'Vicious and Cruel': 15-Year-Old Held Ural Village in Fear, Killed Mother of Three

Gornouralsky is a small settlement, a satellite of Nizhny Tagil. Only about 2,700 people live here, so residents admit: «Everyone knows everyone.» That«s why the tragedy that happened to 47-year-old Natalya Kiryanova was such a shock to locals.

Natalya was a mother of three; her eldest daughter is an adult, her son went to serve in the military, and the youngest is still in school. The woman raised the children alone. According to relatives, her first husband died, then she had a partner, but they separated. She worked as an operator at a farm. Everyone who knew her describes her as quiet and very kind-hearted. On January 6, she was at work and afterwards stopped by a store to buy food for a Christmas Eve dinner.

In the stairwell of her building, the woman encountered a local troublemaker—15-year-old Anton. It is unknown why he came to this building, but that chance meeting proved fatal: the teenager stabbed Natalya in the stomach and fled. The victim barely made it to her apartment, where her family called an ambulance. She was immediately taken to the hospital and operated on, but they could not save her. The patient died on January 12.

The suspected murderer was found quickly: he was placed under house arrest, but he removed his ankle monitor and ran away. For five days, Anton was on the run, and during this time local residents were afraid to leave their homes. The schoolboy was detained after a five-day manhunt: he had gone to a friend«s birthday party.

Here is what is known about the accused, his victim, and the circumstances of the tragedy.

A Troubled Teen with a Difficult Fate

Everyone in the settlement knows 15-year-old Anton; he is a well-known local bully. They say he has started fights repeatedly and even slashed car tires. His family is described as dysfunctional.

The boy did poorly in school from the elementary grades and provoked conflicts with classmates. Anton«s mother died, his father remarried, and the teenager lived with his dad and stepmother. Meanwhile, his biological sister lives under the guardianship of relatives. The schoolgirl explained that she does not communicate with her brother.

«Neither the father nor his wife were interested in raising him. Both are drinkers, there were regular beatings in the family, the boy even stood up for his stepmother when his father raised a hand against her. The child himself got poor grades, was held back a year. Last year he was sent to a Chelyabinsk personality correction center. His father formally transferred him to homeschooling, but the boy also ran away from that center.

At the same time, Anton has clear leadership qualities; he dragged many kids down the wrong path, they started skipping school and drinking. Some boys, especially those a couple of years younger, hang on his every word. He had influence over those around him,« says a local resident familiar with the family.

Even while under house arrest, the guy did not mope; friends came to see him. The teenagers posted «stories» online. In a short video, one of the guys got a phone call. Then Anton asked him not to say where he was.

«You»re like a convict!« laughs another friend in the video, filming the accused with an ankle monitor on his leg.

Attacked a Boy with an Intellectual Disability

It turned out that the attack on Natalya was not his first. Shortly before, Anton, together with friends, beat up another boy. According to locals, the victim of that thuggery was a teenager with special needs. The first time, in December 2025, he got away with bruises, and the second time, during the New Year holidays, he was hospitalized with fractures.

Immediately after his detention for Natalya«s murder, the accused showed no remorse whatsoever for what had happened.

«He showed no signs of remorse, and he himself cannot explain the reason for the attack, did it thoughtlessly. He said he felt bad, he took a knife and went for a walk. In the stairwell, he met a woman, passed her on the stairs going up, then went back down and stabbed her in the stomach. After that, he just left. Moreover, he was sober at the time of the crime,» a source told E1.RU.

Residents of Gornouralsky put forward several theories about what happened. One is that the accused may have an undiagnosed mental condition. Another is that the reason lay precisely in the other incident—the beating of the boy with an intellectual disability. Allegedly, a woman passing by at that time had scolded the hooligans, and Anton may have mistaken Natalya for that woman.

«Many theories circulated in the settlement. It was suggested that Anton could have done it on a dare with friends. And there was another version that there was some kind of »drug stash« on the upper floor, and he was afraid of being caught. This teenager was caught drinking many times, but nothing is known for sure about drugs; that»s more of an assumption,« local resident Elena shared with E1.RU.

While Anton was on the run, residents of the settlement were afraid to go outside.

«Of course, it»s scary. You go to work—it«s dark, you come home from work—also dark. You see, a woman entered the stairwell and never made it to her apartment! And there was no motive. We were afraid of running into him ourselves, and we were scared to send our children to school,» explained Gornouralsky resident Tatyana.

«A Person with the Kindest Soul»

That is how friends and loved ones describe the deceased Natalya. According to her acquaintance Oksana, the woman had been calm and friendly since her youth.

«She would never say a bad word to anyone. A real gentle soul. She loved her children very much. At the same time, she was hardworking and still found time to help her elderly mother. All her children are also good kids,» the acquaintance noted. «At the hospital, doctors fought for her life, Natasha herself is a fighter: the day after the operation she was moved to a regular ward, she came to. But, unfortunately, the injuries proved incompatible with life, and she passed away on January 12.»

Nadezhda, a relative of the deceased, also calls Natalya responsive and sweet, saying that «there are very few people like her.»

«Our settlement is small, everyone knows each other. And everyone knew this hooligan: a bad reputation spreads fast. That day Natasha became a random victim; he didn»t care who he ran into, he just killed that person,« Nadezhda said.

What the Teenager Faces

The Investigative Committee reported that charges have already been brought against the teenager. A criminal case has been initiated under Part 1 of Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code (murder). The Chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed the head of the Sverdlovsk region Investigative Committee to report on the progress of the investigation.

Lawyer Sergei Kolosovsky explained to E1.RU that the teenager faces a maximum of ten years imprisonment for murder.

«In principle, our formal procedures are oriented towards a softer approach to choosing preventive measures for minors. Furthermore, charges do not guarantee guilt,» the lawyer explained. «It is unknown what evidence is in the case, how obvious the situation is. Nothing has been proven, so a preventive measure is chosen specifically when there are grounds to believe the person may flee. Another matter is if the teenager has already run away from home, for example. Apparently, they approached it formally, as always. Where they shouldn»t, they arrest, and where they should, they don«t.»

Sergei Kolosovsky added that by law, minors are held separately from adults—there are special «juvenile» cells in pre-trial detention centers. If the court decides to change the preventive measure, the accused will be sent to a pre-trial detention center.

Earlier we reported how the teenager was detained and what is known about this incident.

All news about the tragedy is collected in a separate topic.