Female medical student murdered two elderly women so she could study death
Pastor Dale Morgan
Female medical student murdered two elderly women so she could study death*
By Will Stewart
Last updated at 9:19 PM on 22nd July 2009
The murders were carried out in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk
The murders were carried out in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk
A medical student murdered two elderly women so she could study the
process of dying for her doctorate.
The 24-year-old - named only as Tatyana - killed her victims with an axe
before observing their last moments.
Russian police say the woman confessed to the killings.
The first victim was her neighbour Olga Stepushenko, 85. 'I took the axe
and hit her to the head several times,' said Tatyana.
'When she fell down, I sat next to her and waited until she died. I had
an unbelievable view.'
Four days later she murdered Olga's neighbour, 87-year-old Zoya Karpova,
who she struck eight times with the weapon.
Tatyana returned to the flat over the next two weeks to study the
rotting corpse, making notes about the decomposition of the body.
'I wanted to have more details of the death process to use it in my
work,' she said. 'I aimed to see how the worms would decompose Zoya's body.'
She included the observations in her dissertation at a top medical
institute.
The student, from Novosibirsk in Siberia, who was close to qualifying as
a surgeon, was arrested before she could complete her analysis.
'When two similar crimes happened, we realised that we were dealing with
a maniac,' said a police official.
Neighbours told police Tatyana had been visiting both women. A search of
her flat found an axe on which there were traces of the victims' blood.
Police are investigating whether there were more victims. The student
faces 20 years in jail.