How ‘Battle of the Psychics’ Stars Led Investigators Astray in a Chilling Murder Case
How ‘Battle of the Psychics’ Stars Led Investigators Astray in a Chilling Murder Case
It’s hard to believe, but the show ‘Battle of the Psychics’ has been on air for over 18 years. Throughout this time, there have been ongoing discussions about shutting down the program, as most viewers take the participants’ performances at face value. Despite nearly two decades of the show’s existence, there has been no concrete evidence proving that the mediums possess any paranormal abilities. Moreover, the facts that the psychics claim to ‘see’ often become the basis for investigations by law enforcement, yet they rarely find confirmation in reality.
The Murder Case That Shocked a Nation
A stark example of this is the criminal case of Tanya Kashirina, a 13-year-old teenager murdered in the village of Zherdovka, Tambov region, in the spring of 2011. This story made headlines 15 years ago, as the brutal murder of the seventh-grader initially seemed like the work of a maniac. However, the idea of a psychopath in a small village where everyone knows each other was baffling.
The Killer Was Closer Than Anyone Thought
Tanya Kashirina was just a child, her life revolving around school, home, and computer games. She didn’t go out in the evenings or attend discotheques. So, when she didn’t return home after school on April 8, 2011, her grandmother became extremely worried. Tanya’s mother, Nina Kashirina, was working in Moscow at the time, and the elderly woman immediately called her. The next morning, Nina was back in Zherdovka, where she quickly learned that Tanya had last been seen by a classmate who had said goodbye to her after school.
A massive search operation was launched, involving police from several districts. Four days later, Tanya was found dead. A local farmer discovered her body in a field behind a garden. The girl was naked, wrapped in a sack, and had been thoroughly washed; even her nails were trimmed. A later forensic examination revealed that the schoolgirl had been raped before being strangled to death.
‘My Tanya was trusting. He called her, she went, and what happened, happened. I want parents to warn their children not to trust anyone except their parents. I have a huge desire for no mother to ever experience the grief that has befallen my fate,’ Tanya’s mother later told Elena Pogrebizhskaya in an interview.
The Investigation Takes a Wrong Turn
Throughout the search for the girl, Nina was accompanied by her friend and her common-law husband, Igor Skorokhodov. Every evening, he would drive the grieving mother home, staying by her side and comforting her.
While the investigation was ongoing, participants from ‘Battle of the Psychics’ arrived in Zherdovka. Perhaps their gifts could help track down the maniac, as six months of investigation had yielded no results?
The first to take on the case was Natalia Banteeva, who claimed that after school, Tanya had gotten into a car with someone who asked for directions. Then, another man got into the vehicle.
‘The person (Tanya) was in a dark room for a long time, where violence continuously occurred. It was dry, she was thirsty,’ the clairvoyant stated. Banteeva added that there were two killers who had premeditated their actions against the victim.
‘Uniform, uniform, this person was in uniform, which is why Tanya got into the car so easily. Moreover, he wasn’t even a high-ranking officer,’ the fortune-teller declared. This, she concluded, was why the girl’s body had no evidence left on it. The police officers knew how to cover their tracks.
Lieutenant Colonel Sviridov, who was present during the session with the clairvoyant, was surprised by this information but took note of it.
Next, the clairvoyant Zuliya Radzhabova attempted to help find Tanya’s killer. She claimed that Tanya was telling her that the killers were known to her cousin Sanya. Alexander, a close friend of the deceased, was invited into the room but couldn’t say anything coherent. Then, the fortune-teller stated that there were two killers who had filmed Tanya for several days to sell the video later.
‘Inside me were clues from two different people. Why weren’t they found?’ Radzhabova presented another piece of ‘evidence’ from her ‘conversation’ with Tanya’s spirit and added that one of the killers was a police officer.
The psychics then went to the location where the schoolgirl’s body was found and unanimously declared that two murderers had left her there, but the killers would never be found.
The Truth Unfolds
Following the statements from the TV psychics, a police investigation was launched to check for the involvement of law enforcement officers in the crime. However, no evidence supporting Radzhabova’s and Banteeva’s claims was found. Soon, the results of an olfactory examination revealed sweat and fat traces on the rope used to tie the sack with the body. The evidence led to Igor Skorokhodov, the common-law husband of Nina Kashirina’s friend—the same man who had been comforting and staying close to the grieving mother.
‘I was told that when Skorokhodov was asked how he could explain the presence of his scent on the items, he broke down and finally said: write it down, I killed her. It wasn’t until the spring of 2019 that he finally gave a confession. How he lived all this time—walked the same streets, breathed the same air, I don’t know,’ Tanya’s mother later recounted.
As it turned out, on that fateful day, April 8, 2011, Skorokhodov met the girl on the street and invited her home, claiming that his wife—a friend of the schoolgirl’s mother—was celebrating her birthday and that it would be impolite if Tanya didn’t come to congratulate her. The girl, suspecting nothing, went with the family friend. He locked the girl in a room where he tormented her for several days. When he realized that hundreds of police officers were searching for her, he decided to kill her. It was later discovered that Skorokhodov had repeatedly harassed minors. Once, he attempted to rape a neighbor, but she didn’t go to the police, fearing the publicity. Additionally, the maniac’s common-law wife’s daughter almost became his victim but managed to escape from the rapist at the last moment. The schoolgirl told her mother everything, but she didn’t file a police report. If she had, Tanya’s death might have been prevented.
Skorokhodov received his sentence posthumously. He didn’t live to see the trial, dying of a heart attack in a pre-trial detention center. However, he managed to give testimony and fully admit his guilt in the murder of Kashirina T.Y., born in 1998. ‘I repent for what I have done.’
It took Nina Kashirina 12 years to prove Skorokhodov’s guilt. During this time, her husband died of cancer, and she herself lived in a monastery for a while—here, her heart first found peace.
Today, Nina Kashirina says she understands the mother of Skorokhodov, who defended her son until the end—no mother can believe that she gave birth to a monster. She also understands the parents of the affected girls who didn’t dare to go to the law enforcement agencies, and the girls themselves who hid the truth. That’s just how life is.
For further reading on similar cases and the impact of media on investigations, you can refer to authoritative sources such as the FBI website.
