| Valery Kopytov | |
| Birth Name: | Valery Kopytov |
| Alias: | Barnaul Chikatilo |
| Birth Place: | Barnaul, RSFSR, Soviet Union |
| Conviction: | Murder x19 Robbery |
| Sentence: | 25 years imprisonment |
| Victims: | 19 |
| Beginyear: | 2000 |
| Endyear: | 2004 |
| Country: | Russia |
| States: | Altai |
| Apprehended: | 2005 |
Valery Kopytov (Russian: Валерий Копытов; born 1971), nicknamed the Barnaul Chikatilo (Russian: Барнаульский Чикатило), is a Russian serial killer who murdered 19 homeless people in Altai Krai between 2000 and 2004.[1]
In 1998, 27-year-old Kopytov was released from prison after serving a sentence for mercenary crimes. After his release, he moved in with his father in Barnaul and failed to find friends or employment. Dissatisfied with his life, he left home and built a dugout beneath the New Bridge beside the Ob River.[2]
In 2004 or 2005, investigators discovered 13 corpses buried in the vicinity of the New Bridge. Later, they were led to Valery Kopytov, after a friend reported him to the police after he told him of his crimes.[1] Kopytov was arrested and led investigators to an additional six bodies buried around the cities of Novoaltaysk, Zarinsk, and Biysk. His victims were stabbed or beaten to death with heavy objects.[3]
Kopytov told investigators that most of the victims were fellow homeless people that he got into quarrels with, while some others he killed to steal their belongings. Due to his cooperation with law enforcement, he avoided a life sentence, instead receiving 25 years in prison—ten to be spent in prison and 15 in a special regime colony.[1] An accomplice in one of the murders, Yuri Malygin, was sentenced to 11 years in maximum-security prison.[4] If Kopytov is still incarcerated, he will be released in 2030, when he will be 59 years old.