July 26, 2015, dogs sniffed out the remains of 79 year old Valentina Ulanova at an apartment building in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, Russia. Her body had been decapitated and spread out across seven different garbage bags. CCTV and blood trails on the floor of the apartment building led police to the door of 68 year old Tamara Samsonova, who had been working as a caregiver for Mrs. Ulanova.
When police arrived at the apartment of Tamara Samsonova, she immediately confessed to killing Mrs. Ulanova, as well as three others. She was detained as the police searched her home and found bizarre diaries, written in German, English, and Russian.
Reading from her diary, it was clear she enjoyed living with and caring for Mrs. Ulanova. She wrote, “I love Valya,” her nickname for Valentina.
However, reading earlier entries into the diary, you can see that she was not entirely sweet. “I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife, put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky district.”
Samsonova confessed to police that Valentina had told her, “I am tired of you,” but she was afraid to leave and go back to living alone in her own home. “I was scared to live at home,” she said. “I panicked.” By killing her, she admitted she could live in Valentina’s home for another five months, until her relatives turn up, or someone else.
Samsonova opened a bottle of Phenazepamum and put all 50 pills into Mrs. Ulanova’s Olivier salad. “She liked it very much,” she said, before telling police that shortly afterward Ulanova collapsed to the floor and that’s where she cut her up. She put the body in various bags, and her head into a sauce pan, neither of which have yet to be recovered.
CCTV footage shows Samsonova carrying the garbage bags down the stairs and out of the building, as well as he carrying a saucepan, with a lid outside. Ulanova’s head was never recovered. Natalia Fedotovskaya, a friend and neighbor of Mrs. Ulanova, said, “It is very likely that she threw this saucepan with the head into the garbage skip, which is usually taken away on a Saturday morning. So it seems the head has gone with the skip. It will be hard to find it now.”
Based on the conditions of Mrs. Ulanova’s body parts, police suspect Samsonova not only cut her up to make discarding her body easier, but also possibly ate some of her as well.
In court, Samsonova was pictured blowing kisses to reporters, and was even caught celebrating when the judge told her she would be held in custody.
“I’m haunted by a maniac upstairs who forced me to kill,” she told reporters through the bars of her courtroom cage. “I have nowhere else to live. I am a very old person, and I put the whole matter to rest deliberately. I have thought 77 times about it and then decided that I must be in prison. I will die there and the state will probably bury me.”
Police have evidence linking Samsonova to at least 11 deaths. Suspected victims include other neighbors, former tenants, her mother, and even her husband, who was reported missing sometime around 2005. No bodies have been found, making it difficult to convict.
Samsonova is currently being detained in the high security Kazan psychiatric “prison hospital” for a detailed assessment before she stands trial. Evidence gathered in St. Petersburg found her to be insane. Once her assessment is over, her trial will commence. She will be returned to St. Petersburg, but for now is only being charged with 1 murder – of Valentina Ulanova.
Neighbors were shocked, but not entirely surprised. “When I confronted her about my missing friend,” Natalia Fedatovskaya said, “She begged me not to call the police and grabbed my arm. The police told me later I was lucky to escape.”
Tamara Samsonova has now been dubbed Russia’s “Granny Ripper,” her diaries linking her to murders over a duration of at least 10 years.
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