Elderly Russian woman suspected of being serial killer after man's body parts found in her fridge

Eighty-year-old arrested on suspicion of murdering lodger after stray dogs seen chewing on discarded bones

An 80-year-old woman suspected to be a serial killer is being investigated after her lodger’s dismembered body parts were found in her fridge.

The retired farm worker was arrested on suspicion of murder after the 52-year-old victim’s remains were discovered in the village Berezovka, in the southeastern Khabarovsk territory.

Detectives now reportedly believe she could be linked to the disappearance of up to seven people.

Police launched an investigation on 30 January after stray dogs were seen fighting over body parts, including a human hand, torn out of packages dumped in the street, according to Russian newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets.

Khabarovsk’s Investigative Committee said the victim was identified through his fingerprints as the elderly woman’s tenant, named in local media as Ukranian caretaker Vasily Shlyakhtich.

Police found traces of Shlyakhtich’s blood during a search of her flat and reportedly discovered his organs and flesh in the fridge.

The woman was taken into custody for questioning.

Neighbours told police they heard loud banging “as if someone was chopping something hard with an axe” on the day of the alleged murder, according to local news website DVHAB.ru. The arrested woman reportedly slaughtered pigs as part of her farm work.

During a search of her home, police also found the passport of a woman who disappeared several years ago. Investigators now believe she may have been murdered.

They are also looking into possible links to the disappearance of six others who have gone missing in Berezovka in recent years.

They include Nina Babenkova, an 83-year-old who vanished after taking her dog for a walk in September. Her skull was later found near her home.

Shlyakhtich had been living in the village and working as a caretaker since autumn last year. He is said to have moved to Berezovka from Ukraine to be closer to his family.