This Pain Is With Me Forever: Ufa Father on Son's Murder
Karim and Elena would now be almost the same age their parents were on the day of the tragedy.
UFA1.RU spoke with the father of Karim G., who disappeared in 2008 together with his girlfriend and turned out to be a victim of murderous robbers. The families of the deceased still remember the tragedy painfully. We asked the father of one of the victims to tell how the criminals were found and imprisoned.
To recall, 23-year-old Karim and his girlfriend Elena were kidnapped by Evgeny F. and Vladimir Sh., known by the nickname Nemets. The parents of the missing organized large-scale searches and announced a large reward for assistance. Karim«s father was a businessman, Elena»s father ran one of the largest pharmacies in a regional chain, so, according to one version, the couple was kidnapped for ransom.
However, it turned out that Nemets and his accomplice Evgeny had designs on Karim«s car. They took the young couple to a deserted wasteland, killed them, and took the car, money, other valuables, and even the clothes of the deceased Karim. The criminals were found and tried. UFA1.RU published an article about how they were searched for, where they are imprisoned, and what happened to them, and then spoke with the father of one of the victims.
«We knew that Karim and Elena were dead even before we found the murderers,» says the father of the deceased. «Acquaintances called and said there was information about my son»s car, which someone was trying to sell, and that the kids were already dead.«
This information, according to the businessman, came from representatives of Ufa«s organized crime. They, as the entrepreneur explains, were themselves shocked by the lawlessness committed by Vladimir Sh. and Evgeny F.
«Besides the kidnapping and murder, they also had episodes [with other victims]. These [fools] just needed money. Evgeny is a drug addict, Vladimir is a »gambler,« up to his ears in debt. They tried to sell the car for 50,000 rubles (approximately $550 at current rates), not very smart guys,» recounts the father of their victim. It is worth noting that in 2008, Karim«s new Honda Accord was valued at about one million rubles (approximately $11,000 at current rates) in Russia, and a price twenty times lower could not but raise suspicions.
After Karim and Elena disappeared, their parents organized a search campaign, plastering the entire city with posters featuring photos of the missing and their car. The headquarters, as the young man«s father recalls, was set up in the office of a lawyer friend on Lenin Street. They also, of course, reported it to the police, and law enforcement began wiretapping the phones of the couple»s close relatives.
Flyers with photos of Karim and Elena covered almost all of Ufa in February 2008.
Even before information about the kids« death came, an unknown man called Karim»s father and arranged a meeting to discuss a sum for the return of the missing. At the scene, it turned out that this man had nothing to do with the kidnapping and had simply seen the missing persons poster.
«We met, and it immediately became clear he was a nobody. An absolutely pointless little man who decided he could profit from our grief,» explains the Ufa resident.
It was the information about selling the car that eventually led to the kidnappers. According to Karim«s father, an acquaintance gave him the address where the car was standing over the phone, and the law enforcement officers who were wiretapping the phone went there themselves.
«The police intercepted the initiative and detained Evgeny – with gunfire. He started to drive away in the car, and the policemen opened fire – hit a tire, and took Evgeny,» recounts the entrepreneur.
The detainee quickly confessed to everything. Incidentally, he was dressed in clothes he had taken from the already dead Karim. Later, in another region, the second kidnapper was also caught. Notably, according to Evgeny, both victims were killed by Vladimir, but he only took responsibility for one death.
Vladimir is now also dead.
«It also seemed to me that, purely psychologically, Evgeny was not capable of murder, but the second one was ready both morally and physically. But the prosecution proved that both of them killed,» recalls the father of the deceased.
According to him, the most difficult part of the case was proving the involvement of a third defendant. Evgeny and Vladimir said that to commit the robbery, they took a gas pistol from a lawyer acquaintance, Marat M., with whom they had come up with the idea that they could get money with a weapon. According to the prosecution, he was the ideological inspiration for the upcoming crime. He himself objected, explaining his innocence, in part, by saying that his friends took the pistol without asking and did not tell him about their intentions.
«His father was the head doctor of a district hospital, his brother was a justice of the peace, his uncle was the head of a police school. Vladimir and Evgeny changed their testimonies. They were already serving their sentences and spoke in court and via video link, saying they had been pressured when they reported Marat»s involvement in the crime. But in the end, we managed to get him imprisoned. It took a lot of nerves, effort, and time: we wrote to the General Prosecutor«s Office, the Investigative Committee, and the president,» says Karim«s dad.
Marat has already served his sentence, Vladimir died and is buried at the Northern Cemetery in Ufa, and Evgeny, according to the verdict, should still be in prison.
«I learned about Vladimir»s death through the penal service. He was also ordered to pay compensation, but of course he didn«t pay a penny. That»s not important – it«s not about the money. What did I feel when I found out he was gone? Nothing. To me, he is nobody. He died – so he died. The other one is sick all over, he asked to go to the SVO (special military operation), but they didn»t let him,« says the father of the murdered man.
In 2025, Elena«s father also passed away. This, according to his companion in misfortune, was preceded by illness. Moreover, he too was still deeply affected by his daughter»s death.
«It still hurts,» admits Karim«s father. »We used to hold memorial meetings constantly, but we stopped in the last two or three years. Maybe because we got tired. Those moments will never disappear psychologically. It probably also influenced the fact that my wife and I separated. I couldn«t live like that. We maintain friendly relations, but we divorced. I have a different family now, I have a son. But this pain is with me forever.»
Karim and Elena are buried side by side at the Southern Cemetery.
UFA1.RU collects crime stories and high-profile investigations in a special section. Also read about a serial killer who challenged detectives, and the contract killing of a top manager of one of Ufa«s largest plants.
