Vladmir ROMANOV

AKA "Taxi Driver"

Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape
Number of victims: 11 +
Date of murders: 1991 / 2001 - 2005
Date of arrest: September 2006
Date of birth: 1950
Victims profile: Girls and young women
Method of murder: Stabbing with knife - Hitting with a hammer
Location: Kaliningrad Region, Russia
Status: Committed suicide in a detention center by hanging himself with a bed sheet on October 11, 2006

Kaliningrad serial killer commits suicide in detention center

En.rian.ru

October 12, 2006

A resident of the Russian exclave in the Baltic Region, charged with the murder of at least 10 girls and young women, committed suicide in a detention center, a local prosecutor's office said Thursday.

Vladimir Romanov, a resident of the Kaliningrad Region who worked as an independent taxi driver, was arrested in September on suspicion of committing a series of murders between 2001 and 2005.

At least 10 girls and young women, aged 11-20, were found dead in four districts of the region. "Vladimir Romanov, 56, accused of killing 10 girls, committed suicide in the pre-trial detention center," a prosecutor's office spokesman said. "He hanged himself late last night, October 11, in a solitary cell."

The suspected killer, who previously served a prison term for raping a young girl, was arrested on a tip from the father of one of his victims, who managed to escape. The spokesman said that Romanov attempted suicide even before prosecutors filed charges against him, and that prison officials were instructed to monitor him closely. Kaliningrad prosecutors have launched a probe into the circumstances of the suicide, he said.

Serial killer of underage girls hangs himself on a bed sheet in prison

English.pravda.ru

October 12, 2006

Vladimir
Romanov, a man who committed nine sex crimes in Russia’s Kaliningrad region, hanged himself in a prison cell on a bed sheet. Spokeswoman for the regional Office of the Public Prosecutor, Galina Biryukova, said that the man had already attempted to commit suicide before, during the first days after his arrest. On October 11 he made a rope of a bed sheet and killed himself.

Romanov became known as the Kaliningrad maniac who terrified the region for five years. The manic was working as a private taxi driver. He was looking for his victims, teenage girls, in solitary places of the city in the evening time. Romanov, 56, killed nine underage girls and was arrested at the end of September of this year.

An investigator of the local police department said that Vladimir Romanov’s last victim managed to survive after the killer hit her with a hammer on the head. The girl escaped from the maniac and memorized the number of his car. The criminal was caught red-handed. It turned out that Romanov had already had a criminal record before for raping an underage girl.

The suspect was originally accused of killing six girls between 12 and 18 years of age. The list of victims was extended with five more names on October 3. However, prosecutors stated after the killer’s suicide that he had committed nine sex crimes in total.

The criminal charges have been officially brought against Vladimir Romanov this week. Having realized the severity of his crimes and the possible term of imprisonment, the man made a rope of his bed sheet and committed suicide in his prison cell on October 11.