Russian grave-robber hailed a genius 'kept mummified female corpses dressed as dolls'



Anatoly Moskvin's sick fetish discovered when his parents came to visit him

This is the man who has been dubbed the Russian grave-robber after 29 female bodies that he dressed up as dolls were found at his apartment.

Russia’s Interior Ministry says police have arrested a man who kept the bodies, who was named by Russian media as Anatoly Moskvin.

The historian and journalist is said to speak 13 languages and has been described as a 'genius'.



Dressed as a doll: A body pictured at an apartment dressed up like a doll after being taken from a grave

Grave-robber: Anatoly Moskvin is pictured as a suspect accused of vandalising graves in the region of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Ministry spokesman Valery Gribakin said today that the suspect from the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod dug up the bodies at several cemeteries in the region.



The man, whose identity was withheld by police but exposed by local media, dressed them in clothes dug up from the graves.

Gribakin said that the suspect is a historian who has authored several books.

He said the arrest followed a police probe into the desecration of graves in the region, which was initially blamed on extremist groups.



Nizhny Novgorod is located about 250 miles (400 kilometres) east of Moscow.

Russian media reports quoted police as saying that the man only had selected the remains of young women for his grisly collection.

Suspect: Police said that the suspect (pictured) is a historian who has authored several books

Anatoly Moskvin is said to have dug up the corpses from hundreds of cemeteries and took them to his small, three-bedroom flat in Nizhny Novgorod, according to local media.

He was said to have carried the 'dried up' remains of at least 29 women - all aged between 15 and 26 - in plastic bags.

At his apartment, the 45-year-old apparently dressed the bodies and skeletons in stockings and dresses, and even made one look like a teddy bear. All had died years earlier.

His ghastly obsession was uncovered when Moskvin's parents visited him in the town around 200 miles east of Moscow after returning from a holiday.

Sick mind: Moskvina committed his heinous crime in the attractive Nizhny Novgorod in western Russia

Moskvina, a historian and journalist described by neighbours as a 'genius', sometimes slept in a coffin or on graveyard benches, said BNO News.

Moskvina was said to have visited more than 750 cemeteries in western Russia to indulge his fantasies, although it was not clear when he had begun exhuming graves.



He is said to speak 13 languages and have a vast knowledge of history - on which he used to lecture at a local museum.