Teacher Gets Six Years for Killing Tyrant Husband

Our colleague from VORONEZH1.RU Tatyana Telpis tells the story of a family drama that left three children without parents.

On May 24, 2025, Natasha* published a photo on her personal social media page: she is smiling, with sparkling eyes, a glimpse of a bare knee, and a red rose by her lips. The same picture became her profile photo.

The last photo on her page — a cat curled up with the caption «My barometer predicted a cold snap» — is from June 14 of the same year. Between them was a strange repost from a community of «magicians, sorcerers, and witches,» but it has since been deleted. I was surprised: among her subscriptions — alongside pages with recipes, jokes, and mom sites — there are several «family-astropsychological» ones. A mother of many children, a teacher with higher education — and «astrological attachments» and «how to hook a man by zodiac sign»? But the further this story unfolds before me, the more everything falls into place: there, at the bottom.

Less than a month would pass. On July 10, one of the district courts in Voronezh would call Natasha a murderer who stabbed her husband Igor* twice with a knife, sentence her to six years in a standard-regime colony, and order her to pay the relatives of the deceased half a million rubles (about $5,000 at current rates) in «moral damages.» Natasha would be handcuffed and sent to a pre-trial detention center. Outside, there would be hellish heat — +33°C (91°F).

***

On December 3, 2025, the regional court upheld the district court«s decision: it rejected the appeals of Natasha and her lawyer, and the sentence took effect immediately. Three children — hers and Igor»s, two schoolchildren and a preschooler — were left without both father and mother.

Natalya Fomina is 41 years old, a teacher. For no one — neither the investigation nor the court — was it a secret that the deceased Igor drank and beat Natalya. That evening on January 27, 2024, he was again not just drunk — in an almost unconscious state — and he also hit her. Fomina and her lawyer insisted: she was defending herself and exceeded the limits of necessary self-defense. The punishment for that is much less: two years maximum, and imprisonment is more the exception. Plus, if there are children under 14, the article allows for a deferred sentence.

Fomina«s case was considered by four judges (one in the district, three in the regional panel) — two of them women. Both prosecutors — women. Natalya — a mother of many children and a victim of her victim — was not pitied.

Guardianship over the children was arranged by her 72-year-old disabled mother, and the defense plans to appeal further — to the cassation court.

The Beginning of the End

They married when she was 23, he a bit older. A lovestruck girl-teacher and a graduate of a railway university. That they had no home of their own and the mother-in-law didn«t particularly like the son-in-law — for whom is that an obstacle? After the killing, Natalya»s mother — herself a former teacher — would tell journalists that they wandered from corner to corner for a long time, and only got an apartment when the second child was born. According to the mother-in-law, «largely thanks to Natalya,» apparently helped by her teacher status. But with children, it didn«t work out for long. And Igor started drinking, according to the mother-in-law, soon after the birth of the second child: the baby almost died, the son-in-law blamed Natalya for everything — and went off the rails. She says her daughter even complained that he was ready to kill her.

«Soon after the birth of the second child» — that was over 10 years ago. The beginning of the wild tragedy — there. The further it went, the harsher Igor«s drinking bouts became — and the stronger his fists. He didn»t touch the children — he took his madness out on her. In 2014, they divorced. Only Natalya didn«t kick out the beloved tyrant, didn»t gather up her son and daughter in her arms, didn«t slam the door, saving herself and them from drunken fights. And no one talked sense into her. No one ran to the police, to the Investigative Committee: children in danger. Although her mother and colleagues now say they saw bruises on her, that he fought and smashed everything in the apartment, Natalya even showed someone a clump of hair he had torn out — everyone knew everything.

The drinking he and the suffering she continued to live together as a full family, having a third child.

From the appeal ruling of the Voronezh Regional Court:

«After drinking alcohol, he became aggressive, used violence against her, could hit her in the face a couple of times. Despite appeals to the police, she always forgave him, as he was a good person, helped her and the children. Due to the fact that (Igor — Ed.) periodically drank alcohol, their marriage was dissolved, but then they started living together again, as she loved him.»

Classic. Natalya would cover up another bruise and cry on her friend«s shoulder: »We have a special bond — we were married in church!« Into the materials of her criminal case for murder, the investigator would later attach Igor»s written promise where he vows to get coded and mend his ways. And all this madness — in front of three children.

The problem is that Natalya not only «endured and forgave.» She periodically drank together with her «special one.» At least, on the eve of the killing, for sure.

Heart and Liver Pierced

Testimony of Natalya Fomina from the district court«s verdict:

«On 26.01.2024, she and (Igor) were at home at the address <…>, drinking alcohol in the kitchen, the children were also at home. Around 9:30 PM on 26.01.2024, (Igor) got dressed and left home. Where <…>, she doesn»t know, it seemed to her he got drunk again and «flipped out,» unjustifiably jealous of her. She went to sleep around 10:00 PM on 26.01.2024. The children also went to sleep, as they have a sleep schedule and go to bed around the same time. Around 4:00 AM on 27.01.2024, (Igor) returned home heavily intoxicated and went to sleep. He woke up <…>, probably at 8:00 AM on 27.01.2024, and after that immediately started behaving inappropriately, woke her and the children, continued drinking beer. Due to (Igor«s) behavior, she and the children had to leave home to wait for him to calm down. She dressed the youngest child, and they went to escort the middle daughter to a classmate»s birthday party. The eldest son went out with friends and then stayed at his grandmother«s.»

From the appeal ruling of the Voronezh Regional Court:

«Around 12:30 PM, she returned home with her youngest son, who then stayed in the further room. After 3 PM, (Igor) continued drinking beer in the kitchen, and she settled on the sofa in another room. At some point, (Igor) came into the room, under a fabricated pretext pulled her from the sofa to the floor, and punched her in the chin. She was talking on the phone with her friend <…> at that time. Feeling severe pain and fearing that (Igor) would continue beating her, she ran to the kitchen, as she couldn»t leave the apartment (the door handle was broken. According to Natalya«s mother, Igor broke it. — Ed.). In the kitchen, she took a knife from the stand, and since she had nowhere else to run, decided to scare (Igor) with it. She held the knife by the handle with the blade down. At that time, (Igor) ran into the kitchen, took a glass and a plastic bottle with 1.5 liters of beer from the table. Approaching her, in a swing, he hit her on the head with the bottle tangentially. In response, she struck (Igor) once with the knife in the chest area, after which he sank to the floor and turned purple. Realizing he was dying, she called an ambulance and started giving him artificial respiration, but (Igor) stopped showing signs of life. She had no intent to kill (Igor).»

High relations in an intelligent teacher«s family with three children. The scandal that day was over some coat that Igor couldn»t find. There were two knife blows, as experts established, the liver and heart were affected, the fatal one was an open chest wound damaging the heart, the length of the wound on the front surface of the chest approached 16 centimeters.

Natalya«s mother told journalists after the verdict that on January 25, 2024, her son-in-law had a birthday, and from then on he »didn«t sober up,» and on the 27th, around 3 PM, her daughter called her saying: «I stabbed Igor with a knife.» A medical alcohol test for Natalya was conducted only the day after the killing — the test was negative. Just a day later — on January 29 — she was released from pre-trial detention on a written pledge not to leave, despite the charge of intentional murder. The alcohol concentration in Igor«s corpse was 4.69 per mille — 15.63 times more than the legal limit for driving: comatose.

Why Her Charge Was Not Mitigated

Six years in a colony — the minimum term for intentional murder. Among the bonuses — mitigating circumstances that counted were Natalya«s positive references with certificates and gratitude, children, care for her disabled mother of the second group, calling 112 immediately after committing the crime, and the »unlawful behavior« of the victim. During interrogation by the investigator and at the investigative experiment, Natalya admitted that she stabbed her ex-husband from top to bottom in the left chest area — and showed how exactly. In a pathopsychological examination, she said:

«(Igor) started picking on me, we started arguing, he approached me, grabbed my left hand, hit me in the jaw, I fought back with my legs, I hit him in the genital area. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife. He swung and threw a beer bottle at me, after which I rushed at him and stabbed him in the chest. I remember the blow vaguely, I remember rushing at him. After that, he slid to the floor.»

But. In court, she retracted these statements. Insisted on forced self-defense and that she didn«t strike Igor with the blade, but pushed him away, protecting herself and her son, — she did not wish his death. The defense pressed that Natalya was interrogated immediately on the night after the killing, then dragged to the »experiment.« According to the lawyers, all confessions about the knife strike and its mechanism were essentially squeezed out by psychological pressure, and nothing else interested the investigator. The examination that found Natalya fully sane, without »accumulation of emotional tension with perception of the situation as hopeless,« was not conducted in a hospital, and as a result, the preliminary investigation ended in a record two months, ticking the box for a solved particularly serious crime.

The court brushed aside the arguments: domestic drunken fights — everything is obvious. The judicial investigation in the district, however, stretched for a year and three months, out of nine hearings all nine were postponed, on the tenth — the verdict. But with the court«s logic, in my opinion, it»s hard to argue. I quote the appeal ruling — you can«t take words out of a song:

«Despite the dissolution of the marriage in 2014 and domestic conflicts between them on the grounds of his alcoholism, until the criminal event they continued to live together with the children in the same residential premises and run a joint household. The convicted woman did not take any active actions to prevent (Igor) from being in her apartment, and consequently, from applying domestic violence to her, just as she did not take steps to bring the deceased to established legal responsibility. On the contrary, as the guilty party explained, she loved (Igor), considered him a positive person who helped her and the children. Besides, on the evening before the incident, they drank alcohol together, intending to go to the victim»s mother the next day to congratulate her on her birthday.«

The court also emphasized that there were two knife blows, not one, including in the area of vital organs. That even on that day — January 27, 2024 — when dead-drunk Igor once again got handsy, she didn«t call the police, didn»t flee the house with the child. Yes, in those minutes he threatened «to finish her off.» But the potential danger from a blow with a plastic bottle — even half-full — is incomparable to the threat from a blade 33.5 centimeters long. The injuries that Igor inflicted on Natalya a few minutes before the killing were considered by experts not dangerous to life and health.

Dry facts, no emotions in the logic of the law. Although, if there had been a jury, the outcome — I don«t exclude — could have been different.

Instead of an Afterword

On her personal social media page, Natalya has many photos: from 2017 — about three hundred. Children, children, her with children, children. At home, in cafes, on excursions, at the sea, gifts, toys. Children — pride, children — joy and the meaning of her life.

Photos with Igor together — not a single one. There are only four pictures — him with one of the children, and one of them Natalya posted several months after the killing. Her friend later told journalists that Natalya confessed to her: it«s hard, you know, without him — she misses him.

After the verdict, Natalya«s and Igor»s relatives poured buckets of dirt on each other through the media, proving that they very much love their joint children. Only for over 10 years, everyone was fine with everything — for some reason.

The key to this story — in the words of the prosecutor, which were later replicated by the press: Natalya did not have a state of prolonged psychotrauma because she had adapted to such a life.

I«ll tell you more. When on that last day he chased her around the house drunk, she — remember? — was talking on the phone with a friend. In court, this friend — a colleague — confirmed that she heard everything. Natalya»s mother told the court: shortly before the call with the message «I stabbed,» her daughter also called her — complained that he was chasing her. Neither the friend nor the mother raised the police. Neighbors, of course, also heard nothing unusual.

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I have no doubt that Natalya Fomina will be released on parole. And I«m sure the millstone of our penitentiary system won»t swallow her. Although — there«s cassation ahead, and the story could still turn around. We will return to the topic of domestic violence and overcoming this fatal »family matter, no need to complain, and we won«t interfere.» For now — something hopeful.

On January 22, the Investigative Committee reported that in the Krasnodar Territory, they are conducting a check for signs of torture and threat of murder after a local resident published an online video appeal to Alexander Bastrykin — her son-in-law systematically uses violence against her daughter and little granddaughter, during a recent quarrel he brutally beat them, the police are inactive. Bastrykin instructed his Krasnodar colleagues not to stand on ceremony with «checks» and to open a criminal case with a report on his desk.

* Personal data of the publication«s heroes have been changed.