Valery Kopytov was born in 1971 in Barnaul, RSFSR, Soviet Union. In 1998, at the age of 27, he was released from prison after serving a sentence for mercenary crimes. Following his release, he moved in with his father in Barnaul but struggled to find employment and reintegrate into society. Facing these challenges, Kopytov became homeless and constructed a dugout beneath the New Bridge beside the Ob River, where he resided.

Between 2000 and 2004, Valery Kopytov embarked on a series of murders targeting homeless individuals in the Altai Krai region. His victims were either stabbed or beaten to death with heavy objects. Most of these murders stemmed from quarrels with fellow homeless individuals, while some were motivated by the intent to steal their belongings.

In 2004 or 2005, investigators discovered 13 corpses buried near the New Bridge in Barnaul. A friend of Kopytov reported him to the police after Kopytov confessed his crimes to him. Upon his arrest, Kopytov led investigators to an additional six bodies buried around the cities of Novoaltaysk, Zarinsk, and Biysk, bringing the total number of his victims to 19.

Due to his cooperation with law enforcement, Kopytov avoided a life sentence and was instead sentenced to 25 years in prison—10 to be spent in prison and 15 in a special regime colony. An accomplice in one of the murders, Yuri Malygin, was sentenced to 11 years in a maximum-security prison. If Kopytov remains incarcerated for his full term, he is expected to be released in 2030, at the age of 59.