Vardan Kushnir - Murder

Murder

On Sunday July 24, 2005, Kushnir was murdered at home, and his body was removed from the three-room apartment he shared with his mother on Sadovaya-Karetnaya Street in central Moscow. An autopsy determined that he had died after suffering repeated blows to the head. According to police, his apartment and personal belongings had been ransacked. They did not believe the killing was related to his spamming. Traces of a strong tranquilizer were found in a glass, therefore investigators theorize it was merely a robbery gone bad.

Lending credence to this theory, he was last seen alive as he was leaving the Hungry Duck in the company of three women, who may have administered the fatal beating when he woke prematurely from his spiked drink.

The Russian media could scarcely conceal their glee at Kushnir's death, since his spam overloaded many of the country's inboxes. His spam, and others, had also led to many servers blocking all emails from the .ru domain, hindering Russian users' ability to connect with the rest of the world. While he was not the sole source of Russia's spam problem, he personified it to many both within and outside Russia.

In August 2005, Russian media reported the Moscow criminal investigation directorate detained four people it claimed were involved in the homicide. The four claim Kushnir made sexual advances to one of them, a 15-year-old girl, then threatened another in the group who came to her defense. The latter then claimed to have struck Kushnir on the head in self-defense.