The Saratov region court handed down a 19-year prison term to a 50-year-old man from the village of Aleksandrovka in the Marksovsky district. He was found guilty of poisoning his daughter and three grandchildren at the end of 2021. The regional Investigative Committee press service reported the verdict.
According to the testimony, the defendant prepared dinner for his three young grandchildren aged five and seven, and his 23-year-old disabled daughter, on December 11, 2021. Driven by personal hostility, he allegedly added a poisonous substance to the dish, and the victims died days later, the message stated.
Investigators and the court conducted a year and a half of inquiries and evidence gathering. The disabled daughter confessed in August of the previous year. The defendant will serve the sentence in a general regime penal colony.
family tragedy
About two years prior to the events, Lidia Shiryaeva, aged 50, moved with her family to Alexandrovka, a village with about 250 residents. She lived with her husband, a disabled brother, a 23-year-old daughter with severe cerebral palsy, a son, and three grandchildren. The children’s mother had left for work in Moscow and did not actively participate in raising them, according to locals.
Local media described the Shiryaev family in positive terms. The husband and son worked at a factory in Marks, near Saratov, while Lidia managed the household and cared for the grandchildren. The children attended kindergarten and school, appeared well cared for, and there were no accusations of alcohol use.
Several months before the tragedy, in October 2021, Shiryaeva’s husband suffered a serious head injury in an accident and died about a month later. Relatives noted that Lidia was deeply shaken by his death, and some said that her depression could have pushed her toward a drastic action.
He helped the whole village
On December 11, 2021, the 23-year-old daughter, who lived with her three grandchildren, became ill after dinner. She called emergency services to report nausea and vomiting in a relative. Two small children died before an ambulance arrived, and the remaining deaths occurred in hospital on December 13 and 14, according to the family.
Villagers and media described the incident as a domestic emergency, with initial speculation about accidental poisoning, carbon monoxide, or recent insecticide use. A week before the tragedy, the house had been treated for cockroaches and bedbugs, contributing to early theories.
Yet investigators soon pursued a different line of inquiry. They found that Shiryaeva and her son survived in part because of prudent actions taken during the crisis. During interrogations, Shiryaeva denied any involvement, and the investigation initially did not establish direct evidence linking her or her son to the deaths. The case was later expanded from a charge of negligent homicide against multiple people to the murder of two or more persons, including minors, under a clearly desperate situation, as the inquiry progressed.
The entire village contributed to the burial expenses for the daughter and grandchildren. Support came from the factory where the son worked. The initial legal trajectory was changed as investigators continued the probe, reflecting a growing focus on potential culpability by family members.
unfortunate noodles
In the summer of 2022, under mounting investigative pressure, Shiryaeva issued a confession admitting she poisoned her own daughter and grandchildren. She described preparing dinner on December 11 and asking the grandchildren what they wanted to eat. They requested noodles in milk. She said she added salt to taste, cooled the mixture, and retrieved a bag of poison from her husband’s car glove compartment. She mixed it into the soup and directed her son and his siblings to consume it as well, later manipulations that ensured the grandmother fed the toxin only to those who needed to be affected.
The defendant carefully discarded the remains of the poisoned milk soup so her son would not ingest it by accident, and then fed him and his brother “clean” noodles. When the family fell ill, both she and the others sought hospital care. Media reports later noted that the son mourned the losses for more than six months.
Shiryaeva explained that the burden of caring for her ill daughter and three grandchildren had become unbearable. The son, who was the primary breadwinner, spent most of his time away at work, and the mother had effectively left. The recent death of her husband also weighed heavily on her. These factors, she said, led to the decision to kill.
Medical examinations found Shiryaeva to be sane. The son, however, continues to contest the idea that his mother could have planned the murders, suggesting the possibility that he might have been persuaded to participate in the act.