A convicted murderer and suspected serial killer who spent time in a mental hospital was released and moved into an apartment building in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Yegor Khabarov is suspected of killing six people but was found guilty of killing only two due to a lack of evidence in the other four, The Daily Beast reported. Residents of the apartment building only recently found out they were living next to the murderer, who insists he isn’t planning any new murders.
Khabarov was first detained in 2009, suspected of electrocuting his victims to death and gaining the moniker “The Electrician.” A retired police officer now working as a mall security guard was the first to realize that the killer had been released – because he was now a coworker.
“We were sitting there, I looked at him from all sides and I knew that this was him! But I thought he must have been imprisoned. And I say to him: ‘Are you The Electrician?’ This shocked him greatly, he was visibly frightened. He says ‘No, I have a different profession.’ I said: ‘But your nickname is The Electrician, isn’t it?’ I told him I recognized him. He confirmed it. He said that he had undergone the required treatment and that it was all in the past,” the security guard told a local news outlet.
“He talked about his inventions, how it is possible to make a shocker from a battery for a scooter. That you can electrocute a person during a thunderstorm and attribute everything to lightning,” the security guard added.
According to investigators, Khabarov had placed an ad selling computer components in 2009, and a 23-year-old student responded.
“They had agreed to meet in the garage of Khabarov, who by this time had already prepared everything for the murder,” a senior investigator for the case said at the time, according to The Beast.
The investigator said Khabarov grabbed his victim and tied him up before electrocuting him to death. Khabarov then dumped the student’s charred body on the side of a road, where it was later found.
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Khabarov was arrested and also charged with a murder that occurred a year earlier, in which investigators said he burned alive a 27-year-old computer tech.
At trial, witnesses testified that Khabarov was ecstatic as he watched his victims burn to death.
Khabarov claimed he was insane and was sent to a psychiatric facility for treatment.
Neighbors say they are concerned after learning who their neighbor actually is.
“Everyone is terribly afraid. We didn’t know this person had such a past. It’s scary to let the kids go out now, you never know what’s in his head,” one neighbor told the local outlet.
“I have often run into him in the elevator. His appearance is memorable, he looks frightening,” another said.
A friend of Khabarov, however, insisted that the killer is worried about coming into contact with the families of his victims.
“He was afraid to drive around the city, paying 3-4,000 rubles for a taxi ride. He said: ‘I’m afraid of the relatives of the people I killed,’” the friend said.
“Yegor says that he has changed his views and is not planning new murders. But I stopped communicating with him because he was a little weird. But at the same time he is a very cultured person! I’ve never heard him swear,” the friend added.