the pair were in an intimate relationship, but as he was afraid she would reveal this to Kornienko, he instead raped and smothered the woman with a pillow. On July 7, 2010, Balan was loitering around a forest in Kaznivkii when he encountered 58-year-old Viorika Rachkova, who had gone there to pick mushrooms for her husband Nikolay Korolenko, who had recently broken his leg. He accosted, raped and strangled Rachkova, before leaving her body to rot in the nearby shrubbery. After she failed to return home that evening, her husband, supporting himself with crutches, went searching for her, but was unable to find Rachkova. Several subsequent searches failed to find any trace of her, leading some to believe that she may have been killed. On October 1, 17-year-old student Olena Nesterenko left her house in Kaznivkii without taking any money or personal belongings, likely because she planned to visit a friend. On the way, she was ambushed in a secluded area by Balan, who proceeded to rape and strangle her to death. Nesterenko's relatives later reported her missing to the police, but local authorities were unable to find any trace of her. On August 29, Balan's stepdaughter Svitlana Strizh returned home in Fastiv from a visit to her aunt in Hatne, unaware that her stepfather was stalking her. When she approached the Krasny Oktyabr power plant, Strizh tried to call her mother to tell her that she was coming home - at that time, Balan grabbed her and dragged her to the bushes, where he raped and strangled Strizh. After throwing some dirt and leaves on top of the corpse, he calmly returned home to the worried Kornienko, suggesting that the teen may have simple gone somewhere else without telling her. On September 12, Balan and Kornienko visited the latter's godfather in a village near Fastiv, where they spent the whole night drinking and enjoying the festivities. In the middle of the night, the drunken Balan snuck out of the house and got into an argument with 25-year-old local resident Ruslan Rudenko, whom he proceeded to stab to death with a kitchen knife he carried in one of his pockets. Rudenko's body was found on the following day, but local police were unable to identify a suspect in the case at the time. On October 17, Balan headed out to vote in the local district council elections when he came