Vladimir Piniov

Vladimir Piniov (; 1957 – April 2001), known as The Bat Yam Homeless Killer, was a suspected Russian-Israeli serial killer thought to be responsible for the murders of at least three homeless people in Bat Yam between 1999 and 2000. Piniov killed himself shortly before his trial was due, and after his death, the bodies of two more potential victims were uncovered, leading investigators to believe that he could've potentially had even more undiscovered victims.

Early life Born in 1957, Piniov, who worked as a chemist in his native Russian SFSR, immigrated to Israel with his wife and three children in 1993, settling in Bat Yam's Ramat Hanassi neighborhood. Within a few months of arriving, however, his wife fled to a hostel for abused women, claiming that Piniov was abusive and had threatened to kill her on multiple occasions. His new home eventually became a congregation for other homeless people to drink alcohol and use drugs. In 1998, Piniov underwent a psychiatric examination at the Abarbanel Hospital, where he was diagnosed with psychopathic schizophrenia. Despite the doctors' efforts, he refused any treatment, and since they couldn't detain him by force, he was released.

Arrest, confessions and suicide At this time, police officers were investigating a separate homicide case when they randomly stumbled upon the body of a deceased homeless person. Superintendent Yitzhak Gatnio ordered that the case be treated as murder since the man had peculiar marks around his neck, likely the result of strangulation, despite pathologists determining that it had been from natural causes.

In the ending months of 2000, a police bulldozer was dispatched to excavate the sand dunes, in search of the bodies of the deceased victims. Despite the investigators' efforts, no traces of the alleged female victim, or any others, were found.

Prior to his scheduled trial in April 2001, Vladimir Piniov killed himself while in prison custody. A few months following his death, a redacted psychiatric report which included an interview with Piniov was released to the public, which caused a small-scale scandal, as it hadn't been handed over to law enforcement due to the patient-doctor confidentiality laws, with psychiatrists also claiming that it also didn't contain anything that the authorities didn't know already.