Twisted Grave Roober Dug Up Dead Girls And Did What!

A respected Russian historian turned 29 exhumed corpses of young girls into life-sized dolls, hiding them in plain sight in the apartment he shared with his unsuspecting parents for over a decade.

Story Snapshot

Anatoly Moskvin, a linguist and cemetery folklore expert, exhumed 29 bodies of girls aged 3-29 from graveyards across Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
He mummified the remains using ancient folk techniques and encased them in paper mache dolls dressed in women’s clothing, complete with button eyes and music boxes
Police discovered the dolls during an unrelated 2011 anti-terrorism raid while his elderly parents remained oblivious to the macabre collection in their home
Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Moskvin claimed he intended to resurrect the girls through ritual, not sexual gratification
He remains indefinitely confined to a psychiatric hospital after being declared mentally unfit for trial

The Scholar Who Slept With the Dead

Anatoly Moskvin earned recognition throughout Nizhny Novgorod as a polyglot who spoke 13 languages and specialized in Slavic burial customs. His academic credentials seemed impeccable. During cemetery research trips, he practiced an obscure ritual called “sleeping on graves,” which he justified as authentic folklore study. His parents proudly displayed his published articles on local history. Nobody questioned why their brilliant son spent so many nights away from home or why he insisted on maintaining complete privacy in his room. The disconnect between his public persona and private obsession created the perfect camouflage for crimes that defied rational explanation.

When Dolls Became Tombs

The transformation from scholar to grave robber began in the early 2000s, rooted in childhood trauma. Moskvin had been forced as a child to kiss a deceased girl at her funeral, an experience that festered into pathological fixation. He targeted recently deceased girls, believing fresher bodies would mummify more successfully using techniques he studied from ancient Egyptian and folk preservation methods. After exhuming remains under cover of darkness, he transported them home, dried the bodies, and meticulously crafted doll casings from paper mache. He dressed each creation in girls’ clothing purchased from stores, applied makeup, attached toy faces or drew features, and installed music boxes inside some torsos.

The Unthinkable Discovery

August 2011 brought an ending nobody anticipated. Anti-terrorism police arrived at Moskvin’s apartment investigating suspected extremist activity, a lead that proved false but uncovered something far more disturbing. Officers found 29 life-sized dolls positioned throughout the residence, some seated on chairs, others standing against walls. Initial confusion turned to horror when examination revealed human remains within each figure. Moskvin’s parents, who had lived alongside the dolls for years, thought them merely eccentric art projects created by their scholarly son. The revelation shattered their understanding of the man they raised and trusted.

Delusion Disguised as Compassion

Moskvin confessed immediately but framed his actions through a distorted lens of benevolence. He insisted he performed respectful preservation, never dismembering bodies, treating each girl with care. His stated goal transcended logic: he believed the dolls represented a pathway to resurrection, that through his ritual care, these children might somehow return to life. Psychiatrists found no evidence of sexual motivation, concluding instead that paranoid schizophrenia drove his decade-long compulsion. He even conducted a mock wedding ceremony with the mummified remains of an 11-year-old, demonstrating how completely delusion had consumed rationality.

Justice Denied, Families Destroyed

The legal aftermath exposed gaps in how society addresses mentally ill offenders who commit heinous yet non-violent crimes. Courts declared Moskvin unfit for prison in 2012, ordering indefinite psychiatric hospitalization instead of criminal trial. Twenty-nine families faced the unbearable task of identifying their daughters’ desecrated remains and conducting second burials. Some confronted Moskvin directly, seeking answers he couldn’t provide through his fractured worldview. His parents apologized publicly, themselves victims of proximity to evil they never detected. Cemetery security across the region tightened dramatically, closing loopholes that enabled a decade of undiscovered grave violations.

The Monster Next Door

This case forces confrontation with uncomfortable truths about mental illness boundaries and criminal accountability. Moskvin’s intelligence and education make his actions more disturbing, not less. He possessed the cognitive capacity to plan, execute, and conceal complex crimes while maintaining normal social functioning. His claim of benevolent intent cannot erase the violation inflicted upon deceased children and their grieving families. The psychiatric diagnosis explains his behavior without excusing it. Society must grapple with whether someone capable of such calculated desecration deserves medical treatment or punishment, and whether those categories should remain mutually exclusive when dealing with crimes this profoundly disturbing.