Migrant kills family he worked for in Russian village

Five years ago, the news of the murder of an entire family in the quiet village of Kudma near Nizhny Novgorod shocked the whole country. The bodies of four people — three adults and a child — were found in a private house. The brutal crime was pinned on 26-year-old Sharofiddin Amirov, a gardener and handyman who worked for the family. Immediately after the murder, the man stole money and jewelry worth 35 million rubles ($390,000 at current rates) from a safe and tried to flee, but was soon detained. We have reviewed the court case materials and uncovered the details of this high-profile story.

Bloodstains on the white floor

Tragedy struck the Malakhov-Korolyov family on the last day of winter, 28 February 2021. Thirteen-year-old Nastya (name changed) waited for her relatives to pick her up after her horseback riding training, but time passed and nobody came. Her calls to her mother, grandmother, and grandfather went unanswered.

Her father, who was away on a business trip at the time, also could not reach them. He asked a neighbor to go to the property and check if everything was alright. On the private territory, the man was met by a suspicious silence: none of the owners responded to his shouts, although their cars were parked in place. Then things got even more alarming: entering the house, the neighbor noticed bloodstains on the white floor. But the worst discovery awaited him on the second floor — the body of a six-year-old boy lay there.

The murdered boy was the youngest child in the family. On that day, his mother, Elena Malakhova, and his grandparents, Anatoly and Natalya Korolyov, also died. Their bodies were later found by police on the property. The father of the family and 13-year-old Nastya were saved only because they were not at home: during interrogation, the criminal admitted he was ready to kill «anyone who appeared.»

The killer was the gardener

The Malakhovs lived on the very outskirts of the village, where the houses are considered wealthy by locals. The family was indeed well-off: 63-year-old Anatoly was the head of the Nizhny Novgorod Communications Directorate of the Gorky Railway, his 41-year-old daughter Elena ran a flower salon, and her husband headed a large agricultural combine.

They owned two cottages, and a specially hired worker — Sharofiddin Amirov — took care of the garden. The 26-year-old native of Uzbekistan initially helped the family build the house and later took on other household chores: mowing the grass, watering the flowers, and clearing snow in winter. The man lived in a trailer behind the property, and he was forbidden from entering the owners« cottages.

According to the father of the family, all family members had normal relations with Amirov: he was valued as a good worker, paid his salary on time, given clothes and shoes, and the son even considered the man his friend. They often cycled together, played football, or hockey.

The accused, however, painted a very different picture in court. He claimed he committed the murder because of the «unlawful and immoral behavior» of his employers. They allegedly treated him like a slave, spoke to him only in raised voices, and withheld his passport for five months.

Moreover, the worker claimed his wages had not been paid for over two years. He did not tell his relatives about his oppressed situation — allegedly because he did not want them to worry. He did not try to leave either — he believed that he would eventually be given a large sum in one go. On weekends, the man took on private odd jobs and periodically sent the money he saved to his mother. Shortly before the tragedy, he told the family that he would soon have to return to Uzbekistan — for his own wedding.

«He doesn»t know how, but he strangled the child«

So why did the worker decide to commit such a terrible murder? Here, the defendant«s testimony diverges from the official version. Amirov himself claimed that he acted in a state of affect: that day, he asked the owner of the house to return his passport and pay his salary (it was time to go to his fiancée), but in response he only heard a demand to clear the snow from the yard. For refusing to do the work, the pensioner allegedly hit the man on the head and insulted his mother. Amirov could not bear this: he took out a knife and inflicted several wounds on his offender. Then he strangled him with a garrote.

The killer then went from the garage into the cottage, where he encountered the wife of the deceased. He also strangled her with the garrote. Soon, Elena returned home, and the man dealt with her with particular cruelty: he inflicted at least 17 knife wounds. Finally, he went upstairs and killed her six-year-old son.

«At that moment, he was very angry, in an aggressive state, could not control himself, was in shock from the first person he killed. He doesn»t know how, but he strangled the child,« reads the court session materials.

Exclusively mercenary motives

Having killed everyone in the house, Amirov opened the safe, allegedly in search of his passport. Inside, he found not only his documents but also money and gold jewelry, and he decided to take all the valuables with him as compensation for his «wage arrears.» In court, the criminal argued that the idea of theft came to him spontaneously and that he had allegedly not planned anything like that in advance.

The prosecution insisted that the desire to seize the family«s wealth was the sole motive for the crime. The man had prepared the knife and garrote in advance, and after everything, he stole the recordings from the surveillance cameras to avoid being exposed.

«The murder of the victims was not due to a state of shock, but exclusively to the defendant»s mercenary motives, his desire, less than two weeks before his own wedding, to ensure its celebration and the future well-being of his future family by attacking his wealthy employer and his household, and seizing their money and valuables after killing them,« the court later concluded.

After taking the money and jewelry, Amirov called a familiar taxi driver and arranged a ride. Then he went on the run. The car with the driver and two passengers was stopped by police in the Vladimir region — not far from a cafe where the group had stopped to eat. On the morning of 1 March, the suspect was brought to Nizhny Novgorod for questioning.

The verdict

The man was tried on two criminal charges: murder of two or more persons, including a minor, for mercenary motives (paragraphs «a,» «v,» «z» of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code) and robbery (paragraphs «b,» «v» of Part 4 of Article 162 of the Criminal Code). Amirov partially admitted guilt: he denied the mercenary motive and the robbery.

The court deemed all the worker«s testimony about the »unlawful and immoral behavior« of the victims as far-fetched and unsubstantiated, and his guilt — fully proven. On 21 April 2022, Amirov was sentenced to life imprisonment. He is serving his sentence in a special-regime correctional colony.

Earlier, we recalled the tragic story of a Nizhny Novgorod millionaire who killed his wife and two sons and then took his own life.