Tamara Samsonova

Murders After her husband's disappearance, Samsonova rented out a room in her apartment. On 6 September 2003, during a quarrel, she killed her 44-year-old tenant, Sergei Potanin, and another male who was a 32-year-old resident from Norilsk. She dismembered his corpse and disposed of it outdoors on the Dimitrov street.

In March 2015, a mutual friend asked 79-year-old Valentina Nikolaevna Ulanova, who also lived on Dimitrov Street, to shelter Samsonova temporarily while Samsonova's apartment was being renovated. Samsonova lived in Ulanova's apartment for several months, helping with the housework. The relationship between the two deteriorated, and when Ulanova asked Samsonova to leave she refused to move out.

Samsonova travelled to Pushkin and persuaded a pharmacist to sell her the prescription drug phenazepam. She put the pills into an Olivier salad, a favourite of Ulanova's, and gave it to her.

The identity of the deceased was established on 27 July after a survey of apartment residents. When police officers knocked on Ulanova's apartment, Samsonova opened the door. Police found traces of blood in the bathroom, and the fastening from the torn-off curtain. Samsonova was arrested.

Investigation and compulsory treatment On 29 July 2015, Samsonova was brought to the Frunze District Court of St. Petersburg. A forensic psychiatric examination determined on 26 November 2015 that she was a danger to society and to herself, and she was placed in a specialized institution until the end of the investigation.

In December 2015, Samsonova was sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment in a specialized hospital in Kazan.

She is being investigated in connection with 14 murders.

Police found a diary containing details of some of the murders. One entry claims she: "killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife and put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky District."