Russian Cannibal Couple: Dmitry Baksheev and Natalia Baksheeva

April 02, 2022

Warning: reader discretion is advised. This post contains disturbing details.

On the 11^th of September, 2017, Road workers laying down asphalt in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia on Repina street discovered a discarded Samsung cell phone and decided to browse the photo gallery.

They gathered around the device in shock as they scrolled through image after image of a man in his mid-thirties posing with various severed limbs and the head of what appeared to be a deceased female.

The workers immediately handed the cell phone over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs who opened an investigation and swiftly detained a husband and wife whom they traced via the SIM card from the cell phone.

The couple were identified as 35 year-old Dmitry Baksheev and his wife, 42 year-old Natalia Baksheeva, who lived in a hostel at the nearby Krasnodar aviation high military school.

When originally questioned, Dmitry Baksheev claimed that he was in no way responsible for the murder of the dead woman that he had posed with in the selfies. He attempted to convince local officers that he had stumbled upon the remains in a dumpster, while walking in the Aviagorodka area and took pictures with the corpse.

The police did not believe him, however, and they obtained a warrant to search his home on the military base in Krasnodar where he lived with his wife. Natalia had once worked as a nurse on the base and, despite no longer being employed there, the couple continued to live on the premises. Various parts of a decapitated female, along with several of the victim’s possessions, were found in bags and a bucket on site. The remains were later identified as a 35 year-old woman who was new to the area; however, her name has not yet been released.

When translated, this report in Russian describes an incident occurring on the 8^th of September:

“According to the investigation, on September 8, 2017, a 35-year-old local resident and his wife were in an abandoned area near the Gastello Street, along with a woman they met on the same day. In the process of drinking alcohol between them a conflict occurred, during which the man committed a murder by a new acquaintance. Subsequently, he dismembered the body of the deceased, partially left the fragments in place, hidden, and partially taken away. After the committed crime, a man took a picture of himself with some fragments of the body of a mobile phone that had perished on the camera. September 11, 2017 workers who were doing repairs on one of the streets of the city, found a phone with the specified content, which was reported to the law enforcement agencies.”

In a short video tour of the couple’s chaotic living space, a pile of printed photographs going back as far as December 1999 can be seen stacked on a chair. The date on the picture indicates just how far back the couples cannibalistic practices go.

In one of the images a severed head is shown presented on a plate and surrounded by oranges in what was apparently a festive Christmas dinner for the self-proclaimed “cannibal family.” Behind the pixilated portion of photograph the eyes sockets of the head have been stuffed with olives and half a lemon is being placed on the nose.

A picture of Dmitry with what appears to be a human hand in his mouth has been published in a few articles online. Apparently this image belonged to a sequence where he documents himself cutting off one of the fingers and eating it.

Also discovered at the couple's Krasnodar residence were jars of meat in saline stored in the refrigerator; which according to some translated Russian reports were most likely human meat that the couple were storing to eat over the winter. More body parts were recovered in a freezer and are described as being wrapped in plastic for preservation.

19 individual pieces of skin were also found, which appeared to have been flayed from the bodies of victims, as well as a “how to” video on cannibalism, which was titled “video lessons for cannibals” and gave instructions on how to prepare and cook human flesh.

Numerous cell phones belonging to previous victims were recovered from the residence.

The Baksheevs admitted to kidnapping, killing and eating 30 people over a span of two decades.

They would apparently lure victims to their hostel and drug them with a mixture of Corvalol and Ether, causing them to pass out. According to this report, they sought out their victims via online dating websites.

As if that wasn’t enough, Russian authorities believe that the couple was feeding the human remains to cadets on the air base in the form of stews and pies. Natalia allegedly sold meat pies to a café in local area and investigators are concerned that the contents of those pies was human in origin. If it’s true that she supplied local establishments with her homemade pies, it’s definitely possible that they contained the flesh of the victims as it seems as though they had a large storage of pickled and frozen flesh.

Interviews with locals who were acquainted with the cannibal couple describe Natalia Baksheeva as an intimidating and unstable character. A local store owner described the first encounter with the 42 year-old as unnerving and revealed she would shriek and cry in the isles. The shop keeper also described what the couple would purchase, stating that vodka was a frequently bought item.

Those who lived in the same housing community as the pair claim that they had once attempted to complain of a strong smell (which they identified as mostly likely the distinctive smell of Corvalol) but were met with an outlandish outburst of shrieking and crying from the Baksheevas.

Natalia was evaluated and determined to be mentally fit.

The two have been arrested for the initial murder documented on the cell phone.