In the 90s of the last century, the Northern capital was shaken by a series of brutal murders of teenage girls aged 12-15 years. All the tortured bodies, which were wearing nylon tights cut in intimate places, were found in the Nevsky Forest Park. The hunt for the monster, metro police officer Pavel Shuvalov, lasted four long years. As a result, the cornered maniac himself confessed to the crimes – he forced his victims to come to the forest park under pain of punishment for trying to travel without a ticket. What prompted an excellent police officer and a respectable family man to rape and kill innocent schoolgirls – in the material “MK”.
Pavel Shuvalov was born on the first day of spring 1968 in Leningrad into a working-class family. Since he was a late and sickly child, from childhood his mother and grandmother sought to fulfill every whim of the long-awaited son and grandson. At the same time, with manic persistence, they forced Pavel to wear tights – they believed that this would help protect the boy from another cold.
"All his conscious life he remembers that he I always wore tights. He went to school in tights, and they laughed at him at school, because it was believed that only girls wore tights.” (psychologist Valery Ivanov).
And when Shuvalov was 12 years old, a group of boys attacked him in a pioneer camp: after beating Pavel, the hooligans took off his tights and, tearing them, pulled them over the young man’s head. According to experts, this case served as a trigger for the emergence of serious mental problems and the formation of a certain behavioral model of a maniac. After this, Shuvalov, already distinguished by his unsociability, completely withdrew into himself, and his friends were replaced by a tape recorder presented by his parents in 1981.
"I could sit for hours behind the tape recorder, imagining that I’m sitting somewhere at a concert and controlling the music, sound, light…" (from the memoirs of the maniac Pavel Shuvalov).
After serving in the army, Shuvalov worked as a cook for a year and a half, and in 1990 he got a job at the Internal Affairs Directorate on the metro. By this time, he had already remarried (the first divorce, according to Pavel’s recollections, was very difficult for him) and became a father twice. Pavel was usually on duty at the Lomonosovskaya, Elizarovskaya, and Proletarskaya stations. and “Obukhovo”. By his own admission, he wore his uniform “with honor.” and he treated his service very responsibly – he quickly became the best in the regiment in terms of the number of detained offenders and often received encouragement from his superiors in the form of bonuses. As a man who was subjected to humiliation in childhood and youth, Shuvalov was pleased that he had power, but this was not enough for the man.
"I always wanted to become famous in my soul, to be famous…” (maniac Pavel Shuvalov).
In the fall of 1991, at one of the stations, Shuvalov’s attention was attracted by 12-year-old Irina, who tried to slip through the turnstile without a ticket. Having reprimanded the young violator, Pavel gave her an ultimatum: either the girl comes to the Nevsky Forest Park at the time appointed by the police for an educational conversation, or she will be fined and her parents and teachers will find out about what happened. The frightened Leningrad woman chose the first option and paid for it with her life. On September 16, having lured a schoolgirl to a deserted place, the maniac forced the girl to wear nylon tights, which he had previously cut in an intimate place. By the way, at each crime the killer alternated colors: he took white or black tights. Shuvalov had his own, partly delusional explanation for this
"This could mean [for me] life, maybe even my life – there is a white stripe, there is a black one band. When it’s dark everywhere, then in the dark the white is clearly visible.” (from the confessions of the maniac Pavel Shuvalov).
After raping a schoolgirl, Shuvalov drowned her in a river. Irina’s body was discovered by a forest park employee on November 21. Having examined the remains, experts found no signs of violent death, and the case was not pursued. The maniac decided to commit his next crime in the late autumn of 1992. This time he fell into the hands of a 13-year-old pupil of one of the orphanages, Olga. The girl was collecting cigarette butts near the Lomonosovskaya station, where Pavel noticed her. Olga faced the same terrible fate – having abused the girl, Shuvalov stabbed her several times, cut her throat and, unnoticed by anyone, went home to his wife and children. Olga was discovered on December 26: her body lay approximately 100-150 meters from the place where the body of the first schoolgirl was found a year earlier.
Remembering that Irina was also wearing cut tights (at that time it was attributed to decayed nylon), the investigators combined these cases into one case. However, detectives were unable to identify the killer then – neither asking the girls’ friends and acquaintances nor searching for witnesses to the crimes helped. The detectives finally had no doubts that they were dealing with a serial killer on March 1, 1993, when the corpse of Shuvalov’s new victim was discovered in the same area. Her It was never possible to identify him, but the tights with a cut placed on the body indicated the involvement of that same fetishist maniac in the murder.
This time it was decided to check all the men – employees of the forest park, students of a vocational school located not far from it, and recently released prisoners – murderers and rapists. Patrols were intensified in the park, and plainclothes operatives appeared on all buses passing near this area, paying attention to and guiding all suspicious persons. Another assumption of the law enforcement officers was that the criminal rapes and kills in another place, and only after that takes the bodies to the forest. However, a thorough check of the cars heading towards Nevsky Park also yielded nothing.
Meanwhile, Shuvalov went “hunting” again: in May 1993, not far from his place of residence on the corner of Bolshevikov Avenue and Narodnaya Street, Pavel met 13-year-old Tatyana. The girl later told her friend about this meeting, but did not go into details. And on May 12, Tatyana, having left home to go to a store near Lomonosovskaya, disappeared: her remains were discovered only in September in the same Nevsky Forest Park. The girl was identified by fillings in her teeth and a bone that had not healed properly after a broken arm. Having heard from Tanya's friend a story about the schoolgirl's acquaintance with a policeman, the detectives decided to strengthen surveillance in the area between the Lomonosovskaya metro station and the Lomonosovskaya metro station. and Bolshevikov Avenue. And again, bypass – this maneuver did not bring any positive results in the investigation.
And the number of victims of the maniac continued to increase: it was the turn of 15-year-old Svetlana, who, to her misfortune, tried to sneak in as a “hare.” through the turnstile at the metro station. Having caught the schoolgirl, Shuvalov threatened her with big troubles, but released her, making Svetlana promise to bring him five thousand rubles. He arranged a meeting in Nevsky Park, from where the schoolgirl never returned – she was destined to become the last victim of the serial killer Shuvalov. The maniac did not know that in search of the required amount of money, the girl turned to her friend, and she, after Sveta disappeared, told the investigators about the extortionist policeman. Finally it became clear who the maniac was by profession. Now calculating the serial number has become much easier. But first, in addition to Senior Sergeant Shuvalov, his colleague came under suspicion. However, it soon became clear that at the time of the death of the third victim, the suspect was on vacation and was leaving the city.
After that, the detectives turned all their attention to Shuvalov. Under the pretext of a preventive medical examination, Pavel's blood was taken and the sample was compared with what was found under Svetlana's nails – the groups matched. The investigators became more confident that it was the senior sergeant who was the elusive criminal, but there was not enough evidence to make an arrest. Then they decided to catch the maniac “with live bait”: they selected a young lady who fit the type of Shuvalov’s victims, and began to prepare her for the operation. After the girl completed psychotherapy and self-defense courses, she was made up at Lenfilm. and, having given instructions, were taken to the lobby of the metro station. About an hour the "sacrifice" I tried to attract the attention of Shuvalov, who was on duty that day, but he stubbornly did not notice the schoolgirl. I had to move on to plan B.
"They staged her free passage on the subway so that he [Shuvalov] would react" (one of the investigative team employees).
But this time Pavel did not pay any attention to the offender. Then the girl herself approached the policeman and, posing as a newcomer, asked how to get to the street she needed. This finally interested Shuvalov: he suggested meeting at the Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station. and walk with him around the Northern capital. The guards had only 24 hours to prepare for the important operation, during which time along the entire length of Nevsky Prospect and nearby streets, escape routes were prepared for the girl in case of unforeseen danger.
Finally, the X-hour came: after walking a new acquaintance along the avenue, Shuvalov suddenly brought her into the entrance of one of the houses for the surveillance group. The operatives quickly figured out what to do – they ran up to the entrance and started a loud brawl near it. The law enforcement officers achieved what they wanted: the girl was the first to react to the noise.
"She said that she didn’t even understand what happened at first. But then I realized that we were worried about her life. And so she herself persuaded him to come out of the front door.” (from the memoirs of one of the operatives participating in the operation).
The hope of catching the maniac red-handed appeared among the law enforcement officers when Pavel and the girl took a taxi towards the Nevsky Forest Park. However, murder that day was not in Shuvalov’s plans: having dropped off the young lady near the metro in front of the disappointed operatives and setting a day and place for a new meeting, he went home. As it turned out later, the reason for such unusual behavior for a serial killer lay in the clothing of the potential victim – the girl came to the meeting in jeans, which cooled Shuvalov’s ardor. Not wanting to risk the life of the young lady playing the role of bait anymore, the investigators decided to take a different route – to call Pavel as a witness in the case of the latest murder. And then a huge surprise awaited them – suddenly, for everyone present, Shuvalov confessed to the murder of Svetlana, and to three more massacres.
“I, Shuvalov Pavel Alekseevich, make a sincere confession that I have committed three more crimes. I regret this very much… My first crime was committed in 1991… ” (from the sincere confession of the maniac Pavel Shuvalov).
Pavel did not deny his passion for cut pantyhose and told investigators that he had previously ripped open his wife’s underwear in the same way. He also said that from an early age he was interested in anatomy, and he was especially interested in the structure of the female genitourinary system. He attempted to cut out the genitals of some of the victims, but never completed his plan. During interrogations, the maniac complained that in five years of working in the authorities he had never been to an autopsy in a morgue. Moreover, the bastard was preparing for a double murder. He admitted that he wanted to lure two girls, 11-12 years old, fair-haired, with a miniature build, into the forest park.
The perverted fantasy of a maniac dictated that he bring schoolgirls to a forest park, handcuff one of them to a tree. Then, in front of her eyes, rape and kill her friend. The same fate later awaited the second girl. Fortunately, he never succeeded in bringing this terrible plan to life.
The brilliant operation to develop and capture the maniac was recognized as the best in 1996 and was included in a special training manual for students of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. By the time the court hearings began, Shuvalov suddenly changed his mind and renounced his confession
"I want to say only one thing: that in passing a sentence, we are passing a sentence not on me, but on the whole structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Because a police officer can never be a maniac.” (maniac Pavel Shuvalov).
The regional court did not agree with the killer’s opinion and sentenced Shuvalov to capital punishment. Pavel’s life was granted by a moratorium on the death penalty; the execution was replaced with life imprisonment. In 1999, the “Nevsky maniac” was transferred to a colony for lifers, famous for its harsh conditions – the Mordovian “Edinichka”. There Shuvalov contracted tuberculosis and was treated for a long time, which significantly weakened his health. He shared his cell with the notorious repeat offender Yuri Perepelkin, who in February 1992 tried to escape from Kresty, killing a pre-trial detention center employee Alexander Yaremsky. The maniac spent 17 years in prison: for some time, with the help of his mother, he bombarded all possible authorities with complaints and petitions for clemency, but after the death of his parent, he resigned himself to his fate. When his father died, Pavel, just in case, entered into the rights of inheritance
"There are two children left. They will find it useful. But suddenly I will be able to free myself. Not everyone can sit here. Hope, as they say, is the last thing to die… But if I ever get free, then with such lungs I won’t be able to get a job anywhere. I definitely won’t go to the police, even if they call me…” (maniac Pavel Shuvalov).
Towards the end of his life, Shuvalov again began to deny his involvement in the abuse and murder of five innocent girls, claiming that he was serving a harsh sentence for illegal possession of bladed weapons. The dream of finding freedom did not come true – in 2020, a serial killer died of a heart attack.
"Shuvalov — classic, “textbook” maniac. From the point of view of forensic science, it is not surprising that the father of the family, a quiet and modest man, actually turned out to be a terrible killer. As a rule, maniacs live a double life. And the more beautiful its outer side, the more terrible and uglier its inner side. There is no hypocrisy in this, it’s just that one life compensates for another.” (psychiatrist Vyacheslav Ivanov).
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