A series of murders in spring had residents in the area around Tajikistan’s northern city of Konibodom on edge for weeks.

Thirteen people were killed between late March and late May, apparently by someone who broke into their homes at night.

The victims ages ranged from young children to elderly people; they were ethnic Tajiks and Kyrgyz (Konibodom is located near the border with Kyrgyzstan), and the crimes happened in different areas around the city.

The murders stopped, and later the Tajik authorities said they had captured the suspects, but on December 9, the nightmare started again with six people being killed, and on December 16, four more people were found dead in their homes.

The Killing Starts Again

On December 9, the bodies of six people were found in the Shurkurgon neighborhood of Konibodom. All six were members of the Nematov family. Thirty-seven-year-old Naimjon was found hanged on a tree in the courtyard of the family’s home. His body showed signs of a struggle. His 33-year-old wife and four children, the youngest only two years old, were all strangled inside the family’s home.

Local authorities and police have not commented on the killings.

On December 16, reports said the bodies of 35-year-old Gaibullo Majidov and his 28-year-old wife Zarnigor were found in their home in Konibodom’s Hisorak neighborhood. Their three children were reportedly unharmed. On the same day in the same neighborhood, the bodies of 70-year-old Oyisha Shokirova and her 44-year-old son Javlon were found.

Reports said all appeared to have died violent deaths, but the exact cause was not given. Police have also not commented on these murders.

Prior to these latest killings, it appeared the police had caught at least some of the people responsible for a wave of murders in the spring that had local residents talking about “men in black” who prowled the streets in the middle of the night.

The Authorities’ Version

On July 31, Konibodom Mayor Abdusalom Tukhtasunzoda said a suspect had been caught for the May 28-29 killings of six people in the village of Sanjidzor, on the outskirts of Konibodom. Tukhtasunzoda did not give any details about the suspect or the motive, except to say the person had been detained the week before.

The Konibodom mayor said the murders in May were not connected to the earlier killings of five members of the Sharipov family in March, or to Muzaffar Urmonov and his wife Inoyat Urmanova in April. Tukhtasunzoda also dismissed the tales being told of men dressed in black clothing and masks being responsible for any of the murders.

“There were no people ‘in black’ in the city of Konibodom,” Tukhtasunzoda said, “The video, which is distributed on social networks, was not filmed in Konibodom. Such footage is being circulated to frighten people.”

On August 8, First Deputy Interior Minister Abdurahmon Alamshozoda told a press conference the was “nothing sensational” about the murders in Konibodom the previous spring. Alamshozoda said the incidents in March and April were the result of family quarrels, that suspects had already been arrested, and the killings in May were still being investigated.

Alamshozoda said he could not reveal any more information since the investigations into all the killings were still ongoing.

It seemed clear from Alamshozoda’s and Tukhtasunzoda’s comments that authorities considered the crimes solved.

At the end of November, 42-year-old Marat Sattorov was convicted of killing Mahbuba Ahmedova and her two children, and the murders of Zulho Ibragimova, her brother and brother’s wife in the village of Sanjidzor at the end of May.

Sattorov was sentenced to life imprisonment.

On December 12, 68-year-old Sharifjon Ashurov was convicted of the killing of Muzaffar Urmonov and his wife in April, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In both cases, relatives of the defendants and the victims expressed doubts that the authorities had caught the right people. Sharifjon Ahsurov’s family claims he was tortured and continually proclaimed his innocence during the trial.

Murderers Still on the Loose?

These latest six murders show that either the authorities have not caught the people responsible, or all the people responsible, or there is a copycat killer or killers now on the loose.

What facts are known show similarities between the killings in spring and those just committed.

When the first murders happened in March, police initially believed the 65-year-old head of the Sharipov family had killed his wife, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren, then hanged himself. Later police determined the man was hanged by the killer, who tried to make it look like a suicide.

In the murders on December 9, Naimjon Nematov was found hanged.

Most of the victims of the series of killings in spring were strangled, which also appears to be how most of the victims on December 8-9 were killed, whilst the cause of deaths in the December 16 incident have not been made public.

Authorities seem anxious to resolve these murders, but their explanations do not add up.

At least 23 people in the Konibodom area have been murdered in 2024, a huge number for one area in such a short period and difficult to ascribe to domestic quarrels. And despite two people being convicted for the March-May killings, ten more murders were just committed in the same area.