Death in the First Person

Posted by E

Sunday, January 18, 2009

He lays prone in the debris, defenseless against his attackers. He is silent and nearly motionless. A large welt oozes blood from the center of his forehead as he studies his surroundings through a confused haze. He clumsily moves the box that partly obscures his chest before a voice is heard.

"So, let's do it," we hear from off screen, immediately followed by a teenager jumping into frame above the stunned man. Brandishing a hammer wrapped in a shopping bag, he swings at the man's face with as much force as he can muster.

Again and again he brings the mallet down at a shockingly quick pace. The hammer shatters bone and rends sinew, wrenching the head forward as the man's mutilated skull hooks on the head of the weapon. After seven blows the cameraman warns that he hears a car. The would be killers fall silent and look to the distance to make certain that their game will not be interrupted. Once they are assured that they have not been caught the camera returns to fetishistically study their fallen quarry.

Where once this man's face lay, there remains only an unrecognizable mass of shapeless tissue. The pulverized remains of his head have been precipitously rendered into a swollen landscape of indescribable horror.

The camera continues to focus closely on what remains of the man's face, as blood pours from the remnants of his nostrils in waves. His breathing comes in great rasping shakes as the cameraman pushes and prods his face to better survey their handiwork.

"Wait, wait, don't beat him. He is handsome, pretty!" the killers giggle as they zoom in even closer to admire what they have wrought. The man wheezes and gurgles as the blood from his face begins to snake its way down his throat and into his lungs. We see the hammer come back into frame as the killers nudge his head to the left and right. His jaw hangs slack with each labored breath.

The sanguine fluid continues to pour into the man's chest as his breathing takes on a rattling tone. Every jolting intake of air is accompanied by a deep bubbling groan and suffixed by a wailing moan.

"Dissect the abdomen," the killer says, and almost immediately the killer moves to hand a screwdriver to the cameraman. With hardly a moment's hesitation, the cameraman sets to work on the second phase of desecration.

Because of our vantage point, his hand becomes ours as the tool is inserted into the man's stomach, twisting and turning with each puncture to ensure maximum damage. We can see the movement of the shaft under the man's skin, pulling and stretching with each turn. The victim lets out the occasional frail whining to remind both us and the killer that he is still a living being, albeit one on the precipice of death.

Our attacks become more frenzied and we see our hand stabbing into the man's abdomen over and over in quick succession, his moans lurching in staccato rhythm with our actions.

Our eyes turn back to the man's face, his moans increasing in volume as the camera approaches. The screwdriver is pushed up to his face, pushing aside flaps of skin and bone that moments ago had been identifiable, now nothing but an obscured organic mass.

We back up in time to see the victim raise his hand feebly to his face. His breathing is faster but ever more violent. Each breath still pulls his body in paroxysmal spasms.

"He is still alive?" we hear the killers ask, seemingly surprised that the man has thus far avoided eternity.

The first killer moves forward and stomps his foot into the man's chest several times before stabbing him several more times. He drops his face into view and with a large predatory smile asks his victim how he's feeling.

Our hand returns to frame and stabs the abdomen a few more times before moving up, once again, to the man's face. Almost no time is wasted once there, before we force the implement into the man's eye, the hilt of the improvised weapon laying flush with his face. We thrust the tool into his socket several times, turning and twisting once again to maximize damage before pulling away.

And yet, again, the man still clings to life.

One final time our first killer returns to view, this time with a much larger sledge. He lines up with the man and lays three massive blows to the man's temple before appearing satisfied for the time being.

We rush from the woods to a nearby vehicle and wash the weapons while stealing furtive glances at our surroundings, apparently hopeful that no traffic happens by, as there would be much explaining to do.

The killer grins and shudders as the adrenaline continues to pump through his veins. He hides the hammer in the trunk and nervously looks around as he washes his face and hands. The camera cuts as they return to the woods to snap some still photographs with their victim.


There are many horrific videos one can bear witness to on the internet, showing all sorts of horrors both real and imagined being inflicted upon hapless victims. Where this one stands apart from the others is not just the sheer brutality of the act, but the seemingly random nature of it all.

One can watch any number of films from Chechnya and Iraq and see people losing their lives in all manner of horrific circumstances. Documenting brutal acts is certainly nothing new, but in all previous examples which have found their way online the victim had some foreknowledge, some warning that the acts could have been perpetrated.

Executing a prisoner or captive for the sake of propaganda or for inducing fear in your enemies is something that has been done since time immemorial. As horrible as these acts are to watch, one can always distance themselves by remembering that the people in these videos were in active war zones, typically involved in the conflict in some fashion.

Here this is not the case. The victim is just an unfortunate man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This video was created solely for the entertainment of its creators, and to provide reminiscence when the perpetrators had grown fully into manhood.

Perhaps the most disturbing element for some people is the seeming first person perspective it gives. One is left with the impression that THEY are committing the acts here, though at best they are a mute witness. Nothing you can say or do will prevent the acts from happening, and you are forced to watch with horror as your own hand is used to perpetrate these crimes.

What you have just borne witness to was a piece of evidence from a murder trial that found its way onto the internet. These were the actions of the so called "Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs", a cadre of three bored teenagers whose murderous predilection led the Ukraine into a summer of terror in 2007.

Between June and July of 2007, Viktor Sayenko and Igo Suprunyuck moved from animal mutilation to the ultimate murder of 21 individuals. The third accomplice, Alexander Hanzha, was associated with the boys but not known to be one of the killers.

The victim in the video is Sergei Yatzenko, a man who had recently been forced into retirement due to a cancerous tumor in his throat.

The teens would select their victims seemingly at random, and then dispense of them, typically with a blunt object. They murdered men, women, and children. The only criteria they seemed to look for was an inability to successfully fight back.

They documented their actions into film on multiple occasions. It is unknown how this particular video leaked, though it is assumed it came from someone close to the investigation.