[3] When demobilized, Shcherbakov moved to the private sector of Leninsk-Kuzntesky, working as an underground electrician at the Yaroslavsky mine.
Annoyed, he eventually lost interest in Irina and began roaming the streets, beating passers-by and stealing hats.
Shcherbakov's wife thought he had a mistress, and wanted to make a love spell so that her husband would lose interest in women.
Shcherbakov wore a hammer in his trouser pocket[8] or carried it in a pram (in this case, the killer told his wife that he was transporting building materials for an extension of the house).
In the mid-1980s, the Leninsk-Kuznetsky private sector was very poorly lit, which made it easier for the criminal to commit his attacks.
The victim regained consciousness, however, this was noticed by the killer who was planning on leaving the scene, instead returning and finishing the job.
Thanks to the street light and shadows, she noticed on the wall of the neighbouring house, lit by a lantern, a figure hitting another one on the head with a hammer, then dragging it onto the ground.
There were a lot of rumours about the motive for the crimes: there was a common opinion among schoolchildren that the killer chose victims as a result of a card party, others claimed that he killed people based on certain grounds - those who stand last in the line, buying movie tickets to a certain place or wearing rings.
Traumatologist Toropov was present at the stop and intervened in the conversation by saying: "Do you not get tired of telling me bad things?"
[19] On 15 July, Shcherbakov attacked and stabbed Tatyana Galkina, but the victim managed to escape from the killer.
The traces found at the crime scene indicated that the killer, having made the attack, had left something on the ground (it later turned out to be a tent).
From a distance, the witness could not examine the killer in detail, but the investigators realized that the maniac was changing tactics.
She was returning from the disco with her friend, and at that moment Shcherbakov went after the girls, who suggested that he take Muratova home, saying that she could become the killer's next victim.
When the girls parted, the killer struck Muratova 40 times to the head with a hammer and stole her gold watch.
[28] While committing the murders, Sergey Shcherbakov presented himself as an exemplary family man in order to ward off suspicion from himself.
[30] Then suddenly, Elena Muratova's friend told the deputy chief of the ATS from the executive committee, Stepan Krioni, that she knew what street the attacker lived on.
[31] In the courtyard of Shcherbakov's house, the tent was discovered soaked in a barrel, which he had spread out before raping and killing Kolesnikova, and an old pram, with gauze bags lying on the ground.
[33] However, then the offender's mother told him on a prison visit that his childhood friend Viktor Popov, who suffered from alcoholism, had hanged himself.
[11] At trial, the maniac tried to obtain a mitigation of punishment, claiming that the girl who ditched him had broken his life.
[34] The Leninsk-Kuznetsky court sentenced Sergey Shcherbakov to death by firing squad, with confiscation of property.