Russian serial killer captured after 15 years The killer is thought to have used his days off to prey on lone women as they returned home late at night, sometimes under the influence of alcohol. On the pretence of giving them a lift home in his car, he took his victims to remote forests where he tortured them with screwdrivers and knives, before beheading them with an axe. One report said detectives had also matched his DNA with that found in one of thousands of local Lada cars after tracks were found next to bodies dumped by the alleged murderer. A former police colleague of Mikhail P. told a Russian news website: "I worked side-by-side with him for many years. He was just like everyone else, not particularly aggressive. He was an ideal family man who often talked about his wife and his daughter Yekaterina and tried to bring money home to the family. Russia has a chilling reputation for serial killers. Alexander Pichushkin murdered at least 49 - and possibly 63 - people in Moscow's Bittsevsky Park, between 1992 and 2006. He became known as the Chessboard Killer because he confessed he wanted to mark off a murder date in every one of the 64 squares on a board. On his arrest, he declared: "For me, a life without murder is like a life without food for you." The Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, known as the Butcher of Rostov, murdered 52 women and children and was convicted and executed in 1994. Mikhail P. is in custody in Angarsk but has yet to be formally charged.