Yuriy Kuzmenko

Yuriy Mykolaivych Kuzmenko (; born 1974), known as The Boiarka Maniac, nicknamed Elvis Presley or Shatun

Early life Yuriy Kuzmenko was born in 1974 in the village of Velyka Vil'shanka, Kyiv Oblast, and had a brother and sister. He grew up in an unstable family due to his father's antisocial behavior and frequent acts of aggression towards his mother. During his school years, Kuzmenko was fond of sports and was considered popular among his peers and neighbors. In order to assert himself, he often fought and beat up older boys.

After graduating from school, he received a secondary vocational education as a carpenter. In the early 1990s, he was drafted into the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces, and after demobilization, he returned to the Kyiv Oblast and changed several jobs, mostly working as a low-skilled laborer. Prior to his arrest, they lived on Yasnaya Street in the city of Boiarka.

In 2002, Kuzmenko was arrested for a robbery committed near the Hryshko National Botanical Garden in Kyiv, for which he was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison. During his prison stint he worked as a carpenter, and was paroled after eight months for good behavior. He then returned to Boiarka, where he retained a good reputation among friends and acquaintances. Most of the times he acted in a very organized manner, planning ambushes and even constructing temporary huts to wait for a potential victim, but occasionally just attacked spontaneously and without premeditation. 5 October 2007 Unnamed Unknown Malyutinka Robbery/Rape 2 June 2008 "Sochenko" Unknown Korchi Robbery/Rape/Murder 11 September 2008 "Bilous" Unknown Boiarka Robbery/Rape/Murder 17 November 2008 "Metelskaya" Unknown Trostinka Robbery/Rape/Murder 23 December 2008 Raisa Petrenko Unknown Barakhty Robbery/Rape/Murder. Kuzmenko picked up Petrenko, an employee at a local market, from a bus stop in Vasylkiv. He then drove her to the forest, where he raped and strangled her before dumping her body in a field. In addition, he remembered one part of the license plate, the letters "VI". In order to ensure his safety and prevent reprisals from angry locals, Kuzmenko was forced to wear a helmet and armor, and was escorted not only by local law enforcement, but also by members of the Berkut and Kobra special forces.

Ever since his conviction, there has been a debate about the true number of Kuzmenko's victims. He himself claimed to have murdered a total 206 young girls and women, and while most investigators believed this to be an embellished number, the task force was forced to admit that there were multiple cases where prosecutors refused to press charges against Kuzmenko. One example involved an 18-year-old woman that went missing from a disco during the winter, only to be found dead in a pond soon afterwards. Authorities refused to press charges, as they believed that the girl died by suicide.

According to the head of the Kyiv Special Task Force, the bodies of around 56 young girls and women were found around the area in early 2008, some of whom were suspected to be victims of Kuzmenko. However, since he had a poor memory and struggled to recall details about the victims, they were unable to conclusively link him to most of these crimes. Investigator Ruslan Sushko also speculated that some victims' remains might have been scattered by wild animals or buried by local police officers to improve solved crime statistics, a practice that Sushko claimed was standard for regional law enforcement agencies.