Anatoly Moskvin is a twisted grave-robber responsible for possessing 26 female mummified bodies. In 2011, the corpses of young girls between ages 3 and 15 were found at his home in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Many sources say Moskvin is believed to have exhumed 150 corpses.

Warning: Graphic content. The following may be too disturbing for some viewers.

The Many Bodies Found At Moskvin’s “House of Horrors”

After Moskvin exhumed the corpses, he would begin the mummification process. According to Moskvin, over the course of ten years, he tried to make the mummified bodies look like dolls (which actually looked more like strange-looking mannequins). He took extreme measures to reach his goal, as he placed a music box inside their rib cages. The limbs were wrapped in strips of cloth, and the bodies were stuffed with rags and padding. The corpses were dressed in bright children’s clothing, with a wig covering their heads. If you take a look at our featured image, you can see the wax mask on the corpse. The wax mask is decorated with nail polish over her face.

Although Moskvin lived in an apartment with his parents, they did not know they were surrounded by 26 dead bodies. They assumed the corpses were just large-sized dolls. On November 2, 2011, Moskvin’s luck all ran out. Due to a large number of grave desecrations in cemeteries in and around Nizhny Novgorod, authorities were lead to his home.

Below is a list of what authorities discovered in Moskvin’s apartment.

In many places around Moskvin’s apartment, police found the mummified bodies of 26 young girls (between ages 3 and 15). The count was initially reported as 29 bodies. The mummies/dolls were found dressed in stockings and dresses. Moskvin made one corpse look like a large teddy bear.

A video Moskvin made at his apartment. In the footage, he was filming the corpses all around his home. The film also showed a corridor that was filled with wedding dresses and colorful clothing.

Instructions on how to make dolls from human remains.

Maps of all the cemeteries in the region.

A collection of photographs depicting open graves and exhumed corpses.

Check out a gallery with creepy images of the 26 corpses.

The Double Life

Some considered Moskvin a “genius.” In the daytime, he was a historian and a journalist who could speak 13 languages. However, at night between 2005 and 2007, he was a grave-robber who visited over 700 cemeteries. He would travel nearly 20 miles a day on foot to find young female corpses (including skeletons) for the purpose of fulfilling his twisted fantasy.

While out one night grave-robbing, Moskvin slept in a coffin that was going to be used for a funeral.

Moskvin’s Wacky Explanation For Digging Up The Dead 

Moskvin said he was not sexually attracted to the dolls he created from human remains. Instead, he claimed them as his own children. He would sing songs to the dead, watch cartoons with them, and would even dress them for holidays and birthday parties he organized.

So what was Mr. Moskvin’s actual motive for exhuming 29 corpses from many local cemeteries? He said he did it because he had sympathy for the children. Most of all, he believed that with either advances in science, or with magic, they could eventually be brought back to life. Moskvin also claimed that it was his obligation to rescue the children from their ugly rotting bodies.

Olga Chardymova: A Murder Victim Who Became Moskvin’s Victim 

At age 10, Olga Chardymova was horrifically murdered by a drug addict who hit her over the head with a metal bar. She was an innocent little girl who only wanted her independence. For the first time ever, she was allowed to walk alone to visit her grandmother. Although her grandmother was only a block away, sadly, Chardymova’s first time alone, was her last.

Olga Chardymova was one of the dozens of corpses Moskvin’s exhumed. Once Chardymova’s parents found out that their mummified daughter was at his apartment, their lives went form bad, to worse. Not only was their young daughter brutally murdered by an insane drug addict, but the body they thought was at the grave, was actually laying in Moskvin’s bedroom. .

The Man With A Morbid Obsession

Moskvin gained an interest in corpses at a very young age. Before his arrest in 2011, he wrote an article on necrology to explain why he has an interest in the dead. At the age of 12, Moskvin claimed he came across a funeral procession where he had an experience that introduced him to a new fascination. He claimed the participants of the funeral procession had forced him to kiss the face of a deceased 11-year-old girl. After that day, he became interested in the occult.

Moskvin Dodges 5 Years Behind Bars

A psychiatric evaluation determined that Moskvin suffered from a form of paranoid schizophrenia. He could have faced five years in prison for his horrible crimes. However, after being monitored at a psychiatric clinic for three years following his arrest, a judge ruled he was not mentally fit to stand trial. As of 2016, he is being kept for psychiatric treatment at a clinic.

Another Man With A Similar Morbid Obsession

Carl Tanzler (1877 – 1952) was a German bacteriologist who worked at the United States Marine Hospital in Key West, Florida. He was obsessed with his young and attractive tuberculosis patient Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos (1909–1931). Sadly, the disease took her life in 1931.

Despite Hoyos’s death, Tanzler’s obsession did not end there. He wanted her to be by his side for the rest of his life. Two years after she passed away, he exhumed her corpse. As soon as he brought Hoyos’s body home, he attempted to try various things to keep her from quickly decomposing. Tanzler also tried to make the body look more like Hoyos, and less like a rotting corpse. Oddly, he used Hoyos’s actual hair, which her mother gave him not long after her death.

Hoyos’s corpse stayed at Tanzler’s home for seven straight years. He dressed her, bought her gifts, and spoke to her everyday. At night, Tanzler would take her body to his bed. His luck finally ran out in 1940. Hoyo’s sister went to Tanzler’s house and found the corpse in his bed.

Read more shocking information on this crazy doctor with a morbid obsession. 

Just when you thought you’ve heard every crazy story in the book, along comes one most people could not wrap their brains around, let alone ever consider doing. Can you imagine having the mind of a Moskvin, or a Tanzler? It must be incredibly difficult for virtually anyone in the world to understand what really drove these two men to commit such insane acts.

Whether Anatoly Yurevych Moskvin truly believed his bizarre claims or not, he will certainly go down in history as a sick and twisted grave-robber who collected many young female corpses.