The Disturbing Case That Still Haunts Siberia

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By CoAg
https://www.youtube.com/@co.agmusic1823

Intro Theme by Swift Junai:
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Writers and researchers: Jay Adams
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Jordan Gottschick https://www.youtube.com/@DerpsWithWolves/playlists

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is kazi Neet. It's just a tiny collection of
houses and a single railroad in the middle of the
Siberian Taiga. On the night of August fourteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
a regularly scheduled train came through this cold, lonely stretch
of woods until approaching something up ahead on the tracks.
At first, the train conductors couldn't tell what they were

(00:21):
looking at, but when they could, the discovery would be
one of the most gruesome and horrifying mysteries in modern
Russian history. As always, although the events in this video
are fleeting and non descriptive, they're still highly disturbing, so
viewer discretion is strongly advised. The village of Kazinet in

(00:49):
Russia is the kind of place that doesn't show up
on most maps. It's tuck deep within the Siberian Tiga,
surrounded by an endless sprawl of pine and birch trees,
and it's actually less of a village and more of
a scattering of houses, a long, lonely stretch of railroad tracks,
and with the population of about twenty four people. There
are no shops, signs or proper roads, just train tracks,
a few homes, housing railway workers and their families, and

(01:11):
a few dirt roads that seemed to lead into the
forest to nowhere. And given its location in August, the
nights here deceptively cold. Summer days can turn to sudden frost,
and the sun vanishes quickly. By midnight. The landscape is
swallowed by the kind of darkness that makes you feel
like you're being watched. It was in this silence, at
precisely one forty in the morning on August fourteenth, nineteen
o nine, that freight train number two thousand and eight

(01:33):
rumbled its way toward the Casinete station. This train was massive,
seventy cars long, hauled by a heavy locomotive and helmed
by two experienced railroaders, brothers Vedima and Igor Supernanco. They'd
passed through Casinette countless times before, but this time was different.
As the train approached the station, the brothers noted something
on the tracks ahead. Whatever it was, it was difficult

(01:54):
to make out and the sweep with the headlights initially,
but Vadim sounded the horn at the same time he
slammed on the emergency brakes. Unfortunately, a fully loaded freight
train doesn't exactly stop in a dime, so despite the
brother's best efforts, they couldn't stop before they heard and
felt the inevitable crunch beneath the steel wheels of the train.
When it finally came to a stop, the brothers climbed
down with their lanterns and started walking along the rails.

(02:16):
They were used to wildlife near the tracks, and even
debris or the odd fallen branch, but this obstruction seemed
completely out of the ordinary, and what they would eventually
find would scar them for life. There spread across the
tracks were the torn remnants of seven people. Although they
might not have known quite how many people there were
at the time, what was clear was that there was
no movement or signs of life at all, and it

(02:37):
didn't take much more than a momentary glance to determine
that the Supernanko brothers stood over the wreckage of what
had once been a group of boys and realized they'd
just become the unwilling participants of something horrific, something that
couldn't possibly explained by a simple accident. As soon as
the dispatcher was alerted, the police from the nearby, much
larger Abucan station were sent to the scene. Floodlights arrived. Afterward,

(02:59):
villagers were woken up to assist, and the grim task
of retrieving the many parts began. Soon their names came in,
one by one, each one being realized to have come
from the small community of mester Chansk. Dmitri, Nikolai, Vedem, Oleg,
Vyacheslav Roman and Victor, all of them just fifteen year
old friends. They were a tight n ait group of
boys who played soccer together, attended school together, helped their parents,

(03:22):
and they'd apparently gone on a simple weekend trip to
collect cedar cones in the forest. Frustratingly, though, according to investigators,
this was nothing more than a tragic accident. The boys
had ventured into the Tiger on August twelfth, and by
the following night intended to return home on the ten
thirty nine pm train. Something, however, had obviously gone terribly wrong.
Maybe the lost truck of time, or maybe they got

(03:42):
turned around the woods. Whatever the reason, they apparently missed
their training. According to the initial report, they allegedly lay
down to rest on the railway tracks. Even more strange
that their backpacks were found later lined up about eight
hundred and twenty feet or two hundred and fifty meters away.
That detail would be the thing that made headlines. Vin
Beggs placed in a road near the tracks as if
part of some kind of ritual or packed and the

(04:05):
implication was haunting, and reporters didn't hesitate to spin it
as a possible agreement between the boys to end things.
The idea was put forth that maybe it was deliberate
to the parents. However, this made no sense. These weren't reckless,
troubled kids that experienced in the willerness. They weren't known
to drink, and the toxicology report proved it, as no
alcohol was found in any of their systems. They were

(04:25):
all well fed, healthy, sharp, and cared for. The idea
that they decided to end things or nap on top
of the rolls was beyond absurd, like, for example, if
that was somehow the case, how had none of them
moved when the train approached. How did they not wake up?
Even the Supernanko brothers testified that they weren't walking the tracks,
they were lying on them, motionless, as if placed there. Still,

(04:46):
officials pushed the narrative that this was just a tragic,
horrific accident. The boys were said to have been exhausted
and had made a terrible mistake as a result, and
the case was closed. But the parents obviously wouldn't let
it go. Something more sinister was at play. They were
sure of it. Unfortunately, they had no proof, no support,
and no leverage, but they did have grief, which was
further sharpened by what they viewed as an indescribable injustice.

(05:08):
In the meantime, the people of Mesdurchensk buried their sons
in stunned silence, but this didn't last long. Soon whispers
became suspicions, and suspicions grew into fury. None of the
families could accept the story they were being fed, and
for two long years afterward, they pleaded with the local
officials to reopen the case, only to have doors repeatedly
slammed in their faces. Phone calls were also ignored, and

(05:29):
paperwork was somehow lost. It was clear that authorities had
no interest in revisiting the tragedy, especially when it meant
admitting the original investigation not just been flawed, but possibly corrupt.
In the face of this, the families went over their
heads in the biggest way they possibly could. In the
fall of nineteen ninety one, they penned a desperate letter
directly to Russian President Boris Yeltsen, appealing him to order

(05:50):
the investigation to be re examined. At the time, though
the Soviet Union was crumbling and the country was spiraling
into chaos, the chances were slim that anyone would even
read the letter, let alone act on it. But by
some twist of fate, the letter found its way into
the right hands, and against all odds, it worked. On
October eighth, nineteen ninety one, the Prosecutor General's office officially

(06:11):
reopened the investigation into the Kazinet deaths. Two new names
were then assigned to the case, Vladimir Guzenkov, an investigator
for especially important cases, and criminal prosecutor Yuri stol Aureov.
And thankfully these weren't small time paper pushers. They were
serious men and pulled from Moscow to handle difficult cases,
and they got to work immediately. They arrived in Kazuinet

(06:31):
some time afterward to find that the scene was long erased.
By time that had passed since the initial discovery, rain
Snow and rod had stripped away nearly every trace of evidence.
They also found that what little had existed back in
nineteen eighty nine, had been mishandled by police or outright ignored.
Vladimir then began by knocking on every door, interviewing every local,
and pressing for details again and again. What he found,

(06:53):
strangely enough, was a wall of silence. The villagers, nearly
all of them, relayed to one another, claimed to know nothing.
They all said they'd been a sleep at the time
the train rolled over the seven. As he continued to press, though,
Vladimir kept hearing the name of Vassili, who was a
local man serving time for killing his own brother, Slava.
The murder seemed like just another drunken brawl, but in
light of the new investigation now looked different, especially when

(07:15):
Vladimir learned that Slava may have let it slip while
and talks kated about what really happened to the seven
at Kasinet. Upon learning this, he went to the prison
and for multiple visits he chipped away at Vassily. At first,
the story was muddled, and it shifted, and then a
confession emerged. It was partial and reluctant, but it was
enough to really begin to push. Vassily then let slip
that he and one of his other brother's year had

(07:36):
been involved, and just like that, everything the authorities had
insisted wasn't true came crashing down the deeper Vladimir dug
though the clearer became the Vasili story just wasn't lining up.
It still seemed he was being deceptive. Vladimir then requested
that the families allow him to exhume the bodies. It
was a dark undertaking, but when the caskets were opened
and forensics experts took a second look, what they found

(07:57):
changed the narrative forever. The seven, as had been suspected,
had not been killed by the train. Instead, it was
determined that they'd been attacked savagely and methodically, and the
injuries were chilling in their consistency. Fractures to skulls, jaws
shattered on both sides, and traumated the chest and abdomen.
Each of the seven bore the unmistakable signs of blunt objects.

(08:17):
Experts also ran test using biomannequins trying to replicate the wounds,
and found a match only when they used the exact
tools found in railway depots. It was clear this was
no accident, and now there was physical evidence to actually
prove it, or at least investiators willing to not look
the other way. The Supernanco brothers were then backed that
up with their testimony. According to the two train drivers,

(08:38):
when they realized what was on the tracks and saw
them in the train's headlights moments before, they weren't scattered chaotically.
They were lined up and arranged placed on the rails
exactly where the train would ensure an unrecognizable end. This
also aligned with the state of the backpacks, the complete
lack of alcohol or drugs, and the victim systems and
the absence of panic injuries. Of Vladimir's new working theory
was that they were ambushed, attacked, and then later across

(09:00):
the tracks. With that, the case bole was now a
murder investigation, and one with more questions than the answers,
because while Vasili had started talking, what he said still
didn't make sense. His claim that he and a brother
had done this to all sevens seemed unlikely. The boys
were athletic and healthy. The brothers, meanwhile, were thin and sickly.
How could these two men overpower seven healthy individuals without

(09:20):
one of them getting away? This is when the story
changed again. Vasily claimed that there had been a third attacker, Slava,
the brother that he had later killed. Vasily claimed that
Slava had been the one to land the fatal blows,
which was convenience since Slava was already gone and couldn't
contradict anything. Still, Vladimir pressed on he had a hunch
this wasn't just a family affair, and then he managed
to get another slip from Vassily. During a separate interrogation,

(09:43):
Vasily blurted out a new name, Nikolai. This wasn't the
name of just some villager. It was that of a
senior police lieutenant from the nearby village who was in
Kasina that week and visiting relatives. He was also man
of authoritium power. When Vladimir caught up with Nikolai, and
Nikolay claimed that he had left the village for the instant,
and this seemed like an ironclad alibi until the locals

(10:03):
contradicted him. Nikolay had been there at the time that instant,
after all. Witnesses claim to have seen him drinking with
the brothers and a local foreman of the track crew.
They were all together that night and they were consuming heavily, apparently,
leaders of homebrew. Eventually through more conversation, another name surfaced,
a man named Pyotr, who was the foreman's brother. But
Pyotor wouldn't be talking to Vladimir. It's not that he refused,

(10:27):
it's that he was dead, having apparently ended things not
long after the investigation reopened. At this point, things were
coming together to form a disturbing picture. Then, during one
particularly grueling round of questioning, the local foreman broke. He'd
had enough of the constant questions and guilt, so he
agreed to tell Vladimir everything he wanted to know. He
would then name names. He described the Knight, He spoke

(10:48):
about the drinking, the confrontation, and the weapons. And then
came the final, revolting truth of what really happened to
the Seventh. In nineteen eighty nine, two years prior, the
sun dip below the dense canopy of the Taiga, and
Cassia settled into its familiar nighttime hush. In one of
the few houses near the tracks, though there was a
lot of noise coming from men consuming hard. At least

(11:08):
three leaders of homebrew were being passed around, maybe more,
and the names around the table were already familiar. There
was the local foeman, and his brother. There was also
Vasili and his brother Yuri, and the visiting police lieutenant Nikolai.
They weren't celebrating or morning anything. They were just bored,
and boredom and cazinet can be a dangerous thing. As
the drinks flowed and the evening were on, they eventually
ran out, but that didn't have to mean their night

(11:29):
was over. They still wanted more, but the only thing
that could be considered a store in town was long closed.
So they did what kazinet men sometimes did when desperate.
They went to the train station in search of yashes,
which is slang for train cargo handlers who sometimes carries
stash for barter or bribes. That night, however, there were
no yashes to be found. There were just seven boys,
all strangers to the men, standing in the rails waiting

(11:51):
for a train. They would claim that the boys were
trying to short circuit the rails, using a piece of
wire to trip the signal and stop the next train
so they could hop aboard, but that story never held water.
There was no wire or proof, and the boys had
been prepared to leave on the ten thirty nine pm
electric train. They knew the schedule by heart and had
no reason to interfere with the tracks, but the men
latched onto the excuse anyway they needed any sort of justification,

(12:13):
no matter how thin. A confrontation then erupted, voices rose,
and then the attack began. According the confessions, everything started
with the police lieutenant. He was strong, muscular, armed and
filled with a sense of authority, and he didn't hesitate.
When one of the seven supposedly melt off to him,
maybe trying to stand up for his friends or trying
to diffuse the situation, Nikolay hit him ned with the
butt of his firearm. This was apparently instantly fatal, causing

(12:37):
the others to freeze, and for a split second afterwards,
the boys didn't believe what had just happened. Nikolay then
shouted to the other men to finish them off and
leave no witnesses. What followed was chaos. Any tools within
reach were grabbed and the men descended like animals. Some
of the seven tried to run, and one of them
likely could have escaped, but Nikolay still had his firearm.

(12:58):
He then commanded them to stop or use it. Those
who were yet to be attacked then froze again, and
the men continued until they were all long in the
dirt beside the rails. Afterward, Nikolai, a supposed protector of
law and order, directed the others again, this time to
stage the scene. A train was due to pass soons
they moved the seven carefully and deliberately across the tracks.

(13:18):
Then they lined up their backpacks a few hundred feet
away to help sell the store that these were just
tired and foolish boys who lay down to rest. Then,
when the grizzly task was complete, the men scattered. Later,
the one forty am train would come through Cazinet, obliterating
the remains. By the time the Supernico brothers stepped off
their freight train and walked the track with their lanterns
in hand, the men were long gone and the boys

(13:39):
were well beyond saving. And with that, the truth, as
ugly and deplorable as it was, had finally been revealed.
By the time the case reached court, the entire country
was watching, and despite the court convening in nineteen ninety five,
nearly six years after the initial discovery, the courtroom was
packed with parents of victims, reporters, locals, and just people
who had followed the case. For more than seven months. Afterward,

(14:01):
the trial dragged on through proceedings, and then finally, when
the judge read and delivered the verdict, it was so
lengthy that it took over an hour. Nikolai, who led
the attack, was sentenced to capital punishment, as was the
foreman and brothers Vassili and Yuri. Finally, it seemed to
justice had been served. This seemed like a rare moment
of accountability in a system where things could often be volatile.

(14:23):
But just as the men began to wait in their cellves,
the country took a political pivot. In a move aimed
at joining the Council of Europe, Russia began allowiance laws
with the European Human rights standers, including the abolition of
capital punishment. May thirty first, nineteen ninety six, the first
Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of Russia filed a protest.
In it, he asked to overturn the verdict of the

(14:44):
court and transfer the case for a new investigation. The
Supreme Court then agreed, and just like that, everything unraveled.
Not only were the sentences tossed out, but due to
the convoluted legal mess and procedural timelines, the previously convicted
men were released just like that, and they were retried
or held in custody. They were just set free. And
if you can believe it, things are even darker from there.

(15:06):
After his release, Vassili attacked a cousin of his who,
according to some, had known everything and wasn't planned to
keep his mouth shut during the reopen investigation. Meanwhile, Yuri,
who was one of the brothers who was convicted, was
also found dead by either suffocation or sudden p aneumonia,
depending on which report you believe. Then came the most
chilling incident of all. A railroad worker who was one

(15:26):
of the key witnesses who had helped remove the seven
from the tracks, was also found under the wheels of
a train at Casinet, allegedly as the result of slipping
and falling in the tracks. So as horrific as the
initial insidant was, somehow it hadn't just ended in nineteen
eighty nine. It seemed to have just changed direction. But
admirably through it all the families who had been portrayed
and beaten down by bureaucracy kept fighting. By the late

(15:49):
nineteen nineties, the story of the Kazinete seven had faded
from the headlines. Other scandals had taken their place, and
there were more than enough of those. The country by
then was cracking under the way of corrupt war and transition,
and most people assumed the case was dead. But the
parents of the victims were relentless. In February nineteen ninety seven,
they managed to push hard enough for the Prosecutor General's

(16:10):
office to reopen the case once more, this time under
the legal banner of quote circumstances not fully investigated. It
would take four more years, three additional exhimations, five expert
forensic reviews, and more than one hundred witnesses. They were
testimonies not previously considered. Forensics experts re examining these same
broken bones and mountains of old paperwork that were hauled

(16:30):
back out under light of government offices. And through it all,
one name that kept coming out during those years was
that of Nikolai. Since his release, he had become a
municipal deputy. You heard that right, one of the central
figures in the murder of the seven had parlated his
time out of prison into a political seat. But in
the fall of two thousand and one, something miraculous happened

(16:51):
the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kakasha issued a
new verdict and Nikolai, the Foremen, and Vacili were once
again found guilty of the murderers. This time, the Senate
tances were final, but to many they still didn't come
close enough to fit in the crime. Nikolai and the
foreman were sentence just ten years in a maximum security
penal colony, while Vassili got just seven years. For the parents. Again,

(17:11):
it wasn't justice, and even then Nikolai, trueiform never stopped
filing appeals. The man who ordered the entire Insitdant, still
claimed that he was the real victim, and the family
simply endured it all. Despite the loss, lies, retrous and
political maneuvering. The truth finally came out and it stuck,
not because the system worked, but because the parents refused
to let it stay buried, and in the end they

(17:33):
forced the world to look at what really happened on
that cold August night in nineteen eighty nine. Casinet was
never and will never be the same as it was
before the murder of the seven. The town, for all
it's supposed to concern and regret of the case, always
knew something and its silence was complicity. What happened there
is now more than just an unspeakable crime. It's a
cautionary tale about the failure of justice and about what

(17:55):
happens when the people in power believe they can get
away with anything