Zherdevka.

Several more years were spent on completing the investigation and trials. The killer«s guilt was finally proven and he was sentenced only in December 2022. Skorokhodov himself did not live to see the verdict – he died in a pre-trial detention center shortly before the last court session.