Barnaul Maniac

Vitaly Yegorovich Manishin (; born 10 November 1971), known as The Barnaul Maniac , is a Soviet–Russian serial killer who raped and murdered at least 11 young girls and women in Barnaul and Buranovo from 1989 to 2000.

The case remained unsolved and was a subject of media speculation for decades. Manishin was identified as the prime suspect in 2023 after he was linked to some of the murders via DNA, after which he admitted responsibility for the crimes. He was convicted in 2025 and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.

Life prior to exposure Vitaly Manishin was born on 10 November 1971 in the village of Zelyonaya Dubrava, Altai Krai. He grew up in a stable family and was regarded as an average teenager throughout his school years.

After graduating in the early 1990s, he enrolled in the Altai State University's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, from which he later found job as the chief veterinarian at the Shadrinskoye Company.

In the midst of these disappearances, another 17-year-old Elena Anisimova was also reported missing on 12 July while attempting to enroll at Vocational School No. 35. That same July, two women vanished from the city just days later: 54-year-old Valentina Mihaylyukova from the Romanovsky District (on 14 July), and 43-year-old Nina Shakirova from the Krasnoshchyokovsky District (on 18 July). A composite sketch was drawn, and later shown on local television. According to said sketch, employees at the Altai State Technical University pointed towards one of their colleagues, who was taken in for questioning, but his involvement in the disappearances couldn't be proven. In total, 71 photographs of individuals who offered work applications at the Barnaul universities were compiled, and even car owners who parked in nearby parking lots were checked, but it still didn't lead to an arrest.

On 4 September, near the village of Yuzhny, in the forest along the Barnaul-Rubtsovsk Highway, torn clothes, a notebook, a certificate from the State Technical University and a map of the university itself, items which belonged to Kirgizova, were located. While examining the area, investigators uncovered 5 fresh graves in the village cemetery, which the locals didn't recognize. They were opened up but turned up empty.

Psychiatrists tried to recreate the profile of the alleged offender: he was 35–40 years old, married, had children, had a car and his work allowed him to take absences for a significant period of time.

Initial suspects On 11 September 2000, a student at the Altai State Technical University contacted Barnaul's Internal Affairs Directorate and said that she recognized a man whom she had seen repeatedly during the exam period. They met in the clothing market, with the man introducing himself as a dean from the Faculty of Economics and offering help with admissions.

However, in an interview with the former head of the Police Department of Barnaul, Major General Nikolai Turbovets, conducted on 11 June 2019, he expressed his still-lingering uncertainty concerning whether Anisimov was the culprit.

Aside from Anisimov, other suspects questioned in the June–August disappearances included serial killers Alexey Ryzhkov (who was in prison at the time of the murders) and Alexander Pavlenko, as well as the Novosibirsk-based gang of Evgeny Kvashnin.

Arrest and prosecution of Manishin In May 2023, Russian online publication Baza reported that police had arrested 52-year-old Vitaly Manishin for the murder of Lyudmila Obidina. At the time of his arrest, Manishin worked as a deputy head for the local government in the Kalmansky District, and served on the Housing and Communal Services, Construction and Gasification Committee.

It was reported that shortly after his arrest, Manishin suddenly confessed to killing the five students in Barnaul from June to August 2000. He said that at the time of the crimes, he used his position as a veterinarian and director of a local farm to meet with female students on the pretence of helping them get into the university. During interrogations with police officials in September, Manishin got confused and accidentally implicated himself in four additional murders committed from 1999 to 2000 - one of them being the murder of Valentina Mihaylyukova, a confirmed victim of the Barnaul Maniac.

In January 2024, journalists from Baza released a documentary film about the arrest, in which they alleged that Manishin confessed to an additional murder of a girl surnamed 'Filipchenko', but were unable to identify her at the time.

Manishin's trial began in 2024. After a lengthy trial, on 1 October 2025, the Kalmansky District Court convicted Manishin on all counts and sentenced him to 25 years imprisonment, with the first 7 being served in a strict-regime penal colony. The leniency of the sentence was due to the fact that the statute of limitations on most of the murders had lapsed.

In the media The programme Independent Investigation (broadcast October 19, 2000, on NTV) covered the crimes in the episode "Barnaul, University Maniac". Documentary film Beauties and Monsters (first part) from the series "Criminal Russia". Documentary film The Case of the Barnaul Maniac.