Vladimir Retunsky

Vladimir Nikolaevich Retunsky (; born 4 February 1950), known as The Povorino Maniac , is a Soviet–Russian serial killer and rapist who raped and murdered at least 8 young women in Voronezh and Vologda Oblasts between 1990 and 1996. He had previous convictions for rape and negligent homicide.

After his detainment in 1997, Retunsky was convicted and sentenced to death, but had his sentence commuted to 15 years imprisonment due changes in the Criminal Code of Russia. He was released in 2012 and has since recanted most of his confessions except for two of the murders, which he claims were caused by negligence.

Early life Retunsky was born on 4 February 1950, in the town of Povorino, Voronezh Oblast, RSFSR. At the time of his birth, his father suffered from chronic tuberculosis while his mother had cancer, as a result of which the young boy had to be brought up by his older sister, Alexandra. Due to his small stature, Retunsky avoided fights and flirting with girls, and reportedly slept in the same bed as his sister.

Throughout his youth, he experienced several events that would change impact his mental health. Two of these happened at the age of ten – after falling off a tree, Retunsky was confined to a bed for about a week and had reoccurring nightmares of somebody strangling him, often causing him to wake up screaming. In 1973, he moved to Moscow for work and got a job as a crane operator at the Moscow Metallurgical Plant. There, he fell in love with a female colleague, whom he later married and had two children named Igor and Olesya.

First crimes In 1978, Retunsky was convicted of a raping his wife while threatening her with a knife in the Lefortovo District, for which he was ordered to serve a 5.5-year prison sentence at a high-security colony in Voronezh's Paninsky District. He claimed at his later trial that Zhuravlyov had grabbed the knife first and had lunged at him, a claim supported by his relatives. He was convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment, which he served in full.

After his release, Retunsky returned to Povorino and found work as a driver for a local procurement office. Despite his criminal convictions, he was regarded positively in his hometown, as the residents considered him a model family man who loved his wife, children and grandchildren, and was known as the local jack of all trades.

Murders Modus operandi Between 1990 and 1996, Retunsky killed at least eight young girls and women, divided into two "periods" from 1990 to 1991, and later from 1995 to 1996. When they looked through his ZIL-130, it was found that the handle of the right door had been screwed off, which could prevent anybody from opening it from the inside. Retunsky was forbidden to leave his home from 22:00 to 6:00, to visit entertainment venues and to leave the Povorinsky District.

Five months after his release, Retunsky was arrested again, this time for stealing 1.5 thousand rubles from his neighbor. He continued to give interviews to news publications and a YouTubers after this, stating that he was tired of living by himself and was afraid that he would be wrongfully accused of something and imprisoned again. On 4 August, the 16-year-old Petashko, who had come to Povorino to visit some relatives, suddenly disappeared, with her brother finding her personal items and bicycle on a railroad bridge overlooking the Khopyor River. Twenty days later, her body was found in the Otrog forest area. Unlike Retunsky's known victims, medical examiners were unable to determine what the two victims' causes of death were, or whether they were raped. In regards to the Mitina case, it was found that he had an alibi, as he was found to have traveled to Semiluki on the day of her disappearance, which was further corroborated by multiple documents and receipts from a gas station located at the other end of the area where Mitina was last seen. However, one theory that proposed that Mitina was actually abducted and murdered on a different day, explaining this seeming discrepancy.

In 2008, Garibov was released and returned to Povorino, but was arrested for rape the following year and incarcerated. Following his release for that crime, he moved to Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad Oblast, where he was arrested for yet another rape in 2015.