Maxim Khrenov

Very little is known about Khrenov's early life. Born on 11 February 1979 in Ivanovo, he began exhibiting disturbing sexual behavior in his teenage years and soon afterwards started engaging in crime. Between the mid-1990s and the late 2000s, Khrenov was repeatedly arrested on charges of theft and rape.

In 2009, Khrenov was paroled from prison, but struggled to find a job.^[1] Because of this, he started using his Lada Samara to provide unlicensend taxi services. By the early 2010s, he mastered several specialties in the construction industry, got married and had two children.^[1]

Following his marriage, Khrenov earned a reputation as a tidy and hard-working teetotaler who seemingly never exhibited any concerning behavior.^[1]

Between the spring of 2010 and the summer of 2011, Khrenov committed at least four murders involving robbery and rape. His modus operandi consisted of offering women rides and then distracting them by talking about random topics while he drove them into the woods outside Ivanovo.^[2] Once he reached an isolated area, he would then threatened them at gunpoint to give up all their valuables. Once he stole everything he could, Khrenov would sexually assault and murder the victim, either by strangling her with an electrical wire or slitting her throat with a utility knife.^[3]

His first murder occurred in the spring of 2010, when he picked up a 32-year-old woman who was visiting her parents from Saint Petersburg. He then drove her to the woods near the village of Bunkovo, where he raped and strangled her with an electric wire.^[2] The killer's biological samples and a fragment of his hair were recovered and DNA was isolated from them, but this was not immediately linked to him.^[2]

In the spring of 2011, Khrenov picked up an 18-year-old girl and drove her to a quarry near the Ivanovo-Furmanov Highway, where he robbed, raped and strangled her with the electric wire.^[2]

Khrenov committed his final known murders only a few months later, in the summer.^[2] He picked up two young women, 19 and 21, respectively, then drove them to the outskirts of the village of Zheleznodorozhny. There, he raped them at gunpoint and then cut their throats using a utility knife. After killing both victims, he set the remains on fire, and then buried them in the forest.^[2]

At the scene of the last two murders, investigators found tire tracks, later identified as those of a Lada Samara. This was indirectly confirmed by a resident of Zheleznodorozhny, who claimed that he had seen a similar car on the day of the murders. Due to this, investigators set out to interview all owners of such cars and similar brands, but this did not lead to the arrest of the killer.^[2]

Further investigation of the DNA established that the same person committed the four murders, after which special units were formed with the aid of the Department of Forensic Science and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The research into the case lasted more than seven years, with more than 370 people being questioned from among relatives and acquaintances of the victims, as well as the residents of the villages and hamlets were the crimes had occurred. Bus drivers, truck drivers, and persons previously convicted of robbery and rape were interrogated, with additional forensic examinations being conducted by experts based in Moscow, Yaroslavl and Ivanovo.^[2]