Valery Georgievich Asratyan was born in 1958 in Yerevan, which was part of the Armenian SSR in the Soviet Union. He had ethnic Armenian parents and grew up in a stable and prosperous household for that time. His childhood was free from mistreatment or abuse, which is notable.

Asratyan attended kindergarten where he played doctor with his classmates. This involved undressing and feeling the girls he was playing with. By the age of 13, he lost his virginity to a woman who was 15 years older than him. He developed an interest in psychology as he grew up. After finishing school, he decided to study at the Armenian State Pedagogical University, where he specialized in preschool psychology and pedagogy. He started his studies in 1975 and began reading "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov during this time. He felt a connection to the book's main character, Humbert.

He graduated from the university in 1980. After that, he began working as a psychologist in a school for children who were suffering from cerebral palsy and polio. In 1981, Asratyan got married and moved to Moscow with his wife.

In 1988, Valery Asratyan began committing a series of sexual assaults in Moscow. He would lure young girls into his apartment, pretending to be a film director. Using psychotropic drugs, he would incapacitate them, then rape them. In total, he assaulted more than a dozen victims during this time. Many of these victims were kept in his apartment for several days.

Asratyan became increasingly worried about being caught. To prevent any of his victims from identifying him, he decided to kill them. His first murder was committed with a knife, while his second victim was drowned.

In 1990, one of his victims, who survived, reported him to the police. She had managed to remember details that led the police to Asratyan. He was arrested after a female officer was invited to a fake casting call at the same location where he had met the victim. He confessed to two murders and multiple rapes during his interrogation.

Asratyan was charged with his crimes and feared the consequences he would face in prison due to his previous convictions. He requested the death penalty during his trial. Ultimately, he was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad in 1996 in Butyrka Prison.