Alexander Astashev

Alexander Nikolayevich Astashev (; born November 17, 1956), known as the Cheremkhovo Poisoner , is a Russian serial killer and robber who, together with his wife and another female accomplice, poisoned 31 people across various oblasts from 2003 to 2005. Of these, 17 proved fatal.

All three would later be arrested, with Astashev being ruled incompetent to stand trial while his accomplices were imprisoned.

Early life Alexander Astashev was born on November 17, 1956, in the town of Cheremkhovo, Irkutsk Oblast. Little is known about his childhood and adolescent years.

During the Soviet and post-Soviet years, Astashev was incarcerated multiple times for a variety of offenses, beginning when he was a child in 1972. In 1982, he was caught abusing a child and later attempted to escape while being transported to prison, for which he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. After serving it out in full, he returned to Cheremkhovo in 1997. Not long after, he was arrested for an incident in which one person was stabbed to death and another severely wounded; however, it was ruled to be a case of excessive self-defense, and Astashev received only a minor prison sentence. During the conversation, he would ask them about their health and offer to treat them for free at home; if the victim accepted, Astashev and his accomplices would go to the house, where he would perform superficial medical procedures to put the victim at ease. Once trust was earned, he would give his victims a handful of potent sleeping pills (aminazine, suprastin and barbiturates) and a low-alcohol fruit-flavored drink kept in a balm bottle, which he presented as a "syrup." Soon after taking this mixture, the victim would either fall asleep or die, whereupon Astashev and his accomplices would ransack the apartment, stealing various appliances, precious jewelry, money, and, in some cases, even food and drinks from the refrigerator.

A special investigative division was not formed for a long time due to the fact that Astashev and his accomplices were constantly moving around, which was initially considered unrelated to one another. In addition, the deaths of pensioners were often written off as coronary heart disease, and thus criminal cases were never initiated.

Arrest, investigation and trial In September 2005, Astashev and his accomplices were finally apprehended in Glazov, Udmurtia. During subsequent investigations into his activities as a fugitive, authorities discovered that he was responsible for 31 robberies committed across multiple regions, with 17 of them proving fatal.

The investigation into the extent of the crimes lasted for two years, and during that time, investigators started to suspect that Astashev suffered from mental abnormalities but was initially ruled sane when checked in at a local psychiatric hospital. Later on, by request of his lawyer, he was transferred to the Serbsky Center, where a forensic psychiatric exam ruled him to be suffering from a particularly severe form of paranoid schizophrenia.

On August 6, 2008, the Irkutsk Regional Court ordered that Astashev undergo compulsory medical treatment in a specialized psychiatric institution with intensive supervision, as he posed a significant danger to society due to his delusions, impulsiveness, and destructive behavior, as well as the severity of his crimes. His wife Natalia was sentenced to 7.5 years imprisonment with five years of probation, while Musikhina was given six years imprisonment with five years' probation.