Andrey Sergeyevich Yezhov was born in 1967 in the village of Sloboda, Smolensk Oblast, Russia. He grew up in a working-class family with a milkmaid mother and tractor driver father. Neighbors described his parents as caring and nonviolent, but during his teenage years, Yezhov developed disturbing behaviors that he concealed from his family. He began spying on women bathing in public bathhouses and engaged in acts of bestiality with farm animals, finding sexual gratification in these abnormal acts.

After leaving school in the eighth grade, Yezhov attended vocational school and became a mechanic and tractor driver. He later served in the Strategic Rocket Forces before returning home to work as a stoker at a dairy farm. Eventually promoted to driver, Yezhov married a colleague named Valentina and moved to Moscow’s Kashirsky District seeking better employment. At their wedding, he began an affair with another woman, eventually leaving Valentina to marry his mistress. The couple had children and later grandchildren, but Yezhov never abandoned his voyeurism, frequently spying on women through bathhouse windows or peering into apartments.

By the mid-2000s, his marriage deteriorated, and he became increasingly reclusive, spending long hours drinking vodka alone in his garage. This isolation and unchecked deviance eventually escalated into violent sexual crimes and serial killings, spanning a decade without detection.

Andrey Yezhov’s killing spree began around February 2010 in Moscow’s Kashirsky District. Late one night, he observed a 79-year-old woman sleeping in her ground-floor apartment. Entering through an unlocked door, he strangled her as she slept, then raped her corpse before stealing a TV receiver. Although investigators recovered DNA evidence, the crime went unsolved.

For three years, there were no known murders linked to Yezhov, possibly due to fear of capture or a temporary focus on family life. In April 2013, he struck again, entering the home of a 95-year-old pensioner. After strangling her, he sodomized the corpse with a household object when unable to achieve arousal and stole war medals belonging to her deceased husband. Later that year, while returning from work at Domodedovo Airport, he stopped in Stupino, broke into the home of a 60-year-old woman, strangled her, and raped her corpse.

After another two-year pause, in March 2015, Yezhov murdered a 42-year-old comptroller who drunkenly wandered into his garage. He strangled and raped her body, transporting it in his car before dumping it in nearby woods. This crime, like the previous ones, went unsolved.

In late 2019, Yezhov resumed his killing spree with two murders in November and December, targeting two elderly women, aged 70 and 75, living on the same street. Despite recognizing a serial pattern, police could not identify the perpetrator.

On 3 January 2020, Yezhov escalated his attacks by breaking into a home and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl. He attempted to strangle her but was interrupted by her parents, who were unable to capture him. The girl survived but sustained a broken hyoid bone and required psychiatric counseling. In February 2020, Yezhov attempted to strangle a 14-year-old girl who was home alone, but she fought back, forcing him to flee.

His final murder occurred on 8 June 2020, when Yezhov broke into the home of an 88-year-old pensioner. He strangled her, raped her corpse, and attempted to steal her belongings, including her TV, which he abandoned outside the house. The body was discovered days later, leading investigators to review surveillance footage.

Police observed a man in a denim suit discarding documents near the crime scene, which were identified as belonging to the victim. DNA samples were collected from men in the area, and Yezhov’s DNA matched evidence from three murders and the rape of the 10-year-old girl. Arrested on 10 June 2020, Yezhov calmly confessed to seven murders and additional assaults dating back to 2010. He explained that he had a “periodic desire to kill” and admitted a sexual preference for necrophilia.

While awaiting trial in a Noginsk detention center, Yezhov hanged himself on 6 July 2020. Authorities announced an investigation into possible negligence by prison staff. Even after his death, law enforcement and forensic psychologists speculated that Yezhov may have had more victims during periods of inactivity, possibly extending his crimes into the 1990s.