Alexander Nikolayevich Astashev was born on November 17, 1956, in the town of Cheremkhovo, Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. There isn't much information available about his early childhood and adolescent years. However, it is known that he started getting into trouble with the law at a young age. His first incarceration occurred in 1972 when he was still a child.

As he grew older, his criminal activities continued. In 1982, he was convicted of abusing a child. While being taken to prison, Astashev tried to escape, which led to a lengthy prison sentence of 15 years. After serving his time, he returned to Cheremkhovo in 1997.

Soon after his return, Astashev was arrested again for an incident involving violence. He stabbed one person to death and seriously injured another. This event was later classified as excessive self-defense, and he received a minor prison sentence.

In 1997, he also married Natalia, a local woman who was 20 years younger than him. Natalia worked as the head teacher at a kindergarten. The couple had a daughter. To support his family, Astashev took on various odd jobs. He often spoke about the difficulties of living in a mining town, leading some to believe that financial struggles may have influenced his later decisions.

Astashev committed his first crime on October 13, 2003, in the village of Zalari, located in Irkutsk Oblast. His victims were an elderly couple. The husband died from acute poisoning while his wife survived. They stole everything of value from their home.

In the spring of 2004, Astashev, with help from his wife who acted as a "nurse," continued his crimes. He went to the village of Nizhnyaya Iret and persuaded a local couple to drink a drugged mixture. While the couple was unconscious, the Astashevs stole items worth 17.5 thousand rubles. A few days later, one of the victims, aged 67, died from complications related to the poisoning.

During the summer of 2004, Astashev drugged and robbed a woman at the Tayshet railway station in Krasnoyarsk Krai. She survived and reported the incident to the police, providing a detailed description of him. This led to him being placed on the federal wanted list.

From June 2004 to August 2005, Astashev was most active, committing five fatal poisonings in Irkutsk Oblast before moving to other regions to escape police capture. In Perm, he met a sick man at a train station and convinced him to accept treatment. Astashev gave the man nine pills and beer, but the man survived. In Zuyevka, Kirov Oblast, he and his mistress, dressed as doctors, offered medication to a pensioner. On August 31, 2005, a WWII veteran became another fatal victim of his poisoning.

Astashev's actions were not immediately linked because he was constantly moving. Many deaths among the elderly were attributed to natural causes, like heart disease, leading to no criminal investigations at first.

Finally, in September 2005, Astashev and his accomplices were caught in Glazov, Udmurtia. The investigation revealed that he had perpetrated 31 robberies across several regions, resulting in 17 deaths.

The investigation took two years, during which time Astashev was initially found sane during a psychiatric evaluation. Eventually, a forensic exam diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia.

On August 6, 2008, the Irkutsk Regional Court mandated that Astashev receive treatment at a psychiatric institution due to his dangerous behavior. His wife was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, and his mistress received six years.