User:Paris1127/Igor Ziombak

Igor Ziombak (Игорь Зиомбак) was a Soviet serial rapist and senior lieutenant of the Soviet Militia known as Жаркий мужчина ("The Hot Man") or Оборотень ("The Werewolf"). Ziombak claimed to have raped 50 women from 1979 to 1985 in the city of Kaluga, though he was only convicted of 14. A murder could not be conclusively proven as his work.

Ziombak's victims were usually attractive young women. His first victim in 1979, Olga Korostyleva, was attacked 3 days before her wedding. She had reported the attack to the Militia, but a statement was not taken. She committed suicide shortly thereafter.

The murder attributed to Ziombak was that of coach Irina Kontsevaya, found in the Berezuysky Ravine beneath the Kamenny Viaduct in 1982. Kontsevaya was in excellent shape and athletic; she resisted fiercely, tearing the tendons in her arms while defending herself.

Ziombak was a decorated officer and family man with a spotless record, and he was never a suspect. During the investigation, numerous other suspects were detained on suspicion of being the rapist---one even went insane while in custody. After an attack in 1985, an obkom (Oblast Communist Party) identification card was found at the scene. The member was questioned and claimed he left it at the home of his friend Igor Ziombak. It was the investigator Larisa Leontievna Gritsenko who first suspected Ziombak's responsibility for the rape, bluntly asking him "Igor, is this your work?" One victim testified to feeling an officer's belt on her attacker; another recalled seeing the silhouette of a policeman.

Ziombak confessed to 50 rapes but only 14 could be proven. Biological evidence left on the body of Irina Kontsevaya was sent to East Germany for analysis, but its collapse caused problems with the analysis, and the murder charge was not included. Ziombak, who had earned 82 commendations for his service, including a Medal "For Courage", was sentenced to 8 years in prison. His fate is unknown.