Arsen Bayrambekov

Arsen Salavatovich Bayrambekov (Арсен Салаватович Байрамбеков; born 1978) is a Russian serial killer and contract killer who murdered six people in the Sverdlovsk Oblast in 2014.

Despite the severity of his crimes, he managed to avoid a life term and was instead sentenced to 13 years and 2 months imprisonment.

Very little is known about Bayrambekov's early life.

Born in 1978 in Makhachkala, Dagestan ASSR, and from the age of six, the young Arsen was engaged in sports such as Muay Thai, which he eventually got the title of master.

In the early 1990s, he dropped out of school due to military operations in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus, but later acquired a fake school certificate and diploma.

According to Svyatoslav Ivanov, an investigator for the Sverdlovsk Oblast Investigative Committee, they were able to uncover said certificate and diploma after Bayrambekov's arrest, but were unable to uncover in what field he actually graduated in.

In 1999, Bayrambekov took a job in the border security of Makhachkala's Department of Internal Affairs, and in the same year, he took part in a counter-terrorist operation in Kadar.

The following year, he resigned from this position and moved to Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, where he earned a living by manual labor.

Bayrambekov himself claimed that throughout the 2000s he had a sports career, worked as a boxing coach in Yekaterinburg, was the Thai boxing champion of Dagestan, a prize-winner at the Russian championship, and had won the Sverdlovsk Oblast Thai boxing championship on several occasions, but no evidence of this was found.

However, a photograph dating back to the mid-2000s depicting Bayrambekov was displayed at the Russian Muay Thai League's website.

In 2003, Bayrambekov began doing criminal activities in Yekaterinburg after joining a gang ran by a man named Ruslan Aliyev.

That same year, a local businessman involved in the trucking industry paid Bayrambekov to kill a competitor.

He agreed, and after borrowing an AK-47 from an acquaintance, he shot the victim near the entrance to a shopping center.

After the hit was carried out, Bayrambekov was paid $1,500.

Two years later, Bayrambekov was arrested on charges illegal arms trafficking for attempting to sell two Kalashnikovs.

He was convicted of this charge and received 4 years imprisonment, but was paroled in 2007.

On November 17, 2010, Bayrambekov committed his second contract killing.

He was hired by a local businessman who traded food at a vegetable shop to eliminate a competitor, Shukhrat Khamrakulov, for 40,000 rubles.

Bayrambekov shot the victim near the entrance of his house with a Makarov pistol, after which he fled the scene.

His boss, Aliyev, acted as an intermediary for this killing.

At around this time, Bayrambekov developed an interest in neo-paganism, in which it was obligatory to perform sacrifices.

In order to improve his knowledge on the subject, he read many books and various publications on the internet, and in 2013, he met a man who became his spiritual mentor on the topic.

At this time, he lived in a home in Kamyshevo, which he rented from an elderly woman living in Yekaterinburg.

For the purpose of the sacrifices, Bayrambekov made an altar out of stones in the house's yard, where he sacrificed chickens, goats and cats, as well as alcohol and his own blood, which he got by pricking his finger with a needle.

Bayrambekov also developed an interest in entrepreneurship, opening up a magic shop in Yekaterinburg where he busied himself with treating with the help of reiki and fortune-telling on runes, supposedly to help people get out of difficult situations in life, but was not particularly successful financially.

In 2014, Bayrambekov got acquainted with 43-year-old Tatyana Solovyova, a fellow practitioner of the occult whom he later realized shared his views and philosophy.

And so, with her help, he eventually decided to start sacrificing human beings.

Over the course of several months in 2014, Bayrambekov, with Solovyova's participation, committed four murders in the Yekaterinburg suburb of Verkhnyaya Pyshma.

As victims, Bayrambekov chose homeless or other marginalized people whom he lured into his Volkswagen Polo.

He then drove them to a location near Ganina Yama and killed them there, as he believed the site to be site of ancient pagan rituals and thus had strong spiritual energy.

The murders were always committed at night, in a forest area, involved setting a fire and making a circle with stones, as well as the reading of prayers.

Bayrambekov's first victim was a 20-year-old resident of Yekaterinburg who came from a poor family and made a living from washing car windows.

He was lured by Bayrambekova and Solovyova into their car, ostensibly so he can given a ride around the city.

On the way, the company stopped at a store where Solovyova bought groceries and vodka.

After that, Solovyova replaced Bayrambekova as the driver, who moved to the back seat with the young man.

On the way to the forest, Bayrambekov forced the victim to drink vodka in the car.

When they arrived, he attacked the young man, tying him up and gagging him.

Bayrambekov then took the victim to an improvised altar, where he cut his throat during a ritual.

After reciting prayers, he removed the victim's clothes and discarded his body into a nearby pit.

Upon covering up the grave, Bayrambekov and Solovyova burned the victim's clothes in a fire and left.