Deni Melikov

Deni Melikov
Born	Denison Yuryevich Melikov (1982-04-09) 9 April 1982 Koyevka, UCSS
Other names	The Ananico River Killer
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment
Details
Victims	49–60
Span of crimes	27 July 1999–14 June 2006
Country	Zamastan
Date apprehended	14 April 2021

Deni Melikov (born April 9th, 1981, Denison Yuryevich Melikov), also known as the Ananico River Killer, is a Beleroskovi-Zamastanian serial killer who is believed to have killed at least forty-nine people, and possibly as many as sixty or more, between 1999 and 2018. He was born in Koyevka in the UCSS and immigrated to Zamastan with his family in 1990. He was arrested on April 14th, 2021, in Ananico, Jade, after a long police investigation. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. He is believed to be one of the most-prolific serial killers in Zamastanian history.

Early life

Deni Melikov was born in Koyevka, Beleroskov, UCSS, in 1982. He and his family immigrated to Zamastan in 1990. His father and mother separated not long after their arrival in Zamastan. His father was highly abusive, and was arrested in 1992 for second-degree assault charges on his youngest son and Deni's brother, Malik.

Murders

According to police, Deni Melikov began killing in 1999, at the age of 17. His first victim was Lisanne Kniepert, a girl from his high school who went missing that year and whose remains went undiscovered for five years. Melikov is suspected of killing at least 43 murders, but is being connected and suspected of approximately 92.

Melikov used a disturbing modus operandi to kill his victims, according to the decades long investigation. Melikov would hunt his victims like wild animals in the Arelsano National Forest. With the exception of Lisanne Kniepert in 1999, it is believed that Melikov's victims were selected completely at random. Deni Melikov would abduct people whose cars broke down on roads leading through the National Forest, or he would abduct individuals in the city of Ananico at night, many of whom were sex workers or women in empty parking lots. He would subdue the victims, dispose of many victims' belongings in the Ananico River, drive into the forest, cut them loose, and tell them to run, giving them a head start. The discovery of the victim's belongings in the Ananico River was what coined the term of the Ananico River Killer.

The hunts could go on for roughly a week, with the victims always surviving that long on instinct alone, all the while being psychologically tortured the whole time by the knowledge that their abductor could kill them at any time. Sometimes, during the hunts, Melikov would let the victims go even if they had them in their sights, taking delight in allowing them to run for the time being. Melikov originally had the habit of taking driver's licenses from the people they killed, presumably as trophies. This information was gathered by investigators because at least three women escaped from Melikov over the twenty-two years.

Crime enthusiasts, many of whom followed developments of the case for years, were vital in peicing together the case. Deni had reportedly been a suspect in popular culture circles after leaked police documents in 2008 showed Melikov as a suspect, although police dropped him from consideration. The reason that police dropped him as a suspect has confounded the community following the case, and police have not yet given an explanation as to why they did so. There is intense scrutiny towards the Ananico Police Department due to this revelation, and the understanding that because Melikov was let go meant that dozens more victims were killed over the next twelve years.

Arrest

On Wednesday, April 14th, 2021, authorities announced that they had made an arrest in a two-decade long series of killings in the mountainous wilderness of the Arelsamo National Forest. Ananico Police Department Chief Thomas Debaker in a press briefing that Deni Melikov, a 39-year old Beleroskovian-born man had been arrested in connection to over 40 killings over the span of twenty two years. The Z.I.S., which had been brought into the investigation following the disappearance and later discovery of a young woman's remains last year in the national park, used DNA evidence to tie her killing to that of others in the area.

"With the help of the Z.I.S. domestic crimes division," stated Debaker, "we have arrested one Deni Melikov in connection to 43 murders over the past 22 years, and we believe that he is connected to an additional three dozen. We are waiting on more conclusive connection to the other killings from lab analysis, but we can confirm our strong evidence indicating that he was responsible for all of these murders."

"We understand the hurt and pain in the community and across this country due to the scope and longevity of this case," Chief Debaker said. "In addition to continuing to investigate these horrific crimes, we will continue to investigate the mistakes our department made along the way. We should have and could have stopped these slayings, and it's up to us to understand where and why we failed."

Trial and imprisonment

Melikov's trial began on April 5th, 2022, nearly a year after his arrest. The investigation into confirmed murders had concluded, and he was formally charged with 43 counts while other pending investigations into other murders continued. The trial lasted two months, and a jury convicted him on all counts after 3 days of deliberation. Melikov was sentenced to life in prison, with 43 consecutive life sentences for each murder without eligibility for parole. He was sent to Fairfell Correctional Facility in Fairfell, Zian, on June 12th, 2022.

In the months following his sentencing, 6 more murders were confirmed to be tied to Melikov, bringing the total victims to 49.

On August 17th, 2024, Melikov was involved in a fight in his prison block during which he killed a fellow inmate with a broomstick, seriously injured another, and was himself stabbed in the arm.