The Daily Star's FREE newsletter is spectacular! Sign up today for the best stories straight to your inbox Sign up today! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

(Image: RUSSIAN INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE)

Tatiana Samsonova, nicknamed the "Granny Ripper", is believed to have beheaded and dismembered her targets.

The 67-year-old former hotel worker is claimed to have entered details of her secret life in diaries she kept in different languages.

She was detained this week after CCTV footage captured her carrying body parts of an elderly woman in a black plastic bag.

The alleged murders took place in St Petersburg, Russia.

Samsonova was arrested after the headless body of Valentina Ulanova, 79, for whom she was a carer, was found near a pond.

Police are now comparing her diary entries with unsolved murder cases.

A police source said: "A diary was found where the woman described murders which took place more than ten years ago. Now police are going through all old unsolved cases for the last 20 years."

A dismembered male body was found on the same street 12 years ago and evidence found in her flat, including the victim's business card, according to police sources.

A police spokesman said: "The woman is incriminated in the murder of her tenant, a 44 year old native of Norilsk, who was renting a room in her apartment on September 6 2003 during a sudden argument.

"After that she dismembered his body and took it outside."

Samsonova has allegedly admitted one more murder to the police – while another victim is feared to be her husband, who she reported missing in 2005.

Samsonova is now being questioned by police.

She reportedly admits committing the crimes but without going into detail.