Two Jehovah’s Witnesses have been arrested in Russia as suspected serial killers who claim they went on a nine-month killing spree to “cleanse the world of sinners,” the Daily Mail newspaper reported on Thursday.
Vladimir Gurianov, 44, and Elvira Egorycheva, 46, are accused of killing 13 people while claming to be on a mission from God.
Egorycheva had a revolver, two axes, a rope and an electric-shock device when the pair was seen in a suburban supermarket and arrested after their pictures had been circulated throughout the region. Gurianov had a gun and a knife in his jacket, the newspaper reported.
The two met at a Jehovah’s Witness meeting 16 years ago and reunited late last year before embarking on their alleged murderous rampage. "God wants us to go to Nizhniy Novgorod and cleanse the world of sinners," Egorycheva said, according to the newspaper.
Among the victims were two fortune tellers, a woman selling Pekingese puppies they pair found in a newspaper advertisement.
"They were very odd. He called her "mother" or "Princess Elena". She called him "my son, Prince Mikhail,” a neighbor said, according to the Daily Mail. "Gurianov used to say they had a certain mission. No-one took them very seriously but then the killings began."
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