Ivars Grantiņš

On May 18, 2009, he was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, arguing that he had converted to Christianity, regretted his decisions and that the death penalty was a preferrable option to life imprisonment. His arguments were rejected by the Court, which subsequently upheld the verdict.

On April 11, 2008, Grantiņš was released from prison and returned to his mother's house in Ceraukste, where he began working at a local farm. According to his mother, he had become even more withdrawn than before - he would only greet her in the morning and evenings, and after returning from work, he would immediately go to his room. She also said that his hair had prematurely turned gray during his prison stint, which prompted him to dye it black. His daughter, who still lived with her mother in Bauska, would occasionally visit them during the summer holidays during this period.

Grantiņš then moved to Riga for about two years, where he found a well-paying job in the construction industry. During this time, he did inquire about the well-being of his family and preferred to spend time with friends, even helping one of them with paying his bills. In 2004, Grantiņš was sentenced to four years imprisonment and one year of supervised parole for rape - on this occasion, he raped and beat a woman he had met at a party and had offered to accompany her to her home. In a letter written to a childhood friend, he complained about the conditions and prison and claimed that he was 'humiliated'.

After graduating from Svitene, Grantiņš enrolled at an agricultural vocational school in Mežotne to study as a tractor driver, but soon dropped out. He soon found employment at a farm in Ceraukste Parish, where he was tasked with feeding the cattle. While he was considered a good and efficient worker, female co-workers were disturbed by his tendency to torture the farm animals out of boredom and molesting older women. He was first tried for attempted sexual assault on a minor and attempted murder in 1995, but was prevented from finishing the victim off by passers-by. At that time, he was given a suspended sentence.

Grantiņš' first crime was committed in 1988, when he confronted a 17-year-old girl he had taken a liking to while she attempted to make a phone call. After opening a gate for her, he hit her on the back of the head and attempted to strangle her, but the victim managed to escape his clutches and tried to run away. She eventually lost consciousness and collapsed, however, allowing Grantiņš time to pull out a pocket knife and stab her in the hand and back, but was stopped by a neighbor who had been alerted by the commotion.

Ivars Grantiņš (born 1972), known as The Ceraukste Maniac (Latvian: Ceraukstes Maniaks), is a Latvian serial killer and rapist who murdered three people, including his daughter, in a two-month killing spree in 2008. The brutality of his crimes and his subsequent manhunt became notorious in the country, and he was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for them.

Ivars Grantiņš was born in 1972 in the village of Ceraukste, the second son of Ausma Timpares and an unnamed father. His father lived with the family until Grantiņš was four years old, and during that time, he would pay little attention to his children and spend his time drinking and having affairs. When he was imprisoned following a drunken brawl, Ausma divorced Grantiņš' father and took custody of their children.