[2] Melyukh's modus operandi consisted of staking out for potential victims at a convenience store on Lenin Avenue and Engels Street during daylight hours, singling out elderly women who carried bags of groceries.
On November 16, 86-year-old Liya Mayzel, a retired professor and former dean of the Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical University, was murdered in similar circumstances and robbed of 200 rubles.
A break in the case came not long after, as one of Melyukh's surviving victims, 70-year-old Nadezhda Elizarova, told detectives that she had been struck by a man wearing a camouflage jacket.
[3] When put on the stand, Melyukh gave several shoddy alibis concerning activities he had supposedly done when the murders were committed - among them was being drunk for several days after celebrating his birthday; digging potatoes and going on a trip to see the town of Shchuchye in Kurgan Oblast with his girlfriend.
[3] In spite of his claims of innocence, Melyukh was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Chelyabinsk Regional Court on 14 November 2002.