CoTW: Grave Robber Keeps Corpses as Dolls

It’s only Tuesday and we already have our Crime of the Week. Historian Anatoly Moskvin from Moscow, Russia, has been caught hoarding the dead bodies of 29 women which he dug up from their graves. Obsessed with keeping these life-size dolls, the man dressed each corpse up in bright, pretty clothing and wrapped their nasty rotting parts in cloth.

The mummified remains of one woman can be seen in this photo, dressed in a green velvet jacket and sitting between a pile of books and what appears to be a mountain of frilly women’s clothing.

A historian, the culprit was said to be pretty open about his interest in dead — but for other reasons. He said that he loved searching through cemeteries to discover graves and the histories behind them — but he wanted what was under them as well. Moskvin is considered the go-to expert on cemeteries in his area.

Moskvin stuck to young girls, digging them up and taking the body, the clothing, or both. He kept pictures and videos of his chosen grave sites, making it easier to identify his ‘victims’.

The method of his capture is somewhat disputed, one media outlet claiming that he was caught trying to smuggle bones out of a cemetery and another saying that police found the remains back at his apartment during routine investigations of the desecrations.

Moskvin claims that he would walk through each cemetery, traveling up to 20 miles a day on foot and drinking from puddles for sustenance. He says that his interest stemmed from an incident when, at the age of 12, he was forced to kiss the forehead of a dead companion during her funeral procession.