It is a grim business, the sort that makes one shudder and reach for a strong drink in a dim tavern. In the distant reaches of the Udmurt Republic, a man of fifty-four years—a seasoned criminal whose soul is as black as a coal-miner's pit—is finally to stand before the magistrates. The charge? A foul deed committed some twenty years ago, a secret he thought buried beneath the forest loam.

Let us return to the eighth of June, in the year of our Lord 2006. In the village of Kamskoye, this fellow—then a man of thirty-four—crossed paths with a young maiden of six-and-twenty years. She sought a way to the town of Kambarka, and the rogue, wearing a mask of helpfulness, offered to escort her through the wilderness. A fatal mistake for the poor soul.

As they treaded the lonely forest paths, the beast within the man awoke. He pressed his vile intentions upon the girl, demanding she yield to his lusts. When she bravely refused, the brute struck her down. Using his superior strength to crush her will, he committed a monstrous assault. Fearing the gallows and the keen eyes of the law, the villain then strangled the wretched girl, leaving her cold and breathless in the silence of the woods.

Seven days passed before her lifeless form was discovered. For years, the crime remained a mystery, a ghost haunting the district. But the long arm of the law is patient. During a wider sweep for ancient crimes, the sleuths discovered that this man—already a convict for another offense—was the monster they sought. In a dramatic reenactment, the prisoner showed the investigators exactly how he had wrought this slaughter, confessing his guilt in full.

It seems the world is teeming with such scoundrels; only recently, another rogue of forty-four years was snatched by the constabulary at the Finnish border, having assaulted a woman and attempting to flee the reach of justice. But for our current villain, the game is up. The dock awaits.