New details emerge in the Barnaul case involving Vitaly Manishin, the serial killer active in the early 2000s
Recent reporting from the Baza Telegram channel brings forward new information about Vitaly Manishin, the man linked to a string of murders of women in Barnaul and the surrounding Altai region. According to these updates, Manishin appears to have confessed under an unclear testimony, with investigators suggesting that he mixed up details when asked to recount the five victims previously identified in the case. The disclosures indicate that his alleged involvement extended beyond those five known victims, with investigators examining up to four additional killings carried out between 1999 and 2000, while Manishin was employed as a veterinarian in the area.
The allegations describe that Manishin killed three young women aged 17, 21, and 26, as well as a 54-year-old woman, and disposed of their remains in the Kalman district. The same report notes that victims connected to Altai State Technical University AltSTU applicants were also found to have been concealed in the same area, expanding the geographic and demographic scope of the alleged crimes.
Baza identifies the first victim as 21-year-old Choduruu Oorzhak, who disappeared while applying to college in the summer of 1999. Her body reportedly surfaced in October 2000. The second victim, 26-year-old Natalya Berdysheva, vanished in August 1999 while planning a move to Barnaul for technical studies; her remains were discovered in a forested location at the end of September that year.
Elena Anisimova, aged 17, disappeared in the summer of 2000, with her body located about one kilometer from the Barnaul-Rubtsovsk road in the autumn. In the same valley, the body of 54-year-old Valentina Mikhailyukova was later found after also vanishing in the summer of 2000. These cases, described as connected, raised questions about a broader pattern of violence during that period in the region.
The suspect lingered under scrutiny for more than two decades
The investigation initially maintained a watchful eye on various leads, and in the autumn of 2000 investigators considered 45-year-old Alexander Anisimov, who had prior murder convictions in the Kalman district. No direct evidence tied him to the crimes, which kept the case from being closed. After a brief period in custody, Anisimov attempted to escape by leaping from a window during a trial-related procedure. A court did not complete his guilt determination, and the case remained unresolved. Major General Nikolai Turbovets, who left the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2019, later stated that Anisimov did not fit the profile of a definitive Barnaul maniac and that the person responsible for the murders of the female applicants was still at large.
Vitaly Manishin was eventually detained in May 2023, more than two decades after the earliest suspected crimes. By that time he had risen to a formal leadership role as deputy head of the Kalman district administration in the Altai Territory, overseeing housing and communal services, construction, and gasification projects. The timeline suggests that a long period of anonymity surrounded his alleged activities before authorities moved to arrest him.
In the same month, police detained the 52-year-old Manishin on suspicion of murdering a girl in 1989, with her remains later found in a forested belt in September 1990. The long-unsolved case underwent renewed examination years later as investigators revisited the materials to determine any possible connections to current inquiries. Following his arrest, Manishin reportedly confessed to killing five female students at Altai State Technical University in 2000, a claim that prompted renewed scrutiny of how the alleged offenses aligned with his public duties at the time.
Among the five students associated with Manishin, the case file identifies 17-year-old Ksenia as the first known victim who sought admission to the technical university but never returned home after leaving the main building. At the time, Manishin held positions as a veterinarian and a manager of a peasant farm in the Kalman region. He is described as having used various strategies to gain the trust of prospective female students, including offering assistance to help them gain admission to the university. Other victims are described as having encountered him under different pretenses, suggesting a pattern of manipulation in the pursuit of his alleged crimes.
The suspect remains in pre-trial detention as investigators continue to examine the full scope of potential victims and verify details of the confessions. Authorities are working to confirm whether there are additional victims connected to Manishin and whether any related cases can be linked to his time in public office or his professional roles in the region.