The Volga Maniac: Russian ‘serial killer who strangled 31 elderly women’ to be jailed for life

Radik Tagirov was arrested in 2020 on suspicion of the killings across 15 cities

Radik Tagirov, Volga Maniac, in pic released by the Investigative Committee of Russia ICR (ICR)

A prosecutor in Kazan in southwest Russia has demanded a life sentence for a serial killer known as the ‘Volga Maniac,’ who is accused of murdering at least 31 elderly women, the TASS state media agency reported on Monday, citing a correspondent in the courtroom.

Radik Tagirov was arrested in 2020 on suspicion of the killings, which were committed across 15 cities in and around the Tatarstan region between 2011 and 2012.

Law enforcement agencies said Tagirov had sometimes posed as a social worker, electrician or plumber to enter the women’s homes before strangling them and stealing their valuables.

Tagirov, a locksmith who had previously served prison time for petty theft, subsequently confessed to 25 of the murders.

Police have attempted to track down their killer for years and offered a 3-million-rouble (£30,000) reward for information leading to his arrest.

Radik Tagirov, who was arrested on suspicion of killing elderly women, is pictured in custody in Russia (Global News)

Tagirov would go down as one of Russia’s most prolific serial killers.

in 2007 Siberian policeman Mikhail Popkov was convicted of 78 murders carried out between 1992 and 2007. He raped and killed women with an axe after offering them rides.

‘Chessboard Killer’ Alexander Pichushkin was alos sentenced to life in prison in Moscow in 2007 for 48 murders. He said he wanted to kill one person for each of the 64 squares on a chessboard.