Inessa Tarverdiyeva was born around 1967 in the Stavropol Krai region of Russia. Outwardly, she lived an average life as she worked as a nursery school teacher and homemaker, raising her daughters in a modest home in the village of Divnoye. Her calm, domestic image would later prove to be a terrifying disguise for one of Russia's most calculating and remorseless female serial killers.

She was first married to an Azerbaijani man named Arzu Tarverdiyev, who died under suspicious circumstances while working at a power grid. No formal investigation linked her to his death, but the timing raised questions. After his death, she entered a relationship with a dentist named Roman Podkopaev, who later became her husband. Roman was also suspected in the mysterious death of Inessa’s former spouse. The pair soon became a criminal duo, and over time, they began pulling their children into their deadly plans.

What may have started as robbery turned into ritualized killing. Inessa harbored a deep and bitter hatred for law enforcement, allegedly because a policeman she had a romantic relationship with had left her for another woman. This personal grudge was a justification, in her mind, for murdering police officers and their families. She raised her children, Viktoria and Anastasiya, not just as daughters but as accomplices.

The gang's murder spree officially began on February 17, 2008, when Inessa and her family broke into the Aksai home of Mikhail Zlydnev, a senior officer in Russia’s State Drug Control Service, and murdered him and his wife. Both victims were shot and then stabbed. Strangely, the killers stole only a few mundane household items, suggesting that the violence was not about profit, but intent.

Over the following years, the family grew bolder and more violent. On July 17, 2008, they ambushed a car on the highway in the Aksai district, killing a man named Alexei Sazonov and severely injuring Julia Vasilyeva. In March 2009, they broke into a home on the outskirts of Novocherkassk and executed the two occupants. But it was the massacre on July 8, 2009, that sent shockwaves across the country. Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Chudakov, his wife, and their young son were gunned down while stopped at the roadside. Their daughter Veronika, just eleven years old, was stabbed thirty-seven times. The gang stole only a laptop, camera, and hairdryer, leaving behind valuables like gold jewelry. An innocent man named Alexei Serenko was falsely accused and jailed for two years before being cleared of the crime.

In 2010, the family turned on two teenage girls, one reportedly Inessa’s goddaughter. They ambushed the girls as they returned home, tortured them, and gouged out their eyes before killing them. Inessa later claimed that while she was present, it was Roman who killed the girls. “I never killed children. My husband shot them,” she told investigators.

In September 2012, Inessa participated in the murders of two private security guards responding to a burglary alarm at a dental clinic. The guards were shot and their service weapons ,including a Kalashnikov rifle, were stolen. The gang used these same guns two months later in the killing of a taxi driver named Vadim Lozhkov. In March 2013, car inspector Nikolai Kutsekon was murdered when he tried to stop the gang from breaking into his vehicle. Then in April, the gang opened fire on grocery store employees responding to an alarm. One of the victims, Yuri Statsenko, died later in the hospital. Just weeks after that, police lieutenant Andrei Yurin was ambushed and shot as he left his home late at night.

The gang’s crime spree came to an end on September 8, 2013. After murdering another couple and looting their home for candles, alcohol, and chicken drumsticks, Roman and Viktoria tried to escape on a scooter but were stopped by a patrol officer. Roman shot and killed officer Ivan Shakhovoi before he was taken down by backup forces. Viktoria survived but was severely wounded. Inessa and her youngest daughter, Anastasiya, were arrested shortly after at a forest encampment, where they were guarding a massive stash of weapons, ammunition, silencers, grenades, and stolen goods, clear evidence linking them to dozens of unsolved murders across the region.

In interrogations, Inessa was cold and unremorseful. She confessed to hating police and admitted she wished they had “killed more” before being caught. She described herself as “a gangster by nature” and downplayed her role, blaming most of the murders on Roman.

In 2017, Inessa was sentenced to 21 years in a general regime penal colony. Her daughter Viktoria received 16 years, later increased to 25 in a 2023 resentencing. Roman’s sister and her husband were also sentenced, with Sergei Sinelnik eventually receiving life imprisonment. Inessa is currently incarcerated at the IK-6 prison camp in Oryol Oblast, Russia, a facility known for housing high-profile female criminals.