The 'Werewolf' who 'murdered 200': Russian 'maniac' rapist killer used axes, ... trends now
In January 1998, 15-year-old Svetlana was walking through the Siberian city of Angarsk when a police officer pulled up along-side her and offered her a lift.
She would have known not to get into cars with strange men, but this was a police officer - and it was the middle of winter in Russia's remote Irkutsk Oblast. She would have been freezing cold, and a lift would have been more than welcome.
The schoolgirl accepted the offer, but instead of taking her home, the police officer drove her into a remote wooded area. There, he forced her to strip naked, raped her, smashed her head against a tree, and left her for dead on the forest floor.
Svetlana Misyavichus was found a day later, and despite having no clothes on in sub-zero temperatures, she miraculously survived the ordeal.
She awoke in hospital, dazed and confused, but alive.
What she or investigators did not know at the time, however, was that the man who attacked her was in fact one of the most rampant and deadly serial killers the world has ever unveiled: Mikhail Viktorovich Popkov, aka 'The Werewolf'.
Svetlana was just one of dozens of women who Popkov attacked in a similar way. She just happened to be one of the very few who lived to tell the tale.
What's more, it wouldn't be for another 14 years until he would finally be caught.
Mikhail Viktorovich Popkov, aka 'The Werewolf', is one of the world's most prolific serial killers. He has confessed the 86 murders, but investigators fear the figure could be even higher
In a spree spanning three decades, Popkov stalked the streets of Angarsk as well as other locations in the Irkutsk region, hunting for potential victims. To date, he has been found guilty of killing 78 women and girls - although he has confessed to killing at least 86 in total
To all the world, Popkov appeared to be an ordinary man.
With a wife and young daughter at home, those who knew the Russian once described him as a 'perfect husband and father.'
He was an avid skier and earned an honest living as a police officer in Russia's remote Siberian Irkutsk region (some 2,500 miles east of Moscow).
It was a surprise to many then that he left his role in the police soon after being promoted to the rank of officer, before going on to ply his trade as a security guard for an oil company and another private firm.
Among his police colleagues, he was known as 'Misha the Smile' for his cheerfulness, and his colleagues praised his work ethic.
One former colleague said his 'professional level was above average, he was head and shoulders above his colleagues'.
He lived very near the police station too, and would often be seen with his wife and daughter, further cultivating his image of a loving father and husband.
However, his family-man image could not be any further from the truth.
In reality, in a spree spanning three decades, Popkov stalked the streets of Angarsk as well as other locations in the Irkutsk region, hunting for potential victims.
To date, he has been found guilty of killing 78 women and girls - although he has confessed to killing at least 86 in total.
Now, as he is reportedly ready to confess to killing three more, some investigators fear the true figure could be far higher, maybe even as many as 200.
His depraved crimes went even further than murder, however.
With a wife and young daughter at home, those who knew the Russian once described him as a 'perfect husband and father.' Pictured: Mikhail Popkov and his wife Elena
Popkov also had a daughter, Ekaterina (pictured). Today, she's in her mid-30s
On a number of occasions, the now 60-year-old would force his victims to strip naked before he violently killed them - as was the case with Svetlana.
The 'maniac' rapist killer used axes, screwdrivers, spades, baseball bats and knifes to torture and butcher the women he lured into his trap.
Svetlana was seemingly lucky to have escaped his toolbox.
At least one woman is known to have been beheaded by Popkov. In another case, he gouged out a woman's heart. He would then rape their blood-soaked bodies.
This suggested one of Popkov's motives was sexual sadism - in other words, gaining pleasure from inflicting pain and suffering. This was later substantiated when Popkov claimed that he stopped killing after he 'became impotent'.
But Popkov's motives were many. He clearly targeted women, and his mother is believed to have been an alcoholic and was allegedly abusive towards him.
Some have suggested he was a misogynist who went after women 'who resembled his mother' in order to exact a warped revenge for his troubled childhood.
He is also known to have had a hatred of sex workers or women who he viewed as impure, later saying he 'wanted to cleanse the streets of prostitutes,' and that 'committing the murders, I was guided by my inner convictions.'
A psychiatric evaluation diagnosed Popkov with homicidal mania, 'a condition when a person has an irrational desire to kill someone', reported TASS.
But despite all this, the mass murderer would later be declared sane.
The nature of Popkov's killings earned the serial murderer a chilling reputation.
Russians were left horrified as his crimes came to light, and he became known by many names: The Werewolf, The Angarsk Maniac or The Shadow of Chikatilo.
In January 1998, 15-year-old schoolgirl Svetlana M. (pictured) was walking through the Siberian city of Angarsk when Popkov offered her a lift home. He took her into the woods and attacked her, leaving her for dead. Miraculously she survived and lived to tell her tale
One of Popkov's victims is seen lying in the snow in this footage from 1998
The skeletal remains of one of Popkov's many victims is seen laid out on a sheet
Popkov's known killings spanned from 1992 to 2010, although it is possible he continued until 2012, meaning he likely killed for 20 years without being caught.
During that time, the spectre of an unknown killer struck fear into locals, not knowing who would be the next to fall victim to the local menace.
At first, however, no one was surprised about the bodies.
Angarsk also became rife with criminal activity in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the year before Popkov's known killings started.
Due to the violence seen in the region at the time, many murders or armed robberies have never been investigated to this day.
Speaking to Russian independent news outlet Meduza, Artem Dubynin - a senior detective officer from the Irkutsk Region, said in 2017: 'During the day, citizens walked in groups, and tried not to look into other areas too much.'
Colonel Sergei Derzhavin, senior commissioner of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, told the outlet: 'In the evenings, residents of Angarsk tried to move around the city by taxi, for fear of becoming victims of bandits or drug addicts.'
The police were bombarded with reports of corpses, so when - in the mid-1990s - the disfigured corpses of women began to show up in the forest belt around the city, police thought the victims had fallen foul of criminal groups.
It was this backdrop that gave Popkov a cover. But he also used another disguise.
Popkov would mostly prey on women who were slightly intoxicated, lying in wait outside bars or parties, waiting for them to leave.
In the case of some of the victims, he used his police uniform and vehicle to gain their trust, luring them inside by saying he would give them a lift home.
But they would never make it home again.
Instead, he would drive them to remote locations around Angarsk and Irkutsk, where he would force them to strip naked, before killing them with weapons and tools.
Women's bodies were found raped and severely mutilated, leading to his nicknames.
'Typically, his victims were slightly intoxicated when he lured them to their deaths,' said one report in the Siberian Times after he was arrested in 2012.
'He snared them after they had been to bars or parties [and] is suspected of seeking revenge on his mother who was an alcoholic and allegedly abused him' as a child
The Siberian Times went on to say: 'He murdered women with a slipknot, knife, awl, screwdriver or an axe which he used up to 17 times on some victims.
'He used his police uniform and car to gain the trust of at least some of his victims.'
Meduza reported in 2017 that Popkov would give women a choice.
'He offered to take [women] home, and on the way asked if she wanted to continue the evening somewhere else,' the outlet said. 'If the passenger refused the immodest offer, he took her home; if she agreed, he killed her with extreme cruelty, using a knife, an axe, a screwdriver - whatever came to hand.'
His first murder happened 'spontaneously', Popkov would later tell investigators. 'I just felt I wanted to kill a woman I was giving a lift to in my car.'
Some of Popkov victims are pictured on Russian television. All but one of the people he has confessed to killing were women
Victims Tatyana Martynova (right) and Yulia Kuprikova (middle) are pictured a few months before they were killed by the serial killer
Only three people are known to have escaped The Werewolf's clutches, including Svetlana, whose testimony allowed police to narrow down their search for the killer.
But despite the sheer number of killings, police were still left dumbfounded for years, and were severely criticised for failing to catch the killer and for ignoring vital evidence - which all pointed to the killings being the work of the same person.
For a long time, police incorrectly suspected a metal worker, a driver, a heating station engineer, a railway worker, and even a cemetery worker.
Even Svetlana's evidence was not properly investigated,
