In 1912, a newspaper article appeared in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, that terrified readers. It reported on a cannibalistic murder duo from the village of Kurdla on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. The duo were Ivanova and Olga Tamarin, a diabolical mother-daughter team whose crimes were so brutal that they must have come straight from hell. Both women, who with their wheat-blonde hair, blue eyes, and slim figures could easily have passed for sisters, had been hunting people for months. The 17-year-old Olga acted as a decoy, luring men and women to their remote house near the edge of the forest. There, they were led into the dining room, where they were lowered into the basement through a trapdoor. In the basement, the victims were tied up, robbed, tortured, and then dismembered. The crimes came to light when more and more people disappeared after visiting the mother-daughter duo. The police searched the area around the two women’s house, where they found many mutilated corpses that were unrecognizable. The sight was horrific. The victims must have suffered terrible torment before their deaths. Afterwards, heavily armed police officers stormed the two women’s house, who resisted their arrest violently. During the subsequent house search, the police officers were confronted with a scene of horror. The house resembled a slaughterhouse. In the pantry alone, 27 bodies and numerous valuables were found. Did the people have to die so that the mother-daughter duo could rob them, or was there another motive behind the murders? When the police discovered the trapdoor to the basement and found instruments of torture, shackles, and pieces of flesh there, it became clear that the women had not only robbed their victims, but also eaten their flesh. Due to the overwhelming evidence, the cannibalistic mother-daughter duo made a comprehensive confession. They were the leaders of a band of 30 farmers who had robbed and killed 40 people in recent months. With the exception of nine men, all members of the peasant gang were arrested. After the women’s arrest on July 20, 1912, they were reportedly tried without much fanfare. Whether they were actually executed or sentenced to life imprisonment is not clearly documented. It is also uncertain whether the house of horrors in Kurdla was demolished. These are pure speculations, as otherwise not much has been made public about the creepy mother-daughter duo.
The cannibalistic murder duo
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