Ivars Grantiņš

Ivars Grantiņš (born 1972), known as The Ceraukste Maniac (Latvian: Ceraukstes Maniaks), is a Latvian serial killer and rapist who murdered three people, including his daughter, in a two-month killing spree in 2008. The brutality of his crimes and his subsequent manhunt became notorious in the country, and he was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for them.

Early life Ivars Grantiņš was born in 1972 in the village of Ceraukste, the second son of Ausma Timpares and an unnamed father. His father lived with the family until Grantiņš was four years old, and during that time, he paid little attention to his children and spent his time drinking and having affairs. When he was imprisoned following a drunken brawl, Ausma divorced Grantiņš' father and took custody of their children.

Grantiņš was raised on a kolkhoz farm, where his mother worked manual labour to provide for her three children, and it is said that she treated them with love and care. At age six, Grantiņš was hit by a car and suffered an open leg fracture, for which he had to be hospitalized for a long time. Eventually, due to his long hospitalization and poor performance at the local school, his mother transferred him to another school in Svitene. As it was far away from his home village, he frequently travelled by bus and could only return home on the weekends. This extended to the playground, where he had trouble connecting with his peers and was often by himself. Whenever he was offended, he would sit by himself on a staircase and refuse to move, which sometimes resulted in other students having to forcefully remove him. After opening a gate for her, he hit her on the back of the head and attempted to strangle her, but the victim managed to escape his clutches and tried to run away. She eventually lost consciousness and collapsed, however, allowing Grantiņš time to pull out a pocket knife and stab her in the hand and back, but was stopped by a neighbour who had been alerted by the commotion.

Eventually, Grantiņš married Inga, another girl living on the kolkhoz who was seven years his junior, and the pair soon had a daughter, Daina. His wife allegedly held great influence over him, so much so that Grantiņš obeyed everything she requested without questioning it.

Jana Ribinska Following his wife's apparent disappearance, Grantiņš began drinking excessively and exhibited strange behaviour. One of his daughter's friends later recalled that he rarely changed clothing and often loudly sang songs about how some evil 'oil men' were going to kill everyone. About half an hour later, the party ended and Ribinska, unwilling to go home just yet, decided to go to Bauska to drink some more. On the way, she crossed paths with Grantiņš, who raped and then drowned her in a pond (other sources claimed that he stabbed her multiple times with a knife).

It was assumed that Grantiņš was hiding in the forest near Ceraukste, but a search of the area turned up nothing. During the search, suspicions were raised about other criminal offences potentially committed by the fugitive, including the mysterious disappearance of his wife. A search of his belongings revealed a large number of videos depicting either pornographic or violent sexual acts.

Trial and imprisonment On 18 May 2009, he was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, arguing that he had converted to Christianity, regretted his decisions and that the death penalty was a preferable option to life imprisonment. His arguments were rejected by the Court, which subsequently upheld the verdict.