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Episode: Case 299: Olga Chardymova

Author: Casefile Presents
Duration: 00:44:03

Episode Shownotes

*** Content warnings: Child victims *** In 2002, 10-year-old Russian girl, Olga Chardymova was allowed to walk to her grandmother’s house unaccompanied for the very first time. Her journey barely began before she met a monster. For years after her death, Olga’s parents were continually tormented by another kind. ---

Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Holly Boyd Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-299-olga-chardymova

Full Transcript

00:00:13 Speaker_00
Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre.

00:00:23 Speaker_00
For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website.

00:00:35 Speaker_00
This episode was originally released on Casefile's Patreon, Apple Premium and Spotify Premium feeds as an early bonus for our paid subscribers. These episodes are designed to be slightly shorter, allowing us to cover a broader range of cases.

00:00:51 Speaker_00
To receive these episodes early and ad-free, you can support Casefile on your preferred platform. Today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable for all listeners.

00:01:10 Speaker_00
On Wednesday November 2 2011, a group of anti-terrorism police officers from the Russian region of Nizhny Novgorod approached an apartment. They weren't there to make an arrest, instead, they were visiting for research purposes.

00:01:26 Speaker_00
The apartment was home to a semi-famous historian whose expert opinion was being sought for a case they were working on. The officers knocked on the apartment door and were let in by the historian.

00:01:39 Speaker_00
Upon entering the small residence, the offices were immediately struck by its chaotic state. Every single surface, including the floor, was cluttered with enormous stacks of books, files, and papers.

00:01:54 Speaker_00
Bags filled with what appeared to be women's and girls' clothing were strewn about. There were so many belongings scattered everywhere that officers struggled to move through the rooms without knocking things over.

00:02:07 Speaker_00
As they looked around at the mess, their eyes began to adjust and they could make out specific items. Dotted throughout the apartment were a number of dolls.

00:02:19 Speaker_00
These weren't store-bought, mass-manufactured toys, but crude, seemingly homemade and life-sized. Several were lying on the floor or across tables. Others were propped on top of dresses and wedged into nooks.

00:02:36 Speaker_00
The dolls were covered from head to toe, dressed in an array of mismatched old clothing. One wore thick stockings, a skirt, and a bright pink ski jacket. Another was in what appeared to be a red tutu.

00:02:50 Speaker_00
A third doll wore a purple dress, stockings, and a bonnet and had been positioned on a chair with its legs crossed. All of their faces were wrapped in bandages, stockings, or wax-type plaster.

00:03:04 Speaker_00
Some had buttons for eyes and facial features drawn on with paint or makeup, while others were left faceless. As an officer leaned in to more closely inspect one of the dolls, a shocking realisation dawned on him.

00:03:21 Speaker_00
Another officer reached out and touched it. Suddenly, a sound filled the room. It was a well-known Russian nursery rhyme, the bear really loves honey, Somehow, the music was coming from inside the doll.

00:04:03 Speaker_00
In 1992, at the age of 20, Natalia Chardimova was expecting her first child. Natalia and her husband Igor lived in the capital of Nizhny Novgorod, the Russian city known locally as Nizhny.

00:04:18 Speaker_00
Located about 400 kilometres east of Moscow, Nizhny was a vibrant city with beautiful architecture, postcard scenery, and a rich culture. It seemed like a good place to raise a child,

00:04:32 Speaker_00
That same year, Natalia and Igor welcomed their baby, a little girl who they named Olga. The couple doted on Olga and she grew into an affectionate and happy child.

00:04:45 Speaker_00
Olga loved expressing herself through fashion, taking particular delight in wearing dresses and accessorising her outfits with jewellery and handbags. She often adorned her long blonde hair with bows or hair clips.

00:05:00 Speaker_00
The Chardimova family lived in a modest flat. Both Natalia and Igor worked day jobs, so when Olga wasn't at school, she was often cared for by her grandmother who lived close by in a neighbouring apartment block.

00:05:15 Speaker_00
By the spring of 2002, the now 10-year-old Olga was confident, determined, and eager for some independence. One morning, as Natalia and Igor prepared to take her to her grandmother's, Olga announced, I'm ten already. I can go myself."

00:05:34 Speaker_00
Despite Olga's insistence that she was ready to make the short walk by herself, Natalia and Igor weren't keen on the idea. But Olga was adamant, so reluctantly they agreed.

00:05:47 Speaker_00
Olga swung her favourite green handbag over her shoulder, collected her blue umbrella, and skipped out the door. It should have only taken Olga a few minutes to reach her grandmother's home, but as the minutes ticked by, she failed to show.

00:06:05 Speaker_00
As more time passed with no sign of the little girl, Olga's family quickly realised that something must have happened to her and called the police. Officers scoured the neighbourhood trying to find anyone who had seen the 10-year-old.

00:06:21 Speaker_00
They came across a local man who had a drug problem and took him in for questioning. It wasn't long before he began to talk.

00:06:30 Speaker_00
The man had been loitering in the foyer of Olga's family's apartment block when he spotted the 10-year-old coming down the stairs. He moved in front of Olga, intentionally blocking her path so she couldn't exit the building.

00:06:43 Speaker_00
He then forced her upstairs to the top floor and demanded she hand over her earrings. He planned to sell them to a local pawn shop for some quick cash. man told the officers that Olga had tried to run away.

00:06:58 Speaker_00
He didn't want her to report him, so before she could escape, he grabbed a metal bar, raised it high, and brought it down hard on her head. Despite his confession, the man couldn't or wouldn't tell the police what he had done with Olga's body.

00:07:16 Speaker_00
Officers interrogated him endlessly and searched the apartment block and its surrounds to no avail. Olga's parents were consumed by grief and guilt, and without Olga's body, they were unable to lay her to rest.

00:07:33 Speaker_00
Five months went by with no further developments. Then one day in autumn, a grisly discovery was made in the attic of the apartment block where Olga had lived. Human remains were found wedged between some pipes there.

00:07:49 Speaker_00
The size and structure indicated they belonged to a prepubescent girl, One side of the skull was fractured, consistent with being beaten over the head with a blunt object. Beside the remains were a green handbag and a blue umbrella.

00:08:09 Speaker_00
On Wednesday October 2, 2002, Natalia and Igor buried their daughter in the Krasnaya Etna Cemetery in Nizhny's Leninsky district.

00:08:19 Speaker_00
They placed a temporary marker on top of her grave until the ground beneath settled and they could afford a proper headstone. Natalia and Igor visited Olga's gravesite regularly and maintained it lovingly.

00:08:33 Speaker_00
They laid a fresh wreath of flowers when the old one began to wilt. After about seven months, Natalia and Igor added a small metal fence around the border of the grave and painted it themselves.

00:08:48 Speaker_00
On Thursday May 8 2003, the couple went to the site to finish painting the fence. As they approached Olga's grave, both were struck with an odd feeling that something wasn't right. They soon realised why. Someone had moved the wreath on Olga's grave.

00:09:08 Speaker_00
This interference left Natalia and Igor upset. After their next few visits proceeded with no further issues, Natalia and Igor put the incident out of their mind. But then one day at the end of the month, they discovered something even more troubling.

00:09:28 Speaker_00
Someone had left a handwritten note on top of Olga's grave. It was directed at Olga, addressing her as Little Lady. The author had not left their name, instead signing off with the letters DA, meaning Kind Angel. Natalia and Igor were appalled.

00:09:49 Speaker_00
By June 2003, Natalia and Igor had finally saved enough money to buy a proper headstone. When they visited their daughter a week after it was installed, they saw something stuck to the new headstone. It was another note, This one was addressed to them.

00:10:09 Speaker_00
It read, If you don't erect a great monument which she deserves, we will dig her body out. Unable to afford this demand, Natalia and Igor had no choice but to ignore it. The next time they visited Olga's grave, the headstone had been smashed to pieces.

00:10:32 Speaker_00
Natalia and Igor reported the notes and the vandalised headstone to the police. The officers were sympathetic but said there was nothing they could do. Such vandalism was a common occurrence.

00:10:45 Speaker_00
In fact, every week in cemeteries all across the city, at least a few graves were reported as being damaged. Vandals broke headstones, stole toys and flowers, and scribbled graffiti.

00:10:59 Speaker_00
There had even been several reports of gravesites where the bones of those buried had been dug up and left scattered around.

00:11:07 Speaker_00
Nizhni police occasionally patrolled the cemeteries as part of their wider city rounds, but they hadn't ever caught anyone in the act. Natalia and Eagle replaced the destroyed headstone with a small metal cross. It was soon bent out of shape,

00:11:24 Speaker_00
A few months later in early September, Natalia and Igor discovered another note on Olga's grave. It wished Olga well for the new school year. Once again, the author had signed off as, Kind Angel.

00:11:40 Speaker_00
The end of the school year saw another note appear, which read, Little lady, we congratulate you on finishing the sixth grade. Keep growing as a kind, smart, pretty girl. We are very proud of you." Years passed and the notes continued.

00:12:01 Speaker_00
They were left in recognition of public holidays and other special occasions. On every New Year's Day, Natalia and Igor found stuffed toys and other decorations adorning their daughter's grave.

00:12:15 Speaker_00
Each time they visited the cemetery, they were fearful of what they would find. The notes were all written as though Olga was still alive and the harassment made it impossible for Natalia and Igor to process their grief.

00:12:30 Speaker_00
Over time, it put such a strain on their marriage that the two separated. Natalia moved in with her mother while Igor remained in their apartment. He couldn't bear to leave the place that carried so many memories of Olga.

00:12:49 Speaker_00
In early September 2009, a homeless man was walking through a cemetery about 200 kilometres southwest of Nizhny when he encountered another man desecrating the grave of a little girl.

00:13:02 Speaker_00
In order to stop the vandal, he grabbed a nearby shovel and hit him across one of his hands. The vandal quickly fled.

00:13:11 Speaker_00
A few days later on Saturday September 12, at a cemetery in a neighbouring village, it was discovered that another young girl's grave had been disturbed.

00:13:21 Speaker_00
Her family had heard about the previous desecration and believed the same person must be responsible. They decided to go searching for the culprit and found a local man aged in his 50s with a hand injury.

00:13:35 Speaker_00
His name was Mikhail Sharov and he was promptly arrested by the police. Upon digging into Sharov's background, the police discovered that about four months earlier, he had been caught trying to exhume the bodies of young soldiers.

00:13:52 Speaker_00
An intoxicated Sharov, who was ex-military, had been screaming that he should be the one in the ground, not them. After that incident, Sharov was detained in a psychiatric hospital for treatment. He had only recently been released.

00:14:10 Speaker_00
Mikhail Sharov was found responsible for desecrating the graves of the two young girls. In February 2010, a few months after his arrest, he was once again sent for mandatory psychiatric treatment.

00:14:24 Speaker_00
Given his pattern of behaviour, police wondered whether Sharov might be behind more than just these two crimes.

00:14:32 Speaker_00
Over the last few years, there had been a troubling uptick in cemetery disturbances throughout the region, mostly involving the gravesites of young girls. Natalia and Igor Chadymova had not been alone in their torment.

00:14:47 Speaker_00
Dozens of other families had found similar notes on their daughters' graves. After Sharov's arrest, police compared his handwriting to these notes. It closely matched them all. Mikhail Sharov's capture and detention didn't garner much attention.

00:15:08 Speaker_00
The matter was of no interest to most news outlets and was overshadowed by another event that had occurred only a week or so earlier. On the evening of Monday January 24 2011, Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport was abuzz.

00:15:26 Speaker_00
Hundreds of people were greeted by loved ones as they passed through the airport arrivals hall. Then suddenly, at about 6.30pm, a man's voice cried out, I'll kill you all, before an immense explosion ripped through the crowd.

00:15:42 Speaker_00
37 people were killed and nearly 100 people were injured. Hours after the blast, reports came in that amongst the wreckage, police had found the head of a 30-something man of Middle Eastern appearance.

00:15:56 Speaker_00
Authorities announced that the man had set off a device packed with 7 kilograms of explosives, It was believed that the perpetrator belonged to a group of militant Islamists from Russia's North Caucasus region who'd orchestrated the airport attack.

00:16:14 Speaker_00
Only days after the bombing, several graves belonging to Muslim women were vandalised in cemeteries across Nizhny.

00:16:22 Speaker_00
Authorities were quick to assume that this was retaliation for the terrorist attack, but they noted that the nature of the vandalism was very specific

00:16:32 Speaker_00
All of the targeted graves featured images of the deceased women, whether in photographs left at the site or chiselled into the headstone. Somebody had covered the faces with newspapers and then painted over them with green paint.

00:16:48 Speaker_00
Black paint was smeared over their names on the graves' epitaphs. Over the next few months, more of these graves were damaged in the same way in nearly every cemetery in Nizhny.

00:17:01 Speaker_00
Law enforcement soon developed a different theory as to who was behind the vandalism. According to Muslim burial principles, it is forbidden to include the name or image of the deceased person on their gravestone.

00:17:15 Speaker_00
Perhaps some Islamic fundamentalists were attempting to strictly enforce the rules of their faith. Whoever was responsible, the escalating attacks were believed to pose a national security concern.

00:17:29 Speaker_00
A special task force from the Nizhni region's anti-terrorism unit was established to bring the situation under control. Every night, teams of officers were dispatched to patrol the city's cemeteries.

00:17:43 Speaker_00
Despite working the case for months, the task force couldn't make any headway. By the time more than 150 Muslim graves had been targeted, they decided it was time to consult a specialist. Case File will be back shortly.

00:18:07 Speaker_00
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00:19:24 Speaker_00
By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. 45-year-old Anatoly Moskvin was something of a minor celebrity in Nizhny.

00:19:43 Speaker_00
He was a well-respected historian, lecturer, and published author, and was fluent in 13 languages. Though he identified as pagan, Moskvin took an intellectual and professional interest in a broad range of faiths and religions.

00:20:00 Speaker_00
This underpinned Moskvin's true passion, which was the study of cemeteries and burial practices. He'd studied more than 750 cemeteries across Russia, compiling an extensive index of around 10,000 graves.

00:20:16 Speaker_00
Over the years, he had assisted many families in searching for their ancestors. The task force believed that if anyone could provide insight into the Muslim grave desecrations, Anatoly Moskvin could.

00:20:31 Speaker_00
Moskvin lived in an apartment on Lenin Avenue in Nizhny's Leninsky District. On Wednesday November 2 2011, officers from the Anti-Terrorism Task Force knocked on the door and were greeted by Moskvin, who invited them inside.

00:20:49 Speaker_00
Moskvin shared the apartment with his elderly parents, but it was difficult to see how three people could live in such a place.

00:20:56 Speaker_00
Every single surface, including the floor, was cluttered with books, files, papers, and bags of what appeared to be women's and girls' clothing, Amongst the mess was a number of crude and apparently homemade life-sized dolls.

00:21:14 Speaker_00
Dressed in mismatched clothing with either blank or make-up covered masks, they were spotted on the floor, sprawled across tables, propped on top of dresses, and squeezed into corners.

00:21:28 Speaker_00
One officer leaned in for a closer inspection and realised he wasn't looking at a doll at all. It was a mummified human corpse, When another officer touched the body, the sound of a well-known children's nursery rhyme somehow began to emanate from it.

00:21:47 Speaker_00
The officers were nervous to handle the human dolls. Just as the first had emanated music, others would somehow speak to them upon being touched. One corpse cried out the word, mum, while another emitted animal growling sounds.

00:22:05 Speaker_00
An examination of the corpses revealed music boxes in their chest cavities. In fact, something had been placed in the chest cavity of nearly every corpse. Some contained random household items such as soap or a pair of tights.

00:22:21 Speaker_00
One had a stuffed toy heart. Another held a real, dried human heart. A piece of gravestone was discovered in one human doll which gave investigators the deceased girl's name.

00:22:35 Speaker_00
Another contained a hospital tag with the victim's cause of death and the date she died. In total, officers discovered 26 human dolls in Anatoly Moskvin's apartment and garage. Anatoly Moskvin was arrested and taken away for questioning.

00:22:57 Speaker_00
To investigators' surprise, he was more than willing to talk. Moskvin started by telling the officers about his first experience with the dead.

00:23:08 Speaker_00
When he was 12 years old, Moskvin was participating in a waste paper collection exercise organised by his school. He and some other students were picking up papers along a street when they passed by a funeral home.

00:23:21 Speaker_00
Its front door was open and Moskvin could see an open casket inside. He knew whose funeral service was being held. A few days earlier, an 11-year-old girl from a neighbouring school had been electrocuted. Her name was Natasha.

00:23:40 Speaker_00
Moskvin recalled that all of the funeral attendees were dressed in black, holding candles, and singing a mournful song in an unfamiliar language. There were only adults at the service, no children from Natasha's school.

00:23:56 Speaker_00
Moskvin and his peers were spotted by some of the men attending the service, some reason the men began to chase the children. Moskvin recalled running away in fear but he was grabbed by one of the men and dragged inside the funeral home.

00:24:12 Speaker_00
A woman stepped forward. She was in tears and holding a large apple. Moskvin assumed she was Natasha's mother. The woman handed Moskvin the apple and pushed him toward the open casket.

00:24:28 Speaker_00
When Moskvin was standing right beside Natasha's body, the woman told him to kiss Natasha on the forehead. Moskvin refused and started to cry. Someone put their hand on the back of his head and pushed it down.

00:24:44 Speaker_00
He felt he had no choice but to kiss the dead Natasha. He was made to do this three times. Moskvin was then handed two copper rings. was instructed to place one on Natasha's finger and one on his own while repeating an old Russian phrase.

00:25:05 Speaker_00
Moskvin was then escorted along with all of the others to the cemetery. There he watched as they lowered Natasha's coffin into the ground. Natasha's mother threw some dirt on top of the coffin and motioned for Moskvin to do the same.

00:25:22 Speaker_00
After the burial, they handed him some fruit and a little bit of cash. As soon as they let go of him, Moskvin ran. Moskvin threw the fruit away but bought some books with the money.

00:25:36 Speaker_00
While he didn't understand exactly what had happened, he couldn't shake the feeling that Natasha's funeral had also been a wedding. That childhood experience sparked Anatoly Moskvin's lifelong fascination with burials and funeral rites.

00:25:55 Speaker_00
It was during his later studies of this subject that he learnt of several cultures that practised the art of resurrecting the dead. Moskvin insisted that his interest in the deceased girls was in no way sexual. It was paternal.

00:26:12 Speaker_00
For a long time, Moskvin had wanted to become a father. He told officers that nearly ten years earlier, in 2003, he had applied to adopt a girl from a local orphanage.

00:26:24 Speaker_00
Neither of his parents had supported his application and the assessors, finding that Moskvin was too financially unstable, rejected his application. Upon learning of his rejection, Moskvin grew upset.

00:26:40 Speaker_00
He decided to calm his nerves by taking a walk through one of his favourite cemeteries, Krasnaya Retna, During his stroll, he noticed the unassuming grave of a ten-year-old girl, adorned with a wreath of flowers and framed by a small metal fence.

00:26:58 Speaker_00
At that moment, he made a decision. The following night of Friday May 9, Moskvin returned to the girl's grave. Using a chisel, he began carefully clearing away the dirt on the top of the grave. After some time, he reached the coffin.

00:27:20 Speaker_00
He dug the chisel into the wood of the coffin's lid and began to create a large hole. He reached down into the coffin and dragged the girl's body out through the hole. Her corpse was already substantially decomposed and covered in maggots.

00:27:37 Speaker_00
Moskvin brushed them off to better see her burial outfit. She was wearing a white blouse and a black skirt with tights and shoes. Her long blonde hair was still intact.

00:27:50 Speaker_00
Moskvin swept all of the dirt back on top of the coffin so that the grave looked undisturbed. He then carefully wrapped the girls' remains and hid them in a different part of the cemetery.

00:28:03 Speaker_00
Moskvin returned home and began to create a workshop space in his building's basement. Days later, he went back to the cemetery to retrieve the girl's body and took her home.

00:28:16 Speaker_00
There, he mixed together a specific combination of soda and salt, then placed the girl's remains in the mix. His goal was to dry the corpse out. It took months for the process to be complete.

00:28:31 Speaker_00
When it was done, Moskvin wrapped the girl's face and hands and dressed her in some secondhand clothes. Finally, he painted on some facial features. Moskvin had his first doll. It was Olga Chardimova. Thank you for listening to this episode's ads.

00:29:09 Speaker_00
By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. From that moment on, Anatoly Moskvin was determined to make more dolls.

00:29:30 Speaker_00
He watched the local news closely and scoured the internet, searching for reports of young girls who had been killed or died in accidents. When he came across a potential candidate, he noted the date she was due to be buried and in which cemetery.

00:29:46 Speaker_00
At night he would visit her grave, often sleeping on top of the fresh dirt for hours. He said that if he felt good intentions emanating from the child's spirit, he would dig her up and mummify her. Many of the girls were orphans.

00:30:04 Speaker_00
Moskvin journaled extensively about each of his cemetery visits and the subsequent mummification process. In the intervening periods, he would exhume women's graves to steal clothes from the corpses.

00:30:18 Speaker_00
He took the garments home and washed them so he could dress each new doll in a special outfit. Moskvin told police officers that he considered all of his dolls to be his daughters.

00:30:31 Speaker_00
He read to them, sang to them, and set them all up in the living area so they could watch cartoons together. Moskvin said that he and his dolls had their own language and celebrated their own holidays. Their spirits communicated with him.

00:30:49 Speaker_00
Moskvin had his favourites, which were kept in his bedroom. If he lost interest in a particular doll, he would move her to the garage. Sometimes he grew to dislike certain dolls so much that he returned them to their graves.

00:31:05 Speaker_00
The 26 corpses that the officers found in their search had only been his current cohort. In the last nine years, Moskvin had exhumed and mummified the bodies of more than 80 young girls.

00:31:22 Speaker_00
The youngest and most recently acquired corpse belonged to a two year old girl who Moskvin called Masha. Just a few months earlier in the summer, Masha had been on a road trip to Crimea with her family for a seaside vacation.

00:31:38 Speaker_00
About halfway into the journey, a driver in another vehicle made an illegal manoeuvre and crashed into Masha's family's car. Masher's older brother sustained a severe laceration to his stomach but survived. Masher and her parents died instantly.

00:31:57 Speaker_00
Soon after the accident, the family were buried in a cemetery in the northwest of Nizhny. A few months later in early October, Moskvin dug up Masher's grave. He was especially interested in what clothes she had been buried in.

00:32:14 Speaker_00
After he pulled Masha's remains out of the coffin, he saw that she was wearing an elaborate white dress.

00:32:22 Speaker_00
Moskvin told officers that he was disappointed to find the upper half of Masha's body had already begun to decompose, which was not suitable for his purposes. Masha's lower half, however, was still intact. Moskvin bisected Mash's corpse.

00:32:40 Speaker_00
He wrapped her upper body in a rag and reburied it carelessly, leaving some of her bones strewn around her grave. He placed Mash's lower half and her burial gown in a bag and took them home.

00:32:54 Speaker_00
After Moskvin mummified Mash's partial remains, he attached them to the head and torso of an actual porcelain doll. He then redressed the hybrid doll in Mash's white burial gown, It wasn't the first time he'd done that.

00:33:11 Speaker_00
Once, he had even sewn a teddy bear's head on top of a homemade doll. Moskvin told officers that he was waiting for science to catch up with his work.

00:33:22 Speaker_00
He believed one day it would advance to a point that his dolls could actually be resurrected and brought to life. Anatoly Moskvin was charged with multiple counts of desecrating human remains and their burial sites.

00:33:38 Speaker_00
was held in custody pending trial while officers commenced the difficult task of contacting his victim's families.

00:33:47 Speaker_00
Despite being constantly tormented by the notes left on their daughter's grave, Olga Chadymova's parents, Natalia and Igor, had managed to rebuild their lives. After 14 months of separation, the couple rekindled their marriage

00:34:04 Speaker_00
In 2009, Natalia gave birth to their second child, a son they named Alexei. Natalia felt that her faith in life had been restored. When Natalia and Igor were informed of Moskvin's capture and what he had done to Olga's remains, they were horrified.

00:34:25 Speaker_00
Natalia later told reporters, My girl had been murdered. If anyone deserved to rest in peace, she did. But instead, her grave has been robbed." The police strongly advised the couple not to view the doll that Moskvin had created from Olga's remains.

00:34:46 Speaker_00
They told Natalia and Igor that the sight was too grotesque. To ensure the investigation was as thorough as possible, police obtained Natalia and Igor's permission to exhume Olga's grave.

00:35:01 Speaker_00
On Friday October 5 2012, 11 months after Moskvin's arrest, Natalia and Igor watched as Olga's coffin was raised from the ground. There was a large hole in the lid at the head of the coffin, exactly as Moskvin had described.

00:35:19 Speaker_00
Inside, the coffin was empty. Overcome with shock and grief, Natalia nearly collapsed. Moskvin had exhumed Olga's remains the night after Natalia and Igor noticed that a wreath they'd left had been moved.

00:35:36 Speaker_00
Every time they visited Olga's grave thereafter, her coffin had been empty. Natalia told reporters, I still find it hard to grasp the scale of his sickening work, but for nine years he was living with my mummified daughter in his bedroom.

00:35:55 Speaker_00
I had her for ten years. He had her for nine." After Moskvin's arrest, his parents were interviewed by police. They said that they'd never noticed a foul smell inside the apartment and had no idea that the dolls were actually human bodies.

00:36:18 Speaker_00
They'd just thought their son had a strange but harmless hobby. For around six months each year, they left the city to stay in their country house. They had no idea what he got up to while they were away.

00:36:34 Speaker_00
During Moskvin's extensive interviews, he admitted to much more than the creation of his dolls. He explained that he was also responsible for desecrating the graves of Muslim women around the city.

00:36:48 Speaker_00
These crimes had nothing to do with the airport bomb attack. Instead, Moskvin was angry about a civil claim he'd brought against one of the representatives of the local Muslim community.

00:37:01 Speaker_00
After the court ruled against him, Moskvin began vandalising the graves in retaliation. Moskvin expressed no regret or remorse for any of his actions except in one instance.

00:37:16 Speaker_00
His former cellmate came forward to give an exclusive interview to the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets and said that Moskvin had admitted to feeling guilty about Mikhail Sharov

00:37:28 Speaker_00
Sharov was the man who had been found responsible for digging up the graves of two young girls in neighbouring towns about 200 kilometres outside of Nizhny.

00:37:39 Speaker_00
While in custody, Moskvin confessed to his cellmate that he'd actually committed those crimes. By the time Moskvin was arrested, Sharov had already been released from psychiatric treatment.

00:37:53 Speaker_00
But according to Moskvin's former cellmate, Moskvin still seemed haunted by the injustice. Anatoly Moskvin stood trial on Wednesday February 27 2013. During his time in custody, Moskvin was thoroughly assessed by psychologists and psychiatrists.

00:38:15 Speaker_00
According to their findings, Moskvin suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. The court found that Anatoly Moskvin's mental disorder impaired his ability to understand the nature and social impact of his actions.

00:38:31 Speaker_00
Moskvin knew what he'd done was illegal, but he didn't believe it was wrong. He maintained this conviction throughout, even telling the girl's family members who were present in the courtroom, quote, You abandoned your girls in the cold.

00:38:47 Speaker_00
I brought them home and warmed them up.

00:38:51 Speaker_00
The court found Moskvin was not criminally responsible for his actions and ordered that he be subjected to compulsory medical measures in a secure psychiatric facility until such time as he no longer posed a threat to others.

00:39:07 Speaker_00
Moskvin's compulsory treatment was reassessed every six months. Each time, the measures were extended. Over the years, the chief physician at the facility in which Moskvin was being held petitioned the court for Moskvin to be declared incompetent.

00:39:26 Speaker_00
Such a classification would allow Moskvin to be placed in home care or an open facility, rather than being permanently locked up. Moskvin would still continue treatment and supervision, but would be allowed to move about the city freely.

00:39:43 Speaker_00
On Tuesday August 2 2022, after nearly 10 years in secure custody, the district court approved the petition and Moskvin was reclassified.

00:39:54 Speaker_00
However, as of the date of this recording, Moskvin has not been moved to home care and his treatment in a secure facility continues. Natalia Chadymova has shared concern about Moskvin's potential release, stating,

00:40:12 Speaker_00
I worry that one day he will convince them he's sane and he'll come out and start his morbid activities again." This concern is heightened by a remark Moskvin made to police as they removed the corpses from his home.

00:40:28 Speaker_00
Quote, Don't bury them too deep, because the moment I get out, I'm going to come back for them. All that Natalia and Igor want is for their daughter to finally rest in peace.

00:40:43 Speaker_00
They have reburied Olga's remains in an unmarked grave in an undisclosed location.