Vladimir Tenetov

Vladimir Tenetov (; 1966 – 6 March 2020), known as The Lilleküla Murderer , was a Soviet–Estonian serial killer and rapist who raped, tortured, and murdered at least three young teenagers and women in Tallinn's Lilleküla district between 1991 and 1992. Tenetov was additionally suspected to be responsible for at least one other murder and possibly up to eleven in total, but was never charged for any of them.

Convicted for his two of his confirmed murders, he was initially given a 15-year sentence before this was overturned and changed to a death sentence. However, he was never executed and it was converted to a life term, which he served until his death in 2020.

Early life Vladimir Tenetov was born in 1966 in Ulyanovsk, Ulyanovsk Oblast, in the RSFSR. After spending his formative years there, his family moved to Tallinn in the Estonian SSR, where he grew up in a stable household, was a successful athlete and had an interest in martial arts. After graduating from high school, Tenetov enrolled in the Tallinn Maritime School, but did not manage to complete his studies. As he had indeed been treated for impotence in the past, Tenetov flew into a rage and proceeded to stab her several times with a knife in the face. He then gouged out her eyeballs, and strangled her using a belt from her waistcoat.

Zaitseva's naked body was found on the following day by a passer-by. Her jeans and underwear were found next to the body, while the belt was still wrapped around her neck. He then left the crime scene by fleeing into some nearby bushes.

Lebedeva was found early on the following morning and immediately rushed to the nearest hospital's intensive care unit, where she succumbed to her injuries at around 1:30 AM. A second hearing was then postponed because the court was unable to find a pro bono lawyer for Tenetov and that the State did not have enough money to hire one.

The Tallinn Prosecutor's Office immediately appealed the verdict on the grounds of it being way too lenient, succeeding in having it overturned by the Circuit Court and changed to a death sentence in late 1994. At the time, he was one of only four death row inmates in the country, alongside Sergei Krõlov, Vladimir Botško and Vasili Otškalenko. Unlike the other three, Tenetov never filed an appeal against his sentence, leading the Supreme Court to refuse to issue a ruling in his case. He later refused to apply for a pardon from President Lennart Meri, leading the Executive Board to file a request to carry out his death sentence. This request was denied by the Supreme Court.

The Tenetov case then became the main issues concerning the country's divided opinions on whether they should abolish or retain the death penalty, with the contemporary Minister of Justice Paul Varul calling the situation "abnormal".

However, Tenetov's death sentence was never carried out – under contemporary Estonian law, an execution could only be carried out within three years of the sentence being handed out. Subsequently, the Tallinn City Court commuted his death sentence to life, after which he was transferred to the Rummu Prison.

Imprisonment In the late 1990s, Tenetov contacted the Tallinn Prosecutor's Office in order to confess to additional murders he had not been linked to up until that point. Accounts vary as to how many killings he actually confessed to, with more conservative estimates claiming only two, while others claimed that it was nine. However, investigators failed to corroborate most of the claims or find any bodies, leading to him being implicated and convicted only for a single murder from 1991.

Prison assault In the early 2000s, Tenetov's cellmate at the Rummu Prison was , the first person in the history of post-Soviet Estonia to be sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 2002, a quarrel broke out between the two men, during which Tenetov lost his temper and beat up Pjatnitski. That same evening, after receiving medical treatment, Pjatnitski decided to take revenge on Tenetov and attacked him, stabbing him 11 times with a screwdriver and slashing his carotid artery with a utility knife.

Pjatnitski later gave an interview in which he talked about the events leading up to the attack. According to him, Tenetov was playing a videogame on the prison computer which had apparently been frozen, prompting Pjatnitski to comment that he should just turn it off.

In the media and culture Tenetov's crimes were covered on an episode from the documentary series Eluaegsed , produced by Andres Anvelt and released in 2011.

In 2020, the case was covered again on the Eesti Roimad podcast , hosted by Andres Anvelt and journalist Dagmar Lamp.