Following psychiatric assessment, he was declared competent to stand trial, with psychiatrist Alexander Bukhanovsky calling him one of the most well-organized murderers he ever had to deal with.

[4] Roman Burtsev committed his first double murder on 15 September 1993, his victims being siblings 12-year-old Yevgeny Churilov and 7-year-old Olesya Churilova.

He wanted to rape the girl and, to get rid of the superfluous observer, killed Churilov, inflicting three blows to the boy's head with his fists and three more with a metal plate.

Burtsev wrote letters to the "Russian Birch" Foundation, where he asked for help with medicines, because the local MCH did not always have the necessary drugs, and when they did the number of them was limited.

He wrote that he had several medical conditions, including hemorrhoids, prostatitis, avitaminosis, varicose veins and nail fungus.