Tamara Mitrofanovna Samsonova was born on April 25, 1947, in Uzhur, a city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. Growing up, she likely experienced the changes and challenges of life in the Soviet Union. After finishing high school, she moved to Moscow to pursue her education. There, she enrolled in the Moscow State Linguistic University, which is known for teaching various languages.

After she graduated from university, Tamara moved to St. Petersburg. In 1971, she married Alexei Samsonova. The couple settled in a newly built apartment building on Dimitrov Street. For a period, Tamara worked for a travel agency named Intourist. She spent time working at the Grand Hotel Europe. Over her career, she gathered 16 years of work experience before retiring.

In 2000, Tamara faced a significant event when her husband disappeared. She claimed that she filed a report with the police about his disappearance. Despite this, the searches conducted by authorities did not lead to any discoveries regarding him. After many years, in April 2015, she went to the police again to give a statement about her husband's case, indicating that she still sought answers about what happened to him.

Tamara Mitrofanovna Samsonova is a Russian woman who was involved in multiple murders. Her first known murder took place on September 6, 2003. She killed her tenant, Sergei Potanin, during a quarrel at her apartment. Afterward, she dismembered his body and disposed of it in the streets of St. Desyhis Way.

In March 2015, she began living with 79-year-old Valentina Nikolaevna Ulanova after being invited to stay at her apartment. The two eventually had conflicts, and Ulanova asked Samsonova to leave. In response, Samsonova decided to poison Ulanova. She traveled to Pushkin to obtain phenazepam, a prescription drug. Upon returning, she mixed the drug into Ulanova's favorite dish, Olivier salad, which she then served to her.

Samsonova later found Ulanova's body on the kitchen floor on July 23. She dismembered the body using knives and a saw. She first removed the victim's head, then cut the body in half, and finally chopped it into smaller pieces. Samsonova took multiple trips outside her apartment to dispose of the body parts, leaving some still inside the apartment.

On July 26, 2015, Ulanova's decapitated body was found wrapped in a bathroom curtain near a pond on Dimitrov Street. It remained unnoticed for several days until a local resident reported it. The next day, authorities identified the body. When they visited Ulanova's apartment, Samsonova opened the door. Inside, police found blood evidence and remnants of the torn curtain. They arrested her immediately.

An investigation led to Samsonova being brought to court on July 29, 2015. A psychiatric evaluation determined she posed a danger to society, resulting in her being placed in a specialized institution until the investigation concluded. In December 2015, she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital in Kazan. She is believed to have been involved in at least 14 murders, as noted in a diary that was found, detailing some of the crimes.