khoji parkSerial Killer · Angarsk · 2018
The Murder Investigation Turned Back Toward Its Own Officers
How DNA profiling and vehicle track analysis unmasked a serial killer operating within law enforcement.
Read in slides1. Unsolved Disappearances
During the 1990s and the following decade, women were killed in and around Angarsk in Russia’s Irkutsk region. Investigators examined similarities between the cases and the places where victims were found. The inquiry continued for years without a confirmed suspect. It eventually turned toward vehicle evidence and people who had worked in law enforcement, including former local officers.
Local police forces faced mounting pressure over the unsolved cases.
2. Vehicle Track Clues
During the examination of various crime scenes, investigators discovered distinctive tire tracks left by a Lada Niva off-road vehicle. This specific model was commonly utilized by law enforcement personnel in the region. The recurring presence of these vehicle tracks provided a crucial physical link between the scattered homicide locations.
Police began compiling records of all local vehicle owners.
3. Targeted DNA Screening
In 2012, authorities initiated a sweeping DNA screening initiative involving 3,500 current and former police officers across the Irkutsk region. Investigators compared biological samples collected from the victims against the genetic profiles of law enforcement personnel. This systematic screening process ultimately identified a matching profile.
The genetic match pointed directly toward a former officer.
4. Arrest En Route
Mikhail Popkov was intercepted and arrested in 2012 while traveling toward Vladivostok in the Russian Far East to purchase a replacement vehicle. At the time of his capture, he was working as a private security guard following his departure from the police force in 1998. Subsequent interrogations led to initial confessions regarding multiple homicides.
The suspect was taken into custody and transferred for formal questioning.
5. Initial 2015 Conviction
In January 2015, an Irkutsk court tried Popkov and convicted him of twenty-two murders and two attempted murders committed during his time as an active officer and security guard. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment. However, investigators kept him on remand as inquiries into additional unsolved cases remained ongoing.
The initial conviction accounted for a fraction of his crimes.
6. Subsequent Confessions
After the first conviction, Popkov gave investigators accounts of further killings. Those admissions required checks against missing-person reports, recovered remains and other case records. Prosecutors did not simply add every confession to the proven total. A second major prosecution concerned fifty-nine additional alleged killings, with the court finding sufficient evidence for fifty-six and excluding three.
The expanding confessions required extensive verification by detectives.
7. December 2018 Trial
At the later Irkutsk proceedings, the court examined evidence relating to each additional allegation. Investigators compared Popkov’s statements with existing case material and the locations he described. The prosecution expanded beyond the twenty-two murders covered by his first conviction. The number alleged in the second case and the number proved were different when the verdict was announced in December 2018.
The court evaluated dozens of additional homicide charges.
8. Second Life Sentence
On 10 December 2018, the court convicted Popkov of fifty-six additional murders, bringing his total proven murder count to seventy-eight across both trials. Three of the fifty-nine additional alleged killings were excluded due to an insufficient amount of physical evidence. The judge imposed a second life sentence.
The second verdict brought the proven total then to seventy-eight.
9. Further Proceedings
Further cases continued after the second life sentence. In June 2021, Popkov was convicted of two more killings and received an additional prison term. In November 2023, another verdict covered three further killings. Later proven cases were therefore added through separate judgments, rather than all being established by the 2018 trial or by accepting an unchecked confession.
Additional legal proceedings addressed further uncovered offenses.
10. Penal Transfer
Popkov’s convictions left him serving life sentences, with later judgments adding further terms. Investigators continued examining his accounts against unresolved cases. Forensic work had identified a former officer, but legal results still depended on proving individual crimes. By the November 2023 verdict, the documented total had increased beyond the seventy-eight murders established by the first two major trials.
Later verdicts added to the earlier life sentences.