Shavkat Galievich Shayakhmedov was born in 1960 in Uygur, a village in the Uzbek SSR's Andijan Region. Details of his early life remain limited, though he later claimed, without corroboration, that he had been sexually abused by a relative. After graduating from a vocational school, he served in the Soviet Army in the early 1980s. Upon discharge, he settled in Istiqlol, Tajik SSR, where he married and had twins in 1988.

In the mid-1990s, amid political and ethnic tensions, he moved with his family to Kazar in Russia’s Oryol Oblast, working as a mechanic and later buying a home. Outwardly considered a skilled worker with no criminal record, his private life was far darker. He developed a heavy drinking habit, used marijuana, and was suspected of physically and sexually abusing his daughter. By 2013, both his children had died from alcohol-related health issues, and soon after, he left his mechanic job to work as a school plumber.

Shayakhmedov gained a reputation among students for giving them sweets and cigarettes. In the late 2010s, female students accused him of sexual harassment, including inappropriate touching, but no formal charges were pursued. His predatory behavior escalated over decades, targeting vulnerable children and women in both Tajikistan and Russia.

Shayakhmedov’s first known murder occurred on 21 May 1994, when he lured 8-year-old Katya Dmitrieva to his garage in Istiqlol, Tajikistan. He raped and strangled her, later burying her under his mother-in-law’s house foundation.

In April 2000, in Zalegoshch, Russia, he raped and strangled a 6-year-old boy, dumping the body in a ravine. In September 2003, he raped and killed a 32-year-old intoxicated woman near a railway bridge in Kazar.

On 27 July 2005, he lured 11-year-old Konstantin Bolotov into a forest under the pretense of mushroom picking, sexually assaulted him, and strangled him when the boy threatened to tell. He buried the body in a shallow grave, which remained undiscovered until after his 2021 arrest.

His final known murder occurred on 18 June 2021, when 9-year-old Viktoria Gnedova confronted him in his basement over a promised gift. Shayakhmedov struck her with a hammer, killing her. He buried her body beneath her parents’ apartment, concealing it with tiles and debris to avoid detection.

The search for Gnedova involved hundreds of volunteers and regional police. Key evidence came from a tablet found near her home, which contained Shayakhmedov’s DNA. Following his arrest on 26 August 2021, he confessed to Gnedova’s murder and later to three other killings in Russia, as well as the 1994 murder in Tajikistan.

In December 2022, he was convicted of four murders and multiple sexual offences, receiving a life sentence. Early in 2023, while imprisoned in the Mordovian Zone, he confirmed the 1994 murder of Dmitrieva, whose remains were later recovered and identified through DNA testing.

On 23 May 2023, Shayakhmedov died from health complications related to a prior stroke. His family refused to claim his body, and he was buried in an unmarked grave near the prison. Authorities suspect he may have committed additional murders during the Soviet period, but these remain unconfirmed.