How locals' vigilance helped catch a child killer in Saulkrasti in 1979

In the summer of 1979, a crime shook the area around Saulkrasti, a seaside town in Latvia, when a 10-year-old girl from the pioneer camp "Severnikel" was murdered in a nearby forest. The perpetrator was later identified as Aleksandrs Nosovs, who turned out to be a serial killer.

Outrage and a near lynching

News of the child's death provoked such strong public anger that women armed with iron rods gathered in the Saulkrasti dunes, some having traveled from as far as Murmansk. They were determined to kill the perpetrator on the spot as soon as he was brought to the crime scene for an on-site verification of testimony. Police officers had to use ingenuity to prevent the crowd from taking justice into their own hands and to ensure the suspect was delivered to face trial through proper legal channels.

A former investigator's account

Anatolijs Zeiļuks, who at the time worked as a criminal investigation inspector, shares his memories of how the case unfolded and how the killer was ultimately caught. His account sheds light on the investigation process and the disturbing details that emerged about the perpetrator's actions during the inquiry.

The material containing these recollections was first published in May 2025 in the TVNET+ archive, revisiting one of the notable crimes on Latvia's coast during the Soviet era.