Venomous creature: "the poisoner from Balashikha" was arrested until July
The court extended until the end of July the arrest of the so-called "poisoner from Balashikha" Artyom Missyura. According to investigators, he put poison in the food and drinks of his relatives and friends. As a result, two people were killed, including his grandmother, and seven others were injured. Among the motives are greed for profit and envy, the investigation believes. The defendant bought dangerous chemicals, including arsenic, benzene and ethylene glycol, on the Internet. On April 1, the defendant's ex-fiancee and stepfather spoke at a hearing in the Moscow City Court. What they said about family relationships and the nature of the suspect is in the Izvestia article.
New circumstances of the poisoner's case
On April 1, the Moscow Regional Court heard several witnesses in the case of Artyom Missyura, the "poisoner from Balashikha." He is accused of murdering his grandmother and a childhood friend, as well as an attempt on the lives of seven other people.
The stepfather of the accused spoke in court for the first time. He said that his stepson could not appear at home for six months, ignored invitations to family holidays and did not introduce his girlfriend to his family.
— I had a very negative attitude towards the fact that they (Artem Missyura and his fiancee. — Ed.) they want to become a family. He didn't even introduce us, didn't bring us to visit. A man has been dating a girl for so long, but we don't know her," the man said at the trial.
The defendant's ex-girlfriend Kristina Dudkina said at the hearing that Missyura was going to propose to her and nevertheless introduced her to his mother and grandmother. The girl has a good relationship with them. According to her, Artyom was also concerned about the fate of his younger sister, allegedly because his mother was in poor health. He also talked to his fiancee about the fact that his stepfather might not be able to withstand "a series of losses."
At the previous meeting on February 4, Missyura admitted that he had originally planned to poison only his stepfather. However, later he decided to use crimes to settle his financial problems and close his debts. In particular, according to the case file, he tried several times to poison his grandmother in order to take her gold jewelry.
At a hearing on April 1, the court extended Artyom Missyura's detention until July 24, 2026.
Who was the victim of the poisoner
Artyom Misyura is charged under the articles "Murder of two persons committed in a generally dangerous manner for mercenary motives", "Attempted murder" and "Fraud committed on a large scale". He pleaded guilty at the first hearing, on August 25, 2025.
According to the case file, Missyura committed his first poisoning in early 2024. During the New Year holidays, he treated his girlfriend to a cocktail that he made himself. According to the victim, after tasting the drink, she felt very dizzy and lost consciousness. Kristina Dudkina woke up in the hospital a week later. The investigation believes that during this time, Missyura, using the girl's phone, issued two loans on her behalf for more than 500 thousand rubles and transferred them to his account.
As Dudkina said at previous meetings, she and Missura met in 2022 — at that time, he allegedly held the position of CEO of a leasing company. The girl noted that he was a "wonderful young man." Periodically, the girl found bags of some kind of powders in Missyura's things. The young man assured her that it was fertilizers for flowers or sports nutrition. But, as the investigation found out, these were highly toxic substances, including arsenic and benzene. The accused has been buying them online since the fall of 2023.
According to investigators, Missura's first victim in February 2024 was his friend: the defendant treated him to poisoned berry juice. The motive for the crime could be envy of a man's successful life.
In April 2024, the poisoner's grandmother was admitted to the hospital. At the trial, Artyom Missyura admitted that he wanted to bring an elderly relative to the hospital in order to appropriate her valuables while she was in the hospital. Missyura's stepfather said that before her death, the woman was told about the disappearance of jewelry and cried for a long time, refusing to believe that her grandson had robbed her. She died soon after.
A month later, Missyura tried to get rid of his fiancee's brother, from whom he borrowed, it follows from the case file. He treated the potential victim and his friend to a poisoned roll with crab sticks. The injured were urgently hospitalized and rescued.
Missyura's relatives reported several cases of poisoning to the police. Hidden cameras were installed in the apartments of the victims, which recorded how the accused "put substances in food, and also brought food and drinks with the addition of substances dangerous to health."
Artyom Missyura was detained in July 2024. During the interrogation, he confessed that he had tried to poison his parents in order to get their apartment. The case file noted that he owed about 3 million rubles to credit organizations and individuals.
A rare crime
Serial poisoning is extremely rare in practice, such cases are isolated, Marina Silvestri, CEO of the Kalinov and Partners law firm, told Izvestia.
"From the point of view of criminology and judicial practice, the method of committing a crime chosen by the accused, putting poison in food and drinks, is among the least common," Albert Khaleyan, partner of the Vector Prime Moscow Bar Association, confirmed to Izvestia.
Experts agreed that the defendant could be given a life sentence based on the totality of the imputed crimes.
"He can count on a reduced sentence for admitting guilt and cooperating with the investigation, but given the severity and totality of the crimes, he should not be given less than 20 years," lawyer Evgeny Stegantsev believes.
Marina Silvestri also stressed that victims have the right to appeal the verdict if the punishment seems too lenient to them.
By the next sessions, the prosecution must determine the time to which it will demand to sentence Artyom Missyura.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
