Tamara Samsonova

Case overview

Tamara Samsonova (Russian: Тамара Самсонова; born 5 February 1947) was a Russian woman from Saint Petersburg accused of being a serial killer. She was arrested on suspicion of murdering a 79-year-old woman and dismembering her body. She was investigated in connection to a total of 14 murders.

Police found a diary containing details of some murders. One entry read: “I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife and put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky District.”

Her husband disappeared in 2005 and she was a suspect in that case. She was possibly a sufferer of schizophrenia and was admitted to psychiatric hospitals three times.

The offence

Samsonova was described as having beheaded and dismembered her victims. Police suspected that she removed internal organs, in particular lungs, from victims. Asked if she was a cannibal, a police source said: “It is not excluded.”

Police investigators suspected that she gave her final victim, Valentina Ulanova, 79, an overdose of sleeping pills before dismembering her body with a hacksaw while she was still alive. Samsonova was detained after the headless body of Ulanova, for whom she was a carer, was found near a pond on Dimitrova Street in St Petersburg.

Samsonova was also accused of killing a tenant, described as a 44 year old native of Norilsk, who had been renting a room in her apartment on 6 September 2003 during a sudden argument. Police said she dismembered his body and took it outside. Evidence and diary excerpts also linked her to other crimes involving dismemberment and body parts packed in plastic bags around Frunzensky district.

In her interrogation, Samsonova said her victim had told her: “I am tired of you.” She asked her to leave and go back to live in her own home. She said: “I was scared to live at home, I panicked.” She said that by killing her she could “live here in peace for another five months, until her relatives turn up, or somebody else”.

Samsonova was said to have confessed in a diary and in police questioning to multiple killings, including a described method in which she drugged victims before cutting them into pieces.

Investigation

Police compared Samsonova’s diary entries to known unsolved murder cases in which victims were dismembered and body parts packed in bags were found around the city. A headless, armless and legless man’s body was found on the same street 12 years earlier, and evidence found in her flat, including a business card for the victim, was said to link her to the crime.

Police were refusing to release details of her diary until the multiple murder investigation was completed. Investigators were examining diary entries written in Russian, English and German. Police reportedly saw the diary as “a puzzle” to decipher.

A social worker reported Valentina Ulanova as missing after Samsonova refused to allow her into the flat. Police quickly arrived at the flat and Samsonova confessed to this killing and three others. Police also searched her flat and found saw, a knife, and blood spots in the bathroom.

Local dogs sniffed the remains on 26 July, leading to a major police hunt.

A police source said that despite interrogations and her admission to her elderly friend’s murder, police “cannot make her say where the missing head of her last victim is hidden.”

Arrest and detention

Samsonova was arrested after being filmed by CCTV cameras near her home in St Petersburg removing the body of her latest victim in black plastic bag.

In her latest court appearance, she was remanded in custody. When judge Roman Chebotaryov asked her to address the court, she replied: “It’s stuffy here, can I go out?” She then added: “I was getting ready to this court action for dozens of years. It was all done deliberately... There is no way to live. With this last murder I closed the chapter.”

When the judge said: “I am asked to arrest you. What do you think?” Samsonova replied: “You decide, your honour. After all, I am guilty and I deserve a punishment.” When he announced she would be held in custody, she smiled and clapped her hands.

After being remanded in custody, she told journalists: “I knew you would come... It’s such a disgrace for me, all the city will know.” Later she blew a kiss to reporters.

Trial and court proceedings

Samsonova remained in custody pending trial.

During court, Samsonova was also described as more concerned that journalists were there to report her case and that her neighbours in St Petersburg would find out what she was accused of.

Other people mentioned

Senior investigator in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Timoshatov, said: “Tamara Samsonova says that at first she made her friend [Ulanova] sleep - and then cut her into pieces.”

The investigation included a neighbour, Marina Krivenko, who said: “She already looked strange then. She told me about her husband, that he left home and did not come back,” and “And at that moment I noticed some kind of pleasure in Tamara’s eyes.”

Another neighbour and friend to Valentina Ulanova, Natalia Fedotovskaya, said: “It is very likely that she threw this saucepan with the head into the garbage skip, which is usually taken away on a Saturday morning,” and “So it seems the head has gone with the skip. It will be hard to find it now.”

Law enforcement spokesman Sergey Kapitonov said: “The investigation continues at full speed.”

Psychic Fatima Khadueva said Samsonova, who was known to have studied the occult, had an interest in cannibalising lungs that could mean she feared having a weak lung.

Alleged confession and re-enactment

Samsonova admitted to committing killings but without going into detail in one account of police questioning.

A leaked interrogation included her statement: “I came home and put the whole pack of Phenazepamum - 50 pills - into her Olivier salad. She liked it very much.” She also said: “I woke up after 2am and she was lying on the floor. So I started cutting her to pieces.” She added: “It was hard for me to carry her to the bathroom, she was fat and heavy. I did everything at the kitchen where she was lying.”

During a crime re-enactment, she showed investigators how she cut Valentina Ulanova’s body using a handsaw that she had borrowed from neighbours years before. It was said that she began by severing her head and putting it in a large saucepan, cooking it on the victim’s stove.

Samsonova was said to have admitted that she boiled the severed head and hands of her final victim after sawing up her body. CCTV footage was said to show her carrying her head inside a saucepan. She was also described as wrapping Ulanova’s dismembered body parts in curtains and placing them in bags before carrying them out and dumping them near a pond on Dimitrova Street.

It was said the head and hands and “all the inner organs have not been found by police.” She was described as going outside seven times in total, carrying body parts, and leaving blood marks on the floor.

Psychological history and background

Samsonova was possibly a sufferer of schizophrenia and was admitted to psychiatric hospitals three times.

Husband and other suspected cases

Samsonova was suspected of murdering her husband, who she reported missing in 2005. He was never found, dead or alive.

Police also linked her to the death of her tenant Volodya, whom she described in her diary as having been cut to pieces in the bathroom and having pieces of his body placed in plastic bags and thrown away in different parts of Frunzensky district.

Police were examining whether she killed her husband who vanished 15 years earlier, and at the time she told neighbours he had run off with a new woman while informing police he had simply disappeared.

Characteristics and claims about motive and behavior

A report described Samsonova as obsessed with black magic literature, and it also mentioned her interest in Andrei Chikatilo. A neighbour, Marina Krivenko, said Samsonova was “very interested in maniac Chikatilo” and that she “gathered information about him and how he committed his murders.” Krivenko also said: “I came to live here with my husband,” and “I used to go to Tamara's flat and call from her phone.” She added: “She looked a lot better 15 years ago, and her flat too was a lot more attractive than now.” Krivenko said: “She looked after her appearance, and had this weird habit of sitting topless with her back to the window, making sure that her silhouette was seen by the neighbours.” She also said: “The neighbour's husband found Samsonova's nude body quite attractive, she admitted.” Krivenko said Samsonova borrowed her hacksaw some years ago and never returned it.

Samsonova’s diary entries included mundane phrases such as “Slept badly,” “Drank coffee,” “Take medicines,” and “I do not eat.”

An extract stated: “I woke at 5am. I am drinking coffee. Then I do work around the house.” It also said she went out to buy marshmallow.

Another extract stated: “I love Valya.”