53-year-old Mikhail Popkov murdered 55 women and a policeman near Irkutsk (one of the largest cities in Siberia) between 1992 and 2007. He was already in jail for 22 other murders after being caught in 2012 after a DNA match identified his car.

Popkov killed these victims after offering them late-night rides in his car. He raped at least 10 of those victims before killing them.

The victims were all women between the ages of 16 and 40, apart from one male policeman. In three cases in particular, he was on duty.

Popkov killed them around the city of Angarsk, near Irkutsk, with an axe and hammer. He dumped their battered bodies in forests, by the roadside, and in a local cemetery.

He claimed to be getting rid of what he saw as immoral women in the city of Angarsk.

Tire marks from his car were found next to some of the bodies, which led police to check all owners of that car type in Angarsk. The owners’ DNA was checked against DNA found on the victims, and that let police to identify Popkov.

He was arrested enroute to Vladivostok, where he had gone to buy a new car. He later confessed to 20 murders in court on December 10, 2018. His youngest victim was a 15-year-old girl.

When I told a few of my peers this story, they were in awe. How could one man kill that many people without getting caught for so long?

LHS senior, Maddie Pedley says, ” Oh my gosh! That is so scary, do you know how many people could be doing the same thing without being caught?”

This is a very scary story to many people, this man deserves the worst thing that can happen to him.