On March 20, 2008, the St. Petersburg City Court sentenced Dmitry Voronenko to life imprisonment for the murders of four girls and young women in the city over the winter and spring of 2006 and 2007. Two of them were schoolgirls. The prosecution had asked for the death penalty, describing the case as one of the rare ones in which it would truly be justified. The court, pointing to Russia's moratorium on executions, imposed the most severe punishment still open to it, Interfax reported that day. The parents of the girls he had killed said they could not accept the verdict.
Voronenko, a citizen of Ukraine who had been born in the Kirghiz SSR, was 36 at his arrest in May 2007. He was on conditional early release from an earlier prison sentence when the killings began, and the court counted that against him. Years later, from a prison colony in the far north of Russia, he wrote a confession to another killing, of a schoolgirl in 2006, and in 2024 he was charged with it and brought back to St. Petersburg.
Little is known about his early years. A former officer at the colony where he served his life sentence told the Moscow newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) that Voronenko had described being born in Central Asia, growing up in Ukraine and moving to St. Petersburg as an adult. The same officer claimed that Voronenko had shown cruelty to animals since childhood, an account MK printed in 2024 and which no court is reported to have examined.
By 2007 he was unemployed and living in St. Petersburg, still a Ukrainian citizen. His exact date of birth is uncertain; he was 36 at the time of his arrest and again at his trial in early 2008.
MK published his criminal record in 2024. It lists a conviction for theft in 1997, with a suspended two-year sentence; a conviction in 1998 for causing harm to health while exceeding the limits of necessary self-defense, with a one-year term; and a further theft conviction in 1999, with a sentence of three years. In 2004 he was convicted again, with other charges, and sentenced to five years and six months. According to MK, he served about 13 months of that term before being released on parole. The record states that in 2005 he left for the town of Кёк-Джангак in Kyrgyzstan.
Interfax reported at the time of his 2008 sentencing that he had been tried in 2004 and released in 2005, and that all the crimes in the later case were committed while he was on conditional early release. The court treated that as an aggravating circumstance.
Little has been published about the girls and women who died, and their names have rarely appeared in print.
In the winter of 2006, an 11-year-old girl was killed in St. Petersburg. NEWSru.com, citing Interfax and NTV, dated her death to December 9, 2006, and gave her age as 10; Interfax gave it as 11 at the sentencing.
About a month later, by Interfax's account, an 18-year-old woman was killed. NEWSru.com, in its June 2007 report of the charges, dated her death to March 17, 2007.
In March 2007 a 20-year-old woman, a resident of St. Petersburg, was killed. NEWSru.com gave the date as March 5, 2007.
In May 2007 a 12-year-old schoolgirl, a fifth-grade pupil, was killed in the city. He was arrested days later as a suspect in her death.
A fifth episode in the case concerned a 17-year-old girl attacked in St. Petersburg in August 2006. She survived. MK reported in 2024 that her detailed description of her attacker's appearance helped the police find him.
The girl whose death he confessed to from prison was named by MK as Людмила, a sixth-grade pupil in St. Petersburg. MK gave her age as 11 and the date of her death as September 26, 2006. She was found in St. Petersburg on May 2, 2007, but at that point investigators had no direct evidence linking her death to anyone. The Public News Service (OSN), citing TASS, reported in April 2024 that she had been born in 1994 and described her as 12.
Voronenko was detained in late May 2007 as a suspect in the death of the 12-year-old schoolgirl. NEWSru.com, reporting the prosecutor's announcement on June 4, 2007, gave the date of his detention as May 25, 2007. He confessed under questioning.
MK's 2024 account of the investigation said officers had first narrowed their search to an area of the city and then waited for several days. When they moved in, he tried to run, and he fainted when he realized he had been caught, MK reported. Investigators described him as a man who saw himself as poor and misunderstood, who blamed the world and the women who had rejected him, and who tried to shift responsibility for what he had done.
Within days the St. Petersburg prosecutor's office charged him with four murders, with other charges, NEWSru.com reported on June 4, 2007, citing Interfax. He had confessed to all four episodes, and he confirmed his statements on video during visits to the scenes with investigators. Investigators said they were checking whether he had committed other crimes.
MK reported in 2024 that the police had faced indifference from the public while the killings were going on, with witnesses unwilling to help. It also reported that officers of the police unit for especially serious crimes had believed at the time that he might be responsible for many more deaths in the city.
Psychiatrists and psychologists examined him before trial. MK reported that they found a mixed personality disorder and concluded that he was fully sane and understood the danger of his actions. Investigators told MK he showed no sympathy for his victims and no remorse.
His trial began in St. Petersburg in January 2008. MK reported on January 18, 2008, citing the radio station Echo of Moscow, that he had declined a trial by jury. The same report noted that the victims' parents wanted the moratorium on the death penalty set aside in his case, and pointed out that under Russian law at the time a death sentence could be passed only with a jury.
Interfax reported that he faced five charges. They covered the attack on the 17-year-old in August 2006 and the murders, with other charges, of the girl of 11, the woman of 18, the woman of 20 and the girl of 12.
According to a mother of one of the victims, who spoke to an Interfax correspondent because the press was not admitted for his final statement, Voronenko told the court he was ready for any punishment, including public execution. She said he showed no remorse and claimed not to know why he had committed the crimes. MK later reported that during the trial he had mocked the grieving mothers and smirked at the expert witnesses.
The St. Petersburg City Court delivered its verdict on March 20, 2008. The prosecution had asked for the death penalty. The court, citing the moratorium, imposed life imprisonment. The fact that he had committed the crimes while on conditional early release was treated as an aggravating circumstance. MK's summary of his record states that the life sentence was combined with the outstanding term from 2004.
The parents of the girls said, unanimously, that they were unhappy with the result. One mother told reporters that the decision was tearing at their souls. They had expected the court to respect the moratorium and substitute life imprisonment, she said, but they still could not accept it. The victims' side was expected to appeal. Voronenko's lawyer called the court's position correct and civilized, and the prosecutor, by then, described life imprisonment as a fair punishment, Interfax reported.
The parents took their case to the Supreme Court of Russia, asking for the death penalty. The Supreme Court refused and left the life sentence in force, MK reported in 2024. The mothers of the dead girls went on to campaign for the return of capital punishment.
Voronenko served his sentence at the special colony for life prisoners in the settlement of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, known as Полярная сова, or Polar Owl. MK described it in 2024 as the place where he had spent all his recent years.
An MK correspondent who visited the colony some years earlier, when Voronenko had been there for about ten years, found him listening to classical music. He was held apart from other prisoners. Staff kept him and another man serving life for a series of killings in Moscow in separate cells, MK reported, out of concern about what each might do to the other. Other prisoners described him to MK as unstable and said he laughed while talking about his victims. He spoke of hoping to be released some day.
The former colony officer who told MK about Voronenko's childhood said that he had begun questioning him about other unsolved crimes but did not finish, because he was sent on assignment to Chechnya and later left the service.
MK reported in April 2024 that Voronenko had written a confession about a year earlier, saying the killing it described had been his first. Many life prisoners write such confessions in the hope of being moved, and they are not always checked, the paper observed. In this case an investigator interviewed him at the colony.
On March 27, 2024, he was charged with the murder, with other charges, of the girl killed in September 2006, OSN reported, citing TASS. Investigators visited the colony to present the new charge. A court in St. Petersburg then ordered him held in pretrial detention until June 4, 2024; before that ruling he had been in the colony where he was serving his life sentence.
Voronenko was moved from Kharp to St. Petersburg in the spring of 2024. MK reported on April 14, 2024 that he was being held alone in a cell at pretrial detention center No. 1, the facility known as Kresty, in Kolpino, and that he was brought to court in shackles. The Oktyabrsky District Court extended his detention. Its press officer, Дарья Лебедева, said he was calm at the hearing, understood his rights and raised no objection.
MK reported that he had entered into an agreement with the investigation, and that confrontations with witnesses, a visit to the scene and a trial were expected. The paper's correspondent suggested that the confession was partly a way to escape the harsh conditions of the Arctic colony for a time, and noted that a former cellmate, also serving life, had used the same approach to be brought to St. Petersburg for a new trial. MK expected a second life sentence, which it said would rule out any future parole or change in the terms of his sentence.
For the family of the girl killed in 2006, MK wrote, a new trial might bring a measure of justice.
Proven by final judgment: the four murders, with other charges, for which the St. Petersburg City Court sentenced him on March 20, 2008, a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court of Russia.
Charged and confessed: the September 2006 killing of a sixth-grade schoolgirl, to which he confessed from prison and for which he was charged on March 27, 2024.
Suspected but not charged: MK reported in 2024 that police investigators at the time believed he might be responsible for many more deaths in St. Petersburg. As of April 2024, no other case had been charged against him.
Details that differ between reports: the age of the girl killed in December 2006 (11 per Interfax in 2008; 10 per NEWSru.com in 2007); the date of the 18-year-old's death (about a month after the December killing per Interfax; March 17, 2007 per NEWSru.com); the age of the girl killed in September 2006 (11 per MK; 12 per OSN, citing TASS); and the date of his detention (late May 2007; NEWSru.com gives May 25). MK described the four victims of 2008 as four girls; Interfax's list of victims includes two young women of 18 and 20.
1997: convicted of theft; suspended sentence of two years.
1998: convicted of causing harm to health while exceeding the limits of self-defense; one year.
1999: convicted of theft; sentenced to three years.
2004: convicted, with other charges; sentenced to five years and six months.
2005: released on parole after about 13 months.
August 2006: a 17-year-old girl is attacked in St. Petersburg and survives.
September 26, 2006: a sixth-grade schoolgirl is killed in St. Petersburg (date as given by MK in 2024).
December 2006: an 11-year-old girl is killed (December 9 per NEWSru.com).
Early 2007: an 18-year-old woman is killed.
March 2007: a 20-year-old woman is killed (March 5 per NEWSru.com).
May 2, 2007: the sixth-grade schoolgirl is found in St. Petersburg; no one is charged.
May 2007: a 12-year-old schoolgirl is killed; Voronenko is detained as a suspect in late May and confesses.
June 4, 2007: prosecutors announce he has been charged with four murders, with other charges.
January 2008: his trial begins in St. Petersburg; he declines a jury.
March 20, 2008: the St. Petersburg City Court sentences him to life imprisonment.
After March 2008: the Supreme Court of Russia rejects the victims' families' appeal for a death sentence and leaves the life sentence in force.
Before April 2024 (about a year earlier, per MK): he writes a confession at the Polar Owl colony in Kharp.
March 27, 2024: charged with the 2006 murder, with other charges; ordered held until June 4, 2024.
April 2024: held at the Kresty pretrial detention center in Kolpino; the Oktyabrsky District Court extends his detention.