Bodysnatcher who dressed mummified remains of 29 girls as dolls to stay locked up after plea from psychiatric doc
A SICK bodysnatcher who dressed up mummified remains of 29 girls as dolls will remain locked up in a psychiatric hospital, a Russian court has ruled.
Anatoly Moskvin, 55, turned the
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Historian Anatoly Moskvin (pictured) was arrested after the bodies of 29 mummified girls were discovered in his home in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Credit: East2West
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Moskvin's mugshot after his arrest more than a decade ago
Credit: East2west News
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One of the 29 dolls found in Moskvin's flat
Credit: East2West
He was first arrested in 2011 when a series of
When cops searched the flat Moskvin shared with his parents, they
Each had been mummified, dressed in children's clothes, and arranged like dolls in his home.
The former academic claimed that he practised black magic and believed he could one day revive the children using science.
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Moskvin, now 58, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was ruled unfit to stand trial in 2012.
He has been held in a secure Russian psychiatric unit ever since.
Despite several pleas made by Moskvin's lawyers, a Russian
court
has now confirmed that the sick man would remain under forced detention.
His term was extended after the chief physician of the psychiatric hospital filed a petition against his release - possibly due to his behaviour.
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Moskvin confessed to 44 counts of abusing the graves of girls aged three to 12.
In Soviet times, he worked as a translator for military intelligence in the Red
Army
, and later wrote several history
books
.
Horror moment sisters are found chained to their beds where 'Brazil's Fritzl' dad 'drugged & raped them for a year'
The historian, described in court as a genius and the author of scientific papers, gave various explanations for his deeply disturbing behaviour.
Moskvin told his interrogators he was waiting for science to find ways for these girls to live again, as well as wanting to be an expert in making mummies.
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He chillingly said to the
family
members of the dead children: "You abandoned your girls in the cold, and I brought them home and warmed them up."
Moskvin added that he had needed biological material for cloning and insisted his actions were not for any sexual motive.
He told investigators: "I felt sorry for the dead children, who could still live on.
"So I kept them until the time when science would have advanced, and revived them."
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The former academic later claimed that he practised black magic and believed he could one day revive the children using science
Credit: East2West
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Moskvin's parents attend the original court hearing
Credit: East2west News
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Moskvin told his interrogators he was waiting for science to find ways for these girls to live again
Credit: Newsflash
His mother Elvira told the court: "We saw these dolls, but we did not suspect there were dead bodies inside. We thought it was his hobby to make such big dolls and did not see anything wrong with it.'
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In the early years after his arrest, he frequently gave
interviews
and made bizarre confessions, including that he had slept in Muslim graveyards and visited more than 750 cemeteries.
He claimed: "I lay down in one coffin, and slid another one on top. And I got a good night's
sleep
. And no one noticed."
In 2021, his lawyers tried to argue that he should be transferred to outpatient care and had plans to write a book and work as a
language
teacher in Moscow.
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But the court rejected the plea, as it did again last week.
The court sided with the hospital that he remain under psychiatric supervision in detention until November.
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Anatoly Moskvin's parents had no idea what was going on inside their house
Credit: Yuri Lando
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