Sergey Sedov

Biography

Sedov grew up in Moscow in a dysfunctional family; both parents were alcoholics. He suffered from hearing loss from childhood and was placed in a special needs group at school. Described as unsocial, he would run away and refuse to return to class for days if offended by other children. In 1989, doctors examined him and concluded he was intellectually disabled but deemed treatment unnecessary, believing he posed no threat. On the night of October 7, 1998, while wandering Sokolniki Park, Sedov argued with a drunk man, beat him to death with a metal pipe, and then sexually abused the corpse. Until his arrest on October 18, 1999, he committed five similar murders in the park: three victims were killed with the metal pipe, one with a hammer, and his only female victim with a pair of scissors. On the day of his arrest, Sedov told a neighbor he had just killed someone; the neighbor, knowing Sedov's unsound mind, did not believe him. Sedov then led the neighbor to the fresh crime scene in the park. Alarmed, the neighbor called authorities, who arrested Sedov. During interrogation, Sedov admitted to the six murders and to having sex with the corpses. He said an 'inner voice' had told him to commit exactly six killings. When asked what he would do if told to kill twelve, he replied, 'Orders are not being discussed. I would continue to kill.' In June 2000, he was tried in the Eastern Moscow District Court for murder; sexual assault charges were dropped as unprovable. An exam at the Serbsky Center found him criminally insane, with sexual sadism and necrophilic tendencies. The court deemed him mentally unfit to stand trial and sent him to a psychiatric hospital in Troitskoye for intensive treatment for life.