SERIAL KILLERS: Gang of Amazons

A family of criminals that terrorised villages in Russia despite being a successful family.

The ‘Gang of Amazons’ were a family of six that committed robberies and murders as and when they pleased over a span of six years, from 2007 to 2013. They lived in Divnaye, a small village in the centre of Apanasenkovsky District in Stavropol, Russia and they would say they were going on camping trips as a guise for their crimes.

The matriarch of the family — Inessa Tarverdiyeva — was a successful nursery school teacher. It’s rumoured that she had a former lover leave her for another woman, he worked as a policeman in the area and it’s said his leaving fueled her extreme hatred of anything law enforcement related.
The patriarch of the family — Roman Podkopaev — was a registered dentist. He was also the prime suspect in the suspicious death of Inessa’s first husband, they married shortly after his death.

Inessa’s daughters from her first marriage were also involved in the crime spree.
Her eldest — Viktoria Tarverdiyeva — was 25 and the youngest — Anastasiya Tarverdiyeva — was 13. I will be referring to her as Ana so as not to confuse her with another person in the group.
Ana reportedly had behavioural troubles in school but none of the teachers wanted to punish her of fear of Inessa. The teachers requested that she left school, forcing Ana to be homeschooled from the start of the crime spree.

Later into the crimes, Roman’s sister — Anastasiya Sinelnik — would be connected with the crimes, she’d deny having involvement or knowledge of the crimes despite stolen goods being found in her home. She was also known to sell jewellery at local stores.
Anatasiya’s husband — Sergei Sinelnik — was also connected to the crimes. He worked as a local police officer and supplied the family with insider information to aid them in evading capture. It’s said he was the one who convinced Inessa to begin her life of crime but this isn’t confirmed.

The family are reportedly responsible for a plethora of murders but some don’t believe the family were connected at all.

On February 17th 2008, the family went on a ‘camping trip’ to Aksai. They had invaded the home of Mikhail Zlydnev and his wife. Mikhail was head of the information security department of the Federal Drug Control Service. The gang shot both Mikhail and his wife, I was unable to find her name sadly, before stabbing them. They stole a doublet, a jacket and a TV remote control but not the TV.
A doublet is a quilted and reinforced undergarment meant to be worn underneath the armour.

The next attack was on July 17th 2008. The group ambushed a car driving on the federal highway in the Aksai district, inside the car Alexei Sazonov was driving and Julia Vasilyeva was in the passenger seat. The hail of bullets killed Alexei and severely wounded Julia, she survived her injuries but was left disabled. Julia heard a woman scream out “strive for it!” as the group raided the car.
They stole a purse with a driver’s license, a handbag and a passport.

On March 10th 2009, in the outskirts of Novocherkassk, the group raided a home, killing the two unnamed people inside. They once again shot them before stabbing them.
They stole a laptop, a camcorder, multiple passports, a pair of women’s boots and several coats and jackets.

The group was back on the federal highway in the Aksai district on July 8th 2009. They ambushed a family of four, Dmitry Chudakov, Irina Chudakov and their two children 11-year-old Veronika and 7-year-old Sasha. Dmitry, Veronika and Sasha were all killed in the gunfire while Irina was stabbed to death, with some reports saying she was stabbed 37 times.
An arrest was made in this case but it wasn’t anyone in the family. Alexei Serenko was charged with the family’s murders, the only evidence a ballistics tests that “may have been falsified” claiming that Alexei’s Saiga carbine was a match for the gun that shot the bullets. Alexei was released from jail.
It was at this crime scene that the group would earn the name ‘Gang of Amazons’. Despite what some reports claim, the name didn’t come from the belief it was a female-dominated gang, it was after some information was leaked to the press. There was a knife found at the scene with the phrase “My Favourite Amazon” which the media turned into “The Gang of Amazons”.

At some point during 2010 the group planned to commit a robbery while a family was out of their home before waiting inside for them to return, they had somehow known that the family had a stash of weapons and money in the home. They waited inside for the owners to return but only two teenage girls came home, one apparently Inessa’s goddaughter.
The girls were ambushed right as they walked inside the door. They were brutally tortured before being murdered in the home.

This time the group tried to rob a local dental clinic setting off an alarm, it isn’t clear or not if they had triggered the alarm on purpose to draw out security. It was September 19th 2012 when two men, once again unnamed, were shot and killed outside the Novocherkassk dental clinic. The group had used law enforcement service weapons, two pistols and a submachine gun, it’s once again unclear exactly how they got the weaponry.

On November 29th 2012, another home was invaded. This time it was the home of a local taxi driver named Vadim Luzhkov. Vadim attempted to chase after the robbers but was shot and killed by the guns stolen from the two security guards from the September 19th attack.

This time the group tried to break into a car on March 16th 2013. It was Nikolai Kutsekon’s car parked outside of his apartment building, he heard the alarm and ran out to stop the robbery. He was shot and killed for his attempts at stopping the group.

In the outskirts of Novocherkassks, two grocery store employees Nikolia Korsunov and Yuri Stetsenko responded to an alarm triggered at their store on April 8th 2013. The gang were inside their vehicle about to leave and ambushed them with gunfire, driving away soon after. Yuri was alive when first responders arrived but later died due to injuries at the hospital, Nikolia survived the attack.

Shortly after the last attack, the group struck again on April 24th 2013. Andrei Yurin a lieutenant with local police went out for a drive, as he walked out his front door he was shot point blank. The gang tried to gain access to his home but left when they couldn’t enter, unintentionally sparing the lives of Andrei’s wife and young child.

The attack that would end the gang was on September 8th 2013. Roman and Viktoria invaded the home of an unnamed couple in Aksai, the man in the house was a former member of the military. No money was in the home so Roman and Viktoria stole some candles, alcohol and a package of chicken legs from the refrigerator.

They made a getaway from the crime scene on a scooter, they were detained at an ID checkpoint. Officer Ivan Shakhovoi was the one to stop them, he was shot and killed as neither of them had ID. Officer Aleksey Lagoda was also at the shooting, he was wounded but still managed to radio for backup.

When backup arrived Roman was killed in the shootout while Viktoria was maimed but survived the shootout.

The family’s campsite was raided soon after the arrest, Inessa and Ana getting arrested as they were at the camp guarding a weapons cache. In the cache, 20 firearms, a silencer, some grenades and a plethora of ammo for the guns were found inside. At the campsite, several items reported stolen from previous victims were found, linking them to the murders.
Inessa was open with law enforcement about her hatred, happily confessing to what she had done. She, however, claimed her husband was the one to harm the kids, saying she had zero involvement in their deaths.

Inessa, Viktoria, Sergei and Anastasiya all were sentenced to around 21 years each but not much is known about Ana as she was a minor at the time of her arrest.

This case is infuriating to me as there is little to no information on the victims to the point most of them are completely nameless. It’s not even known if Inessa and her family actually committed the attacks.