cleft throat and crucifixion
In April 1997, in the city of Severo-Zadonsk, Tula Region, now a microdistrict of the city of Donskoy, the mutilated body of a 16-year-old teenager was found near the railway line. The deceased had a large stab wound to his neck, and glass from a broken bottle was found next to the body.
Police teams arriving at the scene first evaluated the young man’s death as suicide. But this version turned out to be untenable after an examination by the forensic expert: the wounds that led to the death of the young man turned out to be inconsistent with the evidence – no traces of blood were found on the fragments, and the nature of the injuries indicated that the throat had been cut with a knife.
Important in the case were the statements of the mother of the deceased, who insisted that her son could not commit suicide: she was in a good mood, did not complain about problems. The woman also told investigators that on the eve of the tragedy, her son was walking with friends near the house on 20 Zheleznodorozhnaya Street. It was the place where the young girl was last seen.
Law enforcement tried to interview Zinaida Kuzina, 73, who lives at this address. However, she did not let the police officers into her house and categorically refused to answer questions. Soon the case was closed and the suicide version was eventually decided upon.
Two months later, the body of another teenager was found in the forest belt – his body was crucified in a tree. The murderers tied the body of a young man to the trunk, his arms and legs to branches, his head was crushed and covered with blood, his right ear was cut off. This time there was no question of suicide.
“She danced a round dance around the slain”
The second murder was solved almost instantly. Investigators detained two 16-year-old suspects who turned out to be two acquaintances of the crucified teenager. During the interrogation, the youth confessed that they had killed a friend because they did not believe in Satan. The detainees said that before his death, the victim refused to renounce God, after which they took care of him.
At first, the police did not believe the story of the teenagers: a version was put forward that the teenagers tried to pretend to be mentally ill in order to avoid punishment.
However, during the interrogations, the young criminals acted confidently and also detailed how they committed the murder of a friend. They said that they first pulled the victim into the forest, tied him to a tree, and asked God to give up. As a result, they stabbed the dead man in the heart and cut off his ear – allegedly, he was sacrificed to Satan.
Later, the teenagers mistakenly confessed to the murder of the first victim, who was found in April and which investigators considered suicide. Among other things, it turned out that not only they themselves, but also a group of people were involved in the first murder.
Meanwhile, the houses of two young people who confessed to the murders were searched. The special literature and qualifications of the occultists were found there. Operators soon identified familiar young men involved in the crimes. They noted that the murders took place only in the house of the retired Zinaida Petrovna.
So the old woman turned from an unsuccessful witness to a suspect in the first case. During the cops’ next visit, he acted differently and let them in. The house was clean, icons were everywhere, akathists (prayer books) were lined up. When the retiree was asked what she was doing on April 24, the day before the first victim’s body was found, she replied that she was preparing for Easter. But during the search, investigators found evidence proving his involvement in the murders and confirming the version of the detained teenagers. The participation in the crimes of the 40-year-old son of retired Valery Kuzin was also determined.
“Zinaida Kuzina worshiped the ideas of Satanism, promising her son Valery Kuzin, who lived with them, various benefits during her life and in the other world, including the need to sacrifice human life to Satan. Convinced that his son was beginning to share his worship of Satan, he invited him to expand his circle of people to make sacrifices. For this purpose, Valery Kuzin used an underage at meetings, inspired by demonic ideas. Convinced that he fully accepted the ideas and was ready to make sacrifices, he suggested that the young man include his friends in the sacrifice ceremony as well.
The cult members lured the first victim to Kuzina’s house and offered them a drink. There they performed a demonic ritual on a teenager to “shame God” on Easter Eve (the idea belonged to Valery Kuzin). They stripped the young man and laid him on a table covered with a black tablecloth, hung the room with black curtains and placed black candles. All participants in the ritual wear dresses.
“Those present, acting by prior agreement, jointly robbed the youth, exposed him fully, forcibly brought him to the table, and declared their intention to sacrifice him to Satan. After that, they laid him face down on the table with his legs hanging from under his knees and began to hold him against his will,” he said.
At that moment, Kuzina began to recite a prayer to Satan, and her son stabbed the lying teenager in the throat. Then others did the same.
“The blood of the victim was collected in a jar, in which those who participated in the ritual murder had to take a sip … Sect members led a round dance around the murdered man – a dance of worshiping the Devil,” the case file said.
This mockery of the body did not stop. First, the Satanists took a sip from the jar of blood, and Kuzina, continuing to recite the demonic prayer, began to walk over the corpse, periodically jumping. After the ceremony, several younger members of the cult dressed the body and dragged the body onto the railroad track to commit suicide.
Sentence
It took two and a half months for the investigation to arrest all the suspects. There were 10 people in total on the quay at the district courthouse. Zinaida Kuzina, her son Valery and eight teenagers aged 16 to 17. All the young people acted defiantly, and one of the underage followers proudly showed the tattoo “666” on his arm.
This young man was remembered by another incident while he was in detention. In the cell, he annoyed other prisoners, made strange passes with his hands and made supposedly magical manipulations against them – as a result, the prisoners saw him as inadequate and frightened, wanted to transfer the young man to another cell.
“You have to understand very clearly that these guys are not just Satanists or neo-pagans, but people who are crazy with their heads. In Kuzina’s case, it’s a cult thing. For any totalitarian-destructive sect, this is a sad story: when a person is crazy, but at the same time has some charisma to attract followers, ”explained Alexander Chausov, a sectarian, candidate of historical sciences, adding that in the 90s he was demonic. cults were a relatively common phenomenon.
The court later found all the defendants guilty and gave different sentences: 8.5 to 9.5 years in prison. The Retired-Satanist took the least – due to his age and state of health, he was sentenced to only 5 years in prison.
The cousin, unlike the youth, the whole process behaved with restraint and was silent. But after the decision was made, she could not stand it and screamed for a long time, assuring her innocence that she believed in God and did not know about the young people who were doomed with her. “I heard that kids were being bullied in the cell next door. Soaked and beaten! They will accept anything! I have 23 people in my cell, I’m an old woman and I can’t stand it for long, ”she said.
Satanism is nothing but concentrated hatred on the bottom line. Historian Chausov emphasizes that this is the ultimate goal – to “pampering God”, to kill people.
“Why would a maniac psychopath kill people? To kill, to feel power, and to meet their unhealthy mental needs. Here is the same thing, just furnished with ritualism. Why are these rituals needed – you need to ask every such criminal, but it will be difficult to get an answer, especially if we are talking about different Satanism, because such people have such a peculiar motivation that sometimes a person cannot even make a sound, ”the sect concluded.