Artur Shayakhmetov

Shayakhmetov remained unconnected to the previous murders until 2019, when investigators charged him with the 2002 triple murder and the 2009 killing committed with Bondarenko. Due to the overwhelming amount of evidence, he was swiftly found guilty on all charges and given a second life term.

Sometime during 2013, both Shayakhmetov and Sariyev were arrested and charged with the killings. While he initially denied responsibility, Shayakhmetov eventually confessed when presented with the evidence, and even directed police officers to a place in the Kutum River where they had dumped some of their loot. A team of divers was dispatched to investigate and located a bag containing weapons, stolen jewellery from unrelated robberies and several defunct gift cards from Agafonov's perfume shop. In total, the files for the criminal case amounted to 45 volumes, and reportedly had to be delivered in two separate cars.

In early June 2010, Shayakhmetov received information that 40-year-old Sergei Agafonov, the owner of a local chain of perfume shops, was planning to travel to Moscow in order to sell some of his goods. Surmizing that he likely had a substantial amount of money at his disposal, he contacted Bondarenko and another accomplice, Yelshad Sariyev, and the trio made plans to rob the family. On the night of June 10 to 11, the trio broke into the Agafonov family household and held Sergei, his wife and their two children hostage. After threatening to kill them if he did not give them money, Agafonov offered to give up the 500,000 he had in cash, but as he believed there was more around the house, Shayakhmetov and his accomplices instead resorted to beating and torturing their victims for more information. Eventually, Shayakhmetov filled a bathtub with water, grabbed Agafonov's 4-year-old daughter and started dipping her head in and out as an intimidation tactic. In doing so, he unintentionally drowned her. Upon realizing what he had just done, Shayakhmetov ordered Bondarenko and Sariyev to help him kill the others, which they subsequently did so by strangling all three of them to death. They then robbed the house and fled, without setting the apartment on fire this time.

In 2009, a friend of Shayakhmetov, Konstantin Bondarenko, told him that he knew an elderly woman who lived alone in the Leninsky City District and had a large amount of valuables and money stashed in her apartment. The pair devised a plan on how to get in, deciding that Shayakhmetov would climb up to her apartment via the second-floor balcony, sneak in, and then open the front door. In November of that year, after successfully completing this task and breaking into the home, Bondarenko proceeded to strangle the woman to death. Afterwards, the two assailants stole valuables worth 115,000 rubles, set the apartment on fire, and fled.

Shayakhmetov's first known murders occurred on December 20, 2002. At the time, he was hiding at a friend's house on Pisarev Street as there was a warrant for his arrest for an unrelated assault. On that day, Shayakhmetov and his friend got into an argument, with the former grabbing a knife and repeatedly stabbing his friend and his mother in the chest. Their screams drew the attention of a tenant who was living with them, but upon entering the room to check what was going on, Shayakhmetov stabbed them as well. After killing them, he set the house on fire and disappeared off into the night.

Artur Ahnafovich Shayakhmetov (Russian: Артур Ахнафович Шаяхметов; born 1982), known as The Astrakhan Killer (Russian: Астраханский душегуб), is a Russian serial killer and mass murderer who killed a total of nine people in Astrakhan from 2002 to 2010, aided by two accomplices in some of the murders. He was found guilty of the respective crimes in two separate trials, for which he received two life terms.