Nizhny Tagil mass murder (2002–2007)

A mass grave with the remains of up to thirty women and girls (aged 13 to 25) was found near the Russian town Nizhny Tagil in early 2007. The first press mentioning appeared in the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on February 2nd, 2007. Police arrested a gang of eight men (aged 25 to 46). They were accused of having abducted numerous local girls beginning in 2002, raped and beaten them, and forced them to work as prostitutes in a brothel disguised as a massage parlor. Those who refused were killed. Some of the girls were forced to write reassuring letters to their parents. It was alleged that one of the murdered girls was the 14-year-old daughter of one of the gang leaders, Eduard "Edik" Chudinov.

The police were accused of not having properly investigated the missing person reports. From 2005-2006, there were 462 unsolved missing person cases in this town of about 400,000 inhabitants.

Prosecutors connected 14 murders with the gang, but sources close to the investigation suspected up to 50 victims. In April 2008, Chudinov was sentenced to life in prison (the case against him for the murder of his daughter was dropped) and the other seven members of the gang received prison sentences between 10 and 24 years.