On the night of January 22, in the small Siberian village of Yuryevka, on the border of the Omsk region and Kazakhstan, a triple murder occurred. Local media wrote: an unknown (at that time) person stabbed to death a grain current worker Nikolai B., his common-law wife Anastasia and a ten-year-old disabled daughter Nina. They were killed in their own home. Only two children managed to escape: fourteen-year-old Yana, and the youngest child in the family, six-year-old Dima.
Their rescue was talked about as a miracle, until on January 24 the Investigative Committee suddenly announced: Yana is suspected of organizing the murder of her parents and sister, and her young man, seventeen-year-old Sergei S., in the direct execution of the crime.
Novaya correspondents went to Yuryevka to find out what could have led teenagers to take such a step. It turned out that there was simply no one to prevent the crime.
— I would be glad that such situations did not happen. And, to be honest, I don’t understand why they happen … The roof goes by itself. After all, we work according to algorithms…
From a conversation with the director of a rural school
Editor's note
The federal law «On the Mass Media» prohibits us from publishing personal data of minors involved in the case and their relatives, including their stepfather. Their names have been changed in the material.
Part 1. Persuasion
Pensioner Valentina Kalyuzhnaya woke up that night from a knock on the window.
— They knocked so that I thought the glass would crack. I got scared and didn't get up right away. When I got to the window, no one was there. I looked — at the neighbors (in the house where the murder took place. — I. Zh.) the light is on. I decided that Nikolai must have drunk. And lay back down.
Pensioners Yana and Dima knocked on the window. Without waiting for an answer, they ran to other neighbors. Yana told them that a man with a knife had broken into the house. They called the police.
The arriving squad saw something terrible in the house: the bodies of the dead were lying on the veranda, in the bedroom, in the children's room. Later, forensic experts will say that in total the killer inflicted more than 30 stab wounds on his victims.
According to Yana's story, a sketch of the criminal was compiled, which was quickly distributed in the media and social networks.
From the photograph, I looked at the cinematic image of the criminal.
An identikit circulated by police immediately after the murder, compiled from the words of Yana
“We are looking for an unknown person aged 45‒50 years, 175‒178 centimeters tall, thin build, wrinkled drunken face. Dressed in a black hat, black short jacket, dark pants, short winter galoshes.
— Initially, there were suggestions that the killer could come from Kazakhstan. He was clearly not from the locals, otherwise Yana would have recognized him, ”says a Novaya Gazeta source familiar with the investigation. — But this version quickly began to be doubted: Yuryevka is a border zone, which a foreigner can get into only upon agreement with the FSB. But no one like the person described by Yana has been issued a pass lately. No one from the locals fit him either.
Doubts about the girl's version began to creep in when
during interrogation, she stated that, together with her brother, she fled the house through the window, but during the investigative experiment, she could not get through it.
Then the neighbors told an interesting detail: the girl ran to them dressed in a jacket. But when did she manage to put it on if she fled in a panic?
By the evening of January 23, after passing the polygraph test, Yana confessed, saying that she had participated in the preparation of the murder, the direct executor of which was her young man. She justified her desire to kill her parents by the fact that they forbade her to meet with Sergei.
From the statement of the Investigative Committee
“For the murder, the guy took a bayonet-knife for slaughtering domestic animals from his friend and at about 2 am on January 22, from the backyard, through the door opened by his girlfriend, he made his way into the house, where he inflicted mortal knife wounds on the sleeping an adult, as well as a 10-year-old girl suffering from a disease of the musculoskeletal system, whom the suspect did not want to take care of.
Sergei S. was detained in Yuryevka, at a friend's house. He did not plan to hide — he did not think that they would come to him. During the interrogation, he said that Yana allegedly talked to him about the possible murder of his parents for two months, and then offered to act.
From the explanations of Sergei S.,
suspected of the murder
“I did not try to dissuade her from planning to kill relatives, I supported her in this. 01/21/2022 I was with Yana at the disco at school. She again began to offer to kill her parents. I offered to kill them, and she agreed.”
Knife — murder weapon — investigators found in snow after Sergei S. himself pointed out the place. Operational shooting frame
Part 2. Algorithms
Red carnations are laid out along the streets leading from the house of the murdered to the cemetery. From time to time, passing cars crush them with wheels, mixing them with dirty snow.
Nicholas, Anastasia and Nina were buried in the same grave, next to three sprawling pines. The whole village followed the hearse.
Yuryevka is a periphery by the standards of the south of the Omsk region: there are villages nearby for 6–7 thousand inhabitants, and here — less than a thousand. From work — a state farm, a kindergarten, a school, an administration and a couple of shops that survive from profit at a loss. About 10 years ago, these places lived well due to the smuggling of tobacco and alcohol from Kazakhstan, but then, locals say, the FSB tightened control over the border, and the possibility of earning money disappeared.
They say well about the dead in Yuryevka: they kept cattle, drank infrequently, the children were “dressed and shod”. Little is needed for rural prosperity. At the same time, I notice that the majority, even neighbors, are mistaken when they say that Nikolai was unemployed. In the Omsk media, this is the prevailing information at all. But he worked at the grain current. In addition, many, although they live on the same street, can’t say anything about the family at all: “We never talked. They seem to be normal.
Flowers on the roads left after the funeral. Photo: Arden Arkman/Novaya Gazeta
Only after a while it becomes clear that the village is very atomized. It is not one of those where everyone knows everything about each other. This is facilitated even by the fact that the houses here are built far from each other, and it is not easy to become an unwitting eyewitness to any drama. /strong>) brought to Yurievka about four years ago. He himself is native here. These are not his children,” says one of the neighbors. — They lived normally: before their arrival, he kept a little livestock, and then they bred it: both horses and sheep. They seemed to provide for the children quite well.
During the interrogation, Yana stated that the reason for her resentment towards the family was not only the ban on communicating with the young man, but also violence:
allegedly her stepfather beat her for misconduct (including with a boiler), and the mother, although she did not beat, “pressed morally.”
— About two years ago I asked Yana if they offended her at home? She replied: “Anything happens,” recalls an elderly neighbor of the dead, Tamara Kochubey. — Kolya offended his first wife and boys (meaning children from his first marriage. — I. Zh.).
The house where Yana's family lived. Photo: Arden Arkman/Novaya Gazeta
According to the pensioner, Yana was friends with her granddaughter.
— And the granddaughter often said that everything forbade Yana: they didn’t let her go for a walk, if she was free, she had to deal with younger children. And when she began to meet with this boy, her stepfather scolded her strongly. He shouted that he would take her to the gynecologist. I said that if they already started dating, now it’s useless to scold them — you need to talk, sort out the children. A child needs to be not only loved, but also respected. In general, it was not easy for her psychologically.
A similar picture was described by Yana's underage half-sister. According to her, because of the ban on meeting with Sergei, Yana saw him at night — when her parents were sleeping. Recently, she has become withdrawn, complaining that she has no friends.
— She was well treated in the class, but she really had no friends: she rarely went somewhere. Mostly she sat at home or walked with her younger sister, — says Yana's classmate. — Only when I started dating Seryozha did I “break out” from the family. Even refused to babysit the younger ones because of him. Parents didn't like it, of course.
School in Yurievka. Photo: Arden Arkman/Novaya Gazeta
The anxiety of parents for their daughter is really understandable. Sergei S. is considered a difficult teenager in the village. Locals say that he often fought, several times he was allegedly caught on petty thefts, and two years ago he inadvertently burned down his uncle's garage.
Seryozha is from a dysfunctional family. Single mom drinking. Four children, — says one of the interlocutors of the «New» in the Yuryev school. — He practically did not live at home, he spent the night with friends all the time.
This information is also confirmed in the district department of education: they say that Sergei's family is «characterized by a socially dangerous situation», and he himself «causes anxiety in terms of academic performance.» However, the officials do not specify exactly what measures were taken to improve the situation of the family.
The only person, it seems, who did not feel anxiety for either Sergey or Yana, turns out, to my surprise, the director of the local school Vladimir Tabachnikov.
— What Yana says about the beatings is not true. Because in terms of parental attitude towards children, the family was prosperous. Her mother is even overprotective. She very often came to school — but not to sort out some kind of conflict, but to take an interest in academic performance. Well, or asked to let Yana leave the lessons: they have two younger children — they constantly need help.
The director says that Yana studied well and even participated in inter-district history competitions. She tells about Sergey that she has known him since childhood.
— He lived with me on the same street, and I never characterized him as a negative hero. He was always reliable: you could ask him to help, and he agreed. Always said hello. Yes, he had his difficulties, but it seemed to me that this was covered by success in sports: he was still a volleyball player, he participated in competitions. I do not believe that he himself figured out how to commit the murder.
At these words, the director stops short and remarks that «in general, it is dangerous to communicate with journalists.» And declines further ratings.
< p>Photo: Arden Arkman/Novaya Gazeta
— Yana's family was not on any of the types of records. What kind of work will we do with them? It is clear that we carried out our functions within the framework of our powers. Carried out standard work: observation, testing. If out-of-the-ordinary things were happening, we would know. But the girl behaved, in principle, normally. There were no conflicts of such a format that we decided: we will put her at the Higher School of Economics (intra-school control. — I. Zh.), tomorrow we will call on the commission on juvenile affairs, and the day after tomorrow we will deprive the mother of parental rights. The child was positive for us. What happened, unfortunately, we cannot say. I would be glad that such situations did not occur. And, to be honest, I don’t understand why they happen … The roof goes by itself. After all, we work according to algorithms… If we didn’t practice them…
I ask the director what kind of algorithms and how the work with students works. He replies: “Now there are no documents at hand. They are the same for the whole country – you can find them on the Internet.”
The algorithms are really the same for the whole country and for every tragedy.
Gymnasium No. 175, where a massacre took place on May 11 last year. “We have a psychologist in our school. I don't even remember her name. She came to us three times during her studies: in the fourth, sixth and eighth grades. Once every two years. She asked some standard questions about alcohol, drugs, about who we want to become, gave out tests. But this is all very formal.
Specialists also say that it is very difficult to identify a psychological problem in a teenager based on tests — personal communication and repeated communication is needed.
— I think that all these testing can only reveal acute psychotic symptoms, which are obvious to others even without a psychologist. For example, if a person is delirious or agitated (motor restlessness. — I. Zh.), — explains clinical psychologist Evgenia Smolenskaya.