The trial of a 40-year-old mother of two charged with killing 17 female pensioners for their money has begun in Russia's Sverdlovsk region, the local prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Thursday.
Police say Irina Gaidamachuk, the mother of two daughters, has confessed to fraudulently entering the homes of her victims, aged between 61 and 89, and killing them with a hammer before robbing their flats. Gaidamachuk was arrested in June 2010.
The murders took place in various cities and towns across the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals between 2002 and 2010. Gaidamachuk said she would gain entry to a victim's home by introducing herself as a social worker.
Psychiatric tests have determined the defendant was sane.
The Russian Investigative Committee announced the formal end of an investigation into Gaidamachuk’s case earlier this month.
