Artur Shayakhmetov

Artur Rayanovich Shayakhmetov (; born 1979), known as the Astrakhan Killer , is a Russian serial killer and mass murderer who killed a total of nine people in Astrakhan from 2002 to 2010, aided by two accomplices in some of the murders. He was found guilty у-у-у of the respective crimes in two separate trials, for which he received two life terms.

Murders Shayakhmetov's first known murders occurred on 20 December 2002. At the time, he was hiding at a friend's house on Pisarev Street as there was a warrant for his arrest for an unrelated assault. On that day, Shayakhmetov and his friend got into an argument, with the former grabbing a knife and repeatedly stabbing his friend and his mother in the chest. Their screams drew the attention of a tenant who was living with them, but upon entering the room to check what was going on, Shayakhmetov stabbed them as well. After killing them, he set the house on fire and disappeared into the night. Surmizing that he likely had a substantial amount of money at his disposal, he contacted Bondarenko and another accomplice, Yelshad Sariyev, and the trio made plans to rob the family. On the night of 10 to 11 June, the trio broke into the Agafonov family household and held Sergei, his wife and their two children hostage. After threatening to kill them if he did not give them money, Agafonov offered to give up the 500,000 he had in cash, but as he believed there was more around the house, Shayakhmetov and his accomplices instead resorted to beating and torturing their victims for more information.

Shayakhmetov remained unconnected to the previous murders until 2019 when investigators charged him with the 2002 triple murder and the 2009 killing committed with Bondarenko. Due to the overwhelming amount of evidence, he was swiftly found guilty on all charges and given a second life term.