Russian Man Steals Corpses of Young Girls, Turns Them Into Mummified Dolls
(Photo : Unsplash/ Aubrey Rose Odom)

Anatoly Moskvin was a self-proclaimed expert on cemeteries and dubbed himself a "necropolyst." Too bad he took this expertise to unhealthy levels.

The historian was arrested after 29 girls' corpses from the ages of 3 to 25 were discovered to be mummified in his apartment in the central Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod.

The bodysnatcher dressed the corpses in knee-high boots with lipstick for his collection. He would hold tea parties with his dolls.

Psychiatrists claimed that they cured Moskvin, 53, in 2018 and recommended outpatient treatment for him but then remarkably reversed their claim.

Police discovered the brightly dressed dolls with their faces and limbs covered in cloth in the grave robber's flat and garage. Officials said he was charged with desecrating bodies and graves.

It was unclear whether each doll consisted of human remains.

A video was released by police officials showing an eerie collection of what looked like life-sized dolls clothed in shabby dresses and headscarves with their faces and hands wrapped in fabric. Some had platinum blonde wigs. Some of the corpses had music boxes inserted into their rib cages, making them have sounds when interacted with them. Also, some had buttons or toy eyes in their eye sockets, so he could "watch cartoons with them."

"During a search of his flat and garage, 29 self-made, life-size dolls dressed in the clothes of buried people were found," according to a spokesman for police officials in Nizhny Novgorod, located 400 km (250 miles) east of Moscow.

The concept of a fully-grown man keeping a huge collection of life-sized dolls in his parents' house, which was where Moskvin was lived, was said to be very creepy in its own right.

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Moskvin reportedly spent an inordinate amount of time in cemeteries doing legitimate academic work. He dug up 150 graves.

After being jailed and sentenced to compulsory psychiatric treatment, the deranged man is now freed as the order keeping him in the secure hospital expired in December 2018. The relatives of the deceased young girls whose bodies were turned into dolls were outraged after Moskvin's release.

The mother of Moskvin's initial victim, Natalia Chardymova, believes he should remain in custody for the remainder of his life.

"This monster brought fear, dread, and panic in my (lifetime). I shudder to think he will have liberty to go where he needs. Neither my family nor the families of the other victims will have the ability to sleep peacefully. I insist on a life sentence. Only under medical supervision, without the right of free movement," she said.

It has now emerged that he will not stand trial for his dreadful crimes.

Moskvin speaks 13 languages and was labeled by some as a "genius."

The genius was previously noted for finding sex disgusting.

He had told detectives who found the morbid collection of corpses in his flat "not to rebury the girls too deeply because I will gather them again when I am free."

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