Alexander Bushuyev

Alexander Veniaminovich Bushuyev (Russian: Александр Вениаминович Бушуев; born 1949), known as The Gardener Maniac (Russian: Маньяк-садовод), is a Russian serial killer who raped and murdered seven underage boys and teenagers in Arkhangelsk from 1997 to 2002. His case garnered great publicity, as he was previously regarded as a beloved local gardener who participated in many landscaping and beautification projects across Arkhangelsk. In the end, he was convicted of all charges and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.

Early life Alexander Bushuyev was born in 1949 in the Vilegodsky District, Arkhangelsk Oblast, the older of two children. He had a younger brother named Sergey. His parents divorced in the mid-1950s, so the young Alexander was primarily taken care of by his mother and grandparents, but reportedly never experienced any traumatic incidents during his childhood. Bushuyev became interested in plants and herbs at the age of 7 thanks to his grandmother, who was considered the village herbalist.

After graduating from school, Bushuyev enrolled in a vocational school but was forced to leave in the late 1960s because his mother fell ill. Over the next few years, he worked in various professions, including as a carpenter, concrete worker and security guard at the Arkhangelsk State Technical University. His colleagues described Bushuyev in a positive manner, describing him as diligent, responsible and efficient, but at the same time, they also said that he had a knack for scheming and adventurism.

Marriage, health issues and gardening In the 1970s, Bushuyev married and had a daughter. Relatives described him as a kind, sympathetic and hard-working man who devoted most of his free time to his family and doting on his daughter. In 1996, he got a job at an insurance agency in Arkhangelsk but frequently had to change jobs due to health issues. At the time, he had been diagnosed with a number of diseases, including epilepsy, hypertension and even suffered from several strokes, due to which Bushuyev was granted a disability pension.

In the mid-2000s, the Mayor's Office drafted a new law, the "Rules of landscaping and gardening", which included sections related to defining the boundaries of adjacent territories for proper sanitation and maintenance for landscaping projects. Shortly afterwards, Donskoy established the so-called 'Green Council' in Arkhangelsk City Hall, a special committee to deal with improving greening projects in the city. In this position, he continued making various proposals for landscaping and beautification of Arkhangelsk, suggesting that additional recreational areas, benches and paths should be created. With his direct participation, several fir planting campaigns were held in the city, based on the results of research Bushuyev had discussed with botanical specialists. Of the three identified victims, one was a teenager and the other two were young acquaintances of Bushuyev who were reportedly last seen in his company before their disappearance. However, due to the small amount of blood found, forensic experts were unable to determine whether it was human or not, and Bushuyev himself refused to cooperate with authorities. According to one of the investigators, Col. Vladimir Shevchenko, the moment he entered the investigation room, Bushuyev turned towards the room's corner, covered his ears with his hands and refused to talk without the presence of a lawyer. The motive was apparently sexual, but it was also noted that Bushuyev stole the victims' personal belongings and apartment keys, using the latter to steal additional items from one victim's home amounting to 7,100 rubles. It also ruled that he had to pay 4 million rubles in damages to the victims' family members, as he had also been found liable for their deaths in a civil lawsuit.

After his conviction, Bushuyev was transferred to the IK-12 penal colony in the Kholmogorsky District.

Second trial In 2015, Dmitry Ananyin, a senior investigator for the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, started reinvestigating cold case murders which he believed might be connected to Bushuyev. Ananyin and his team re-interviewed the victims' relatives and newfound witnesses, then proceeded to utilize new forensic technology on the victims' clothes in an attempt to link them to Bushuyev. The results of these tests showed that small pieces of epithelial tissues belonging to Bushuyev were found on the clothes of the deceased, and in December 2015, he was charged with one of the murders he had not been prosecuted for previously. On 17 May 2016, he was charged with two other murders committed between 1997 and 2002, and in June of that year, he was extradited from the penal colony to a detention centre in Arkhangelsk to await trial.

The second trial began at the end of 2016, and in early 2017, the now-68-year-old Bushuyev was found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering the three victims, for which he was sentenced to an additional 19 years imprisonment on 3 February 2017. These are to be served concurrently with his previous sentence of 25 years imprisonment. Sometime afterwards, Bushuyev and his lawyers filed an appeal requesting that the guilty verdict and the convictions be annulled, but it was denied by the courts in May. He was then returned to the penal colony, where he remains to this day.