Volodymyr Dovgy

Volodymyr Anatolyovich Dovgy (; 1963 – 11 October 2004), known as The Nova Kakhovka Cannibal , was a Ukrainian serial killer and cannibal who killed at least nine women and one male acquaintance in his hometown of Nova Kakhovka between 1999 and 2004. Most of his victims were prostitutes – some were killed with the aid of his accomplice Olga Melnyk (; died 2004) – whose body parts he supposedly consumed as meat.

Following his arrest and confessions, both Dovgy and Melnyk were charged with the murders, but the pair died before their trial could begin.

Early life Volodymyr Dovgy was born in Nova Kakhovka in 1963 (other sources claim in 1961), where he grew up in a stable household. Due to his father's profession as a surgeon and his mother's as a therapist at a local hospital, the young boy became interested in medicine from an early age and began studying human anatomy. During his school years, Dovgy practised kettlebell lifting, but was unpopular with his peers and a poor student, due to which he was unable to enroll into a medical university.

In 1981, he was drafted into the Soviet Army, and after demobilization, he made another attempted to get into university, which proved unsuccessful. In his free time, Dovgy was fond of reading books and cooking, particularly canning any products he came across.

Downward spiral Following the collapse of the USSR, Dovgy lost his job and for several years had to live off of his parents, with him only occasionally earning money from casual labor. Showing sympathy to his new companion, Dovgy offered Melnyk to live with him, after which he began to treat her and take care of her needs as much as he could. The pair became romantically involved at first, but due to Melnyk's illness, they mutually agreed to remain friends. During dinner, an argument occurred between Rebenkov and Dovgy, but the exact circumstances as to how it came up are unclear, as two different versions were given.

In the first version, the reason for the argument was Dovgy's sexual harassment of Erokhina, which caused Rebenkov to stand up and defend over, only to be stabbed with a knife.

Involvement of Dovgy's father Throughout the investigation, officers suspected that Dovgy's father, Anatoliy, might have been aware of his son's crimes and was an active participant. This came from the realization that Anatoliy had sold some of the canned food on the market as "badger meat" and allegations that he had destroyed potential evidence.

The latter accusation comes from the fact that despite being prohibited from entering the apartment, Anatoliy went inside and took about 40 cans of meat and the women's clothing. He then destroyed the cans, but never disclosed what happened to the clothes. Anatoliy himself never gave a rational explanation about why he went to the apartment, only claiming that he wanted to do some cleaning up, but never explained why he took the cans supposedly containing human meat.

Investigators were never able to properly determine the extent of Anatoliy Dovgy's knowledge about the crimes, if any, as he died in early 2005.