Venera Obolashvili

Venera Obolashvili (; born 1954) is a Soviet-Georgian murderer, fraudster and self-confessed serial killer who murdered a female relative in 2009 in order to sell her apartment - she also confessed to killing one of her husbands and a boyfriend but was never charged due to a lack of evidence. Found guilty of one murder and sentenced to 23 years imprisonment, she was released on parole in 2023.

Early life Little is publicly available about Obolashvili's life. Born in 1954 in the Georgian SSR, she would go on to marry to three separate husbands and have three children, although she would also live with boyfriends on common-law grounds. Sources report that graduated university and held a license as a dentist, but is not known to have practised professionally.

Murders Yuri Yurkin The first suspicious death linked to Obolashvili dates back to 1984, with the death of her 43-year-old husband Yuri Yurkin. Officially, he was thought to have died after accidentally falling of a train near Tbilisi, but after her arrest, Obolashvili claimed that she had pushed him to his death. After this, she sold his apartment for the equivalent of $4,000.

Maria Arzamaseva By 2009, Obolashvili was living with 79-year-old Maria Arzamaseva, who had been her uncle's girlfriend for some time. In August of that year, they invited a young man over to discuss selling the apartment, but according to Obolashvili, Arzamaseva got drunk and chased him away, claiming that this was her home.

It was quickly established that both her husband and boyfriend had died in similarly suspicious circumstances, but as prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to charge her in these cases, Obolashvili was charged solely with the murder of Arzamaseva and the corresponding fraud charges. She claims that during her time in prison, she spent most of her studying and learning new skills, earning a total of 27 certificates in different fields. Obolashvili also claims that she got two master's degrees in automation and agrobiology from two separate Russian universities and to be fluent in English and German.

In late January 2023, Obolashvili was released on parole after serving less than half of her original sentence. Upon her release, she gave an exclusive interview to a local news outlet in which she told of her life in prison and apparently expressed remorse over her actions.