At the beginning of 2011 in a quiet area of ​​Irkutsk - Akademgorodok - a series of brutal and senseless killings took place. Local residents began to be afraid to leave the house in the dark. According to the most common version, a serial maniac started up in the city . Public outrage and surprise increased at times when it became known that all the crimes were committed by Artem Anufriev together with a school friend - Nikita Lytkin. What is amazing, the murderers began their bloody adventures, barely having time to note adulthood.
Exposure that no one expected
Akademgorodok is a calm, intelligent and quite prestigious
area of ​​Irkutsk. The bulk of the population are families of employees of local research institutes, but there are also visitors who bought apartments here. In this residential neighborhood, infrastructure, cultural life has always been developed, and the crime rate was considered quite low. A series of murders and brutal attacks on people caused a significant resonance among local residents.
The real panic in Akademgorodok began in 2011. In January and February, several corpses were discovered here at once. Police officers and vigilantes were looking for a lone maniac with a mental disorder, or a gang of distraught teenagers. The denouement of the bloody story was unexpected. A man turned to the police and provided a video recording, which later became one of the important evidence in this complicated criminal case. The frames of the film clearly showed how Nikita Lytkin (born in 1993) was mocking the body of a recently killed woman. This video was shot by his best and only friend - Artem Anufriev (born in 1992). On the day of detention, young people confessed to five murders and six assaults, causing serious bodily harm to the victims.
Biography of Artyom Anufriev
Artem Anufriev was born in Irkutsk on November 4, 1992. The boy grew up in an incomplete family, but he studied well in secondary and music schools. Teachers who worked with Artyom believe that the crimes committed by the youth are a direct result of improper upbringing. From early childhood, mother Anufrieva literally taught the son of hatred. The woman, not embarrassed in expressions, convinced the boy of his own and his exclusivity, emphasizing that the people around him were “an unworthy redneck”. For her son, she wanted only the best, she was not lazy to regularly seek to correct Artyom’s estimates through scandals and complaints. At high school, Anufriev was not popular with his peers and had virtually no friends. After graduation, Artyom entered the medical institute.
Nikita Lytkin - “worthy” comrade
In the fifth grade, Artem Anufriev met Nikita Lytkin. Quickly enough, the boys became best friends, their friendship lasted until the dock. Nikita Lytkin grew up without a father and from early childhood had problems communicating with peers. As a teenager, he often experienced bouts of depression and bad mood. At such moments, Nikita tried to completely isolate himself from the outside world, locked himself in. The young man often became the object of ridicule from peers, first in school, and then in technical schools, where he studied. And only Artem Anufriev always understood and supported him. Curiously, right up to the moment the friends were exposed, no one suspected anything. Anufriev and Lytkin never publicly displayed violence, seemed quiet and timid. Indeed, young people lived in their own world, but it is impossible to call it calm.
Creativity and antisocial activities
Law enforcement officers experienced a real shock when they studied all the materials published by young people on social networks. Friends were actively engaged in musical creativity, jointly founded the group "Dissected Pugachova". Under this name, Artem Anufriev and Nikita Lytkin created songs in the style of noise and noise. The texts actively promote violence, sexual perversions and contain a huge amount of profanity. Artem for some time consisted in the movement of skinheads, attended the “Russian March”. Friends, especially Anufriev, were very active on the Internet. Artem created groups dedicated to famous serial killers and criminals on social networks. Sometimes a young man attempted “recruitment”. He looked for like-minded people in the virtual space and, during correspondence, urged his interlocutors to violence and killings.
From idea to action: first attacks
Anufriev and Lytkin began their "hunt" for people in the fall of 2010. With the onset of darkness, the criminals began to patrol the path quite popular among local residents from the stop “State University” to “Akademgorodok”. Not having any clear plan, the friends just walked, looking closely at passers-by. Later, Artem will tell investigators that he and his friend were waiting for “their” victims, listening to their inner flair. On November 14, a criminal couple made their first attack. The victim of the criminals was an eighteen-year-old girl. Artem and Nikita managed to inflict several severe blows on the head of the victim, after which something frightened them. The girl survived and even tried to contact the police, but the statement was not accepted. On November 24, Lytkin and Anufriev attacked another woman. The victim also remained alive, her bag was stolen. On December 1, the criminals made another attack with a robbery. Their prey was a ladies bag, in which there were 500 rubles. With the stolen funds, Artem Aleksandrovich Anufriev and Nikita Vakhtangovich Lytkin purchased mallet, which soon became the new instruments of crime.
"Trial" killing
The criminals were eager to try out the freshly acquired hammers in the “real case”. Anufriev and Lytkin went in search of the victim, having decided to commit their first murder. Very soon, a comrade met a twelve-year-old boy heading for a ride on a hill. The baby's body was discovered several hours after death. At the initial inspection, the police classified the incident as an accident. The version that the boy, while riding from a hill at high speed, rode into a tree, for a long time was the main one.
Most likely, this story would soon be forgotten if on December 16 a new corpse were not found near the place where the teenager’s body was found. The victim of criminals was a woman who is at a respectable age and is an employee of a local research institute. Numerous puncture wounds were found on the body of the murdered woman. The attention of the investigators was drawn to the fact that valuable items were not stolen. Until the criminals were detained, the honored employee of the research institute was considered the first victim in the bloody Irkutsk series.
Bloody series in the Akademgorodok of Irkutsk
A couple of weeks after the first killings, Anufriyev and Lytkin again went "hunting." On December 29, they attacked a middle-aged woman, but were frightened by the appearance of random witnesses. The victim lost her handbag and was taken to hospital with a head injury. This criminal failure has further enraged young people. On the same day, they attacked a pregnant woman. The guys didn’t stop even the victim’s message about his interesting situation and the offer to voluntarily give all the values. The criminals inflicted a series of blows on the head and hands of a woman. However, this day was unsuccessful for attackers. In the midst of the struggle, Artem and Nikita were frightened by a passing car. The victim not only survived and retained her pregnancy, but almost immediately after hospitalization she began to testify. It was this attack that caused widespread public outcry.
From the testimony of the victim, the police learned that there were two killers, and their main weapon was a hammer. It was then that Artem Anufriev, Lytkin Nikita received the nickname "Hammers." Police redoubled efforts to track down and capture the perpetrators. Between December 31, 2010 and April 3, 2011, the guys made another 10 attacks. Four victims have died. With each new murder, the criminal couple acted more and more calmly and cynically. Artem and Nikita not only showed senseless cruelty during the killings, but also mocked the bodies of their victims, made video and audio recordings.
Maniacs or sophisticated teens?
It was thanks to the personally created evidence of the crimes committed that Lytkin and Anufriev were exposed. A video of bullying the body of the last victim was accidentally discovered by Uncle Nikita. Almost immediately after the arrest, Artem Aleksandrovich Anufriev began to confess. Lytkin did not lag behind his friend. Young people told investigators about crimes that were considered unrelated to a series of “hammers”. Most of all, law enforcement officials were interested in the motives of the young killers.
Anufriev admitted that he did not feel any relief from the crimes committed. Lytkin changed his testimony on this issue several times. At first he talked about the fact that he liked to kill, but only together with a friend. Then he emphasized that the sense of self-importance that appears after the commission of a crime was of great importance. So it turns out that it’s not Artyom Anufriev a maniac, but his friend Nikita Lytkin? The investigation failed to identify the exact motives of the criminals. A psychiatric examination recognized the accomplices as sane, and they soon appeared in court.
Trial
The case of the Irkutsk "molototniks" was brought to court only a year and a half after the arrest of the criminals. All this time interrogations, search for witnesses, investigative experiments were carried out. During the court hearings, Anufriev changed his testimony several times, kept himself overly confident, sometimes rolled up real tantrums. Before the next court session, Artem inflicted cutting wounds on his neck and abdomen. After some time, the defendant began to complain to all instances. He then talked about pressure from investigators, then demanded a change of lawyers. The sentence to serial killers was pronounced on April 2, 2013. It was impossible not to notice how depressed the mood Artyom Aleksandrovich Anufriev was waiting for him. Photos of criminals made in the courtroom, you can see above.
Sentence and Punishment
Lytkin and Anufriev were found guilty of 6 murders and 8 attacks with grievous bodily harm. The sentence to serial killers was read out for about 8 hours. As a punishment for Artyom Anufriev, the highest measure was chosen - life imprisonment with a sentence in a special regime colony. Nikita Lytkin was sentenced to 24 years in prison, 19 of which he must spend in
a maximum security colony. The Russian serial killer Artem Anufriev was transferred to serve his sentence in the Vologda Penny Penitentiary Institution, where he immediately became the youngest prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment. The exact location of Nikita Lytkin is unknown today, most likely, he is serving his term in one of the colonies of the Irkutsk region.