Top student stabs father, banker kills boss, mother dismembers son in 2025 murders
In 2025, there were many high-profile crimes. Among them were typical drunken knife fights and domestic disputes. Criminals killed their victims over money, out of jealousy, and even in an attempt to save their own lives.
Alongside economic and political crimes, there were contract killings, which resulted in harm to random passersby. Some criminal cases remain unsolved, and law enforcement continues to investigate them.
MSK1.RU correspondent Vera Borisova recalled the most high-profile murders that occurred in Moscow and the Moscow region in 2025.
A body lay in the debris. Terror attack in the elite Scarlet Sails residential complex
On the morning of 3 February, an explosion occurred at the elite Scarlet Sails residential complex on Aviatsionnaya Street. Windows were blown out in the building«s lobby, the interior was damaged, and the ceiling collapsed. Two people were killed and three others were wounded.
The explosive device detonated when one of the residents, 46-year-old Armen Sarkisyan—the head of the Donetsk People«s Republic (DPR) Boxing Federation and founder of the »ArBat« battalion—entered the entrance with his security detail.
Later at the scene, besides Sarkisyan, another victim was found. The person could not be immediately identified as the body was severely damaged. It turned out to be a security guard.
«All I know is that Armen always had security, people always went with him with equipped suitcases,» a local resident told MSK1.RU. «They checked all the trash bins, sofas. He is our hero. As far as I know, he is the creator of the »Arbat« battalion. He is a very cultured, well-mannered person. He always provides help, quite tolerant.»
The President of the DPR Boxing Federation had been involved in training volunteers in the zone of the «special military operation». Ukraine had declared him wanted. During the explosion, Sarkisyan was seriously injured and lost a leg. Doctors tried to save him but couldn«t. He died in intensive care. The president of the DPR Boxing Federation was buried on 6 February at Troekurovskoye Cemetery.
Investigators suggested that the explosive was attached to the body of a suicide bomber, and he detonated it when the victim exited the elevator.
The investigation established that one of the accomplices brought an anti-personnel bomb with a special detonator, which could have been triggered remotely. Several other people were monitoring the situation. According to the head of the first department for investigating particularly important cases of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for Moscow, other suspects in the case had rented apartments in the elite residential complex.
«In our opinion, the bombing was commissioned by the Ukrainian authorities and carried out through ethnic criminal elements,» an investigator specified.
After the tragedy, MSK1.RU spoke with radio host and actress Alla Dovlatova about what was happening in the residential complex after the incident. She expressed doubt about how effectively the video surveillance system in their building was functioning. MSK1.RU collected all the news about this incident in a separate report.
Schoolboy killed a child because of his nationality
On 9 April, a tragedy occurred in the settlement of Nekrasovsky in the Dmitrovsky urban district—a 14-year-old teenager stabbed his 9-year-old friend to death. The tragedy happened at an informal parking lot near the entrance to a dormitory.
After the murder, the boy tried to stage an attack on himself. He likely did this to pass off his actions as self-defense. To do this, he wounded himself with the knife—in the leg. Medics managed to save him.
According to relatives of the deceased child, he was not acquainted with the attacker. The boy studied at the local school, was an excellent student, was fond of football, and had many certificates of merit.
«It all happened around noon. The children are on vacation, and he was sitting at home,» a relative of the deceased recounted. «His mother went out to the store, and then it all happened. Mom returned from the store and saw all this. Who the killer is, who his parents are—we don»t know anything. But he confessed to the crime, he was detained, they brought him here last night, he showed everything, how he killed and so on,« the uncle of the victim told MSK1.RU at the time.
The true motive for the murder became known after investigators classified the 14-year-old«s actions. The youth was charged with a crime under paragraphs »v« and »l« of part 2 of Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code: »Murder of a minor motivated by national hatred.«
The teenager failed to carry the staging through to the end: he was detained at the Iksha railway station and received medical aid. And he confessed to the crime. We provided more details about the tragedy in a separate report.
An A-student stabbed her own father to death
Early in the morning on 15 April, residents of a building on Bartenevskaya Street in Yuzhnoye Butovo heard strange noises coming from a neighboring apartment. At first it seemed like people were throwing things at each other behind the wall—as if furniture was even flying around the apartment. There was also a man«s cry: »I«ll kill you!» And then everything fell silent.
A few hours later, in the apartment, they discovered the body of 41-year-old Rodion (all names have been changed. — Ed.)—a security guard at a garage cooperative. He was lying in the kitchen covered in blood—a red trail stretched behind him. There was chaos everywhere: clothes, bags, shoes, and other items were scattered around the apartment.
The deceased turned out to be the father of two daughters: 20-year-old Tatyana and 15-year-old Alena. That morning the girls were getting ready for school—one to school, the other to a medical college.
The younger one was an excellent student and, according to open data, participated in competitions and forums on ecology. The girls« mother, who works as a nurse in pediatric dentistry, had left for her shift.
As reported by the Telegram channel Baza, the father came out of his room into the kitchen and scolded the girls for not turning off the TV. After that, he approached his elder daughter and declared that today she must go with him to the bank and take out a loan for 1.4 million rubles (approx. $14,000). Judging by data from the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP), the man was mired in debt—he needed to cover another loan.
Later it became known that microfinance organizations had regularly sued the deceased: he often took out loans and didn«t pay the debts. In 2012, the man was convicted for distributing and storing drugs on an especially large scale, as well as for violence against representatives of authority.
According to the investigation«s version, Tatyana refused to go to the bank with her father, after which a conflict broke out, which escalated into a fight. The man grabbed a kitchen knife and swung it several times at his elder daughter, hitting her palm. After that, he started beating Tatyana. Alena intervened to defend her sister.
«At this time, his 15-year-old daughter inflicted a stab wound on him in the neck area. From the injury received, the man died at the scene,» the Investigative Committee«s press service clarified.
Details of the tragedy were compared to the high-profile case of the Khachaturyan sisters, who were accused of killing their father—Mikhail Khachaturyan. Earlier, MSK1.RU collected the family«s story. Read about what acquaintances say about the deceased and his daughters. We publish all the most important information in a separate report.
He brutally killed his boss in front of colleagues
During the day on 30 September, a high-profile incident occurred not far from central Moscow: Sberbank branch deputy head Natalya Paskova was killed by her own subordinate, Konstantin Toporov. The killer burst into the branch on Avtozavodskaya Street with a knife, scared off clients, and stabbed his boss to death. The woman died at the scene from her injuries.
«There were so many people standing [in the bank], the clients would have subdued him [the attacker] in two seconds. But they all, like scared hamsters, ran out and left her alone there. And she died there on the spot. Then the ambulance and resuscitation team arrived first, and then the police came—they rushed in with machine guns, in body armor and helmets,» an employee of a flower shop located next to the bank told MSK1.RU.
According to investigators, the bank employee who killed his boss planned the crime in advance. He used a household knife, which he took from home, as the weapon. According to preliminary information, the man had been fired and came to settle matters with the manager.
During the day, Toporov came to the bank branch and stabbed his victim no fewer than two times. At that moment, Natalya, with bloodied hands, staggering, collapsed to the floor. She died on the spot before medics arrived. Meanwhile, the former bank employee dropped the knife and left the building.
Almost immediately after the first reports of the murder appeared online, the victim«s husband arrived at the scene, breaking through the lines of armed security forces and guards into the Sberbank branch. »Let me see my wife! Where is Natasha?« he shouted at everyone who tried to block his path. In a conversation with MSK1.RU, he confirmed he was the husband of the deceased.
The enraged husband near the branch shouted in despair: «What for? She worked for 25 years, never stole a thing!» He did not give up trying to go inside to the body of his stabbed wife, but they never let him see Natalya. He left the scene after investigators gave him his wife«s bag.
In a conversation with MSK1.RU, the attacker«s mother shared that she had not communicated with her son for a long time. But she clarified that his fifth-grade daughter had come to stay with them during summer vacation. She flatly refuses to speak about what happened.
«I cannot give any comments. I live on the other side of the world and know nothing. [Recently] we did not communicate. There was no quarrel between us,» the mother told MSK1.RU. «We text somewhere once a month. There»s no need to communicate more often. The child was with us in the summer.«
During interrogation, Toporov stated: «Four disciplinary penalties were applied to me. Completely unlawfully.» He also could not answer why he killed his boss. But confessed: «They were mocking me.»
When the investigator asked: «Do you repent of what you have done?» The accused answered: «Yes, I should have found another way.» Toporov was charged under Part 1 of Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code (Murder) and sent to a pre-trial detention center.
A child«s severed head found in a pond
In Balashikha near Moscow, 31-year-old mother Elena Ts. confessed to the brutal murder of her six-year-old son. On 16 November, divers in the Golyanovsky pond discovered the severed head of a child. At the same time, his decapitated body was found on the balcony of the apartment where the boy lived with his mother.
A neighbor who lives next door recalled that she saw Elena for the first time on Saturday, 15 November.
«I only heard screams last week on Thursday, she was shouting something out the window in a frantic voice. It was around 11 p.m. At half past four in the morning they continued, but inside the apartment. I didn»t see a man or a grandmother,« the neighbor shared with MSK1.RU.
According to media reports, the child«s mother was registered with a psychiatrist and was dependent on drugs. During interrogation, she confessed to the crime but could not explain why she decided to brutally murder her son. Later the woman retracted her testimony.
Journalists wrote that her live-in partner was also suspected, but his detention has not been officially confirmed. The Investigative Committee reported that Elena herself threw the child«s body parts into the reservoir.
The suspect«s mother did not believe in her daughter»s guilt. Meanwhile, neighbors in conversation with MSK1.RU described Elena as a strange and often screaming woman.
A criminal case was opened against Elena under the article on murder of a minor (paragraph «v» of part 2 of Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code). It carries a punishment of up to life imprisonment. The court sent her to a pre-trial detention center.
