Andrei Kiyko

Andrei Olegovich Kiyko (; born 1985), known as The Sosnovsky Maniac , is a Russian serial killer and rapist who assaulted at least fifteen women in Saint Petersburg from 2004 to 2007, three of whom were fatally injured.

Originally convicted of two murders and sentenced to 22 years, he confessed to one more in 2022, for which he was given an additional 25-year sentence.

Early life Little is known about Kiyko's early life. Born in Saint Petersburg in 1985, his parents divorced when he was five, after which his mother was granted full custody of him. At some point during his childhood, Kiyko suffered a severe head injury, which he later claimed caused him to experience visual hallucinations of a female silhouette carrying a lantern and clacking with heels to pursue him. Due to this, he was unable to sleep and would often walk aimlessly around the city.

Crimes Starting sometime around early 2004, Kiyko began accosting random women he came across in Sosnovsky Park, asking them to go on walks with him. While he would occasionally steal their personal items and money, he later claimed that he only enjoyed the "process of the chase", and supposedly lost interest in the victim shortly after interacting with them. Not long after, he was drafted into the Russian Armed Forces. March 2005: attacked a young girl and dragged her to a secluded area, but was unable to rape her due to a non-standard zipper on her clothing. Using his confusion to her advantage, the girl pushed him away and started running - she eventually came across an elderly woman walking her dog, prompting her pursuer to run away. Soon afterwards, Kiyko was discharged from the army due to a head injury and returned to Saint Petersburg. In said confession, he claimed that on April 25, 2005, he accosted a 27-year-old woman named Tatyana at Sosnovsky Park, using his usual method of threatening at knifepoint. However, she resisted him too heavily, which supposedly forced him to strangle her and discard the body within the park's confines.

Soon afterwards, Kiyko was charged with this murder and brought to court in Saint Petersburg.