Suvorov and Isupov Initially, the murders were not linked together as they occurred in different areas of Almaty, but were eventually consolidated into a single case file in late 1999. Following this, a special investigative unit consisting of several government and local agencies was formed in order to apprehend the suspects. The first suspects were Suvorov and his close associate Vladimir Isupov, who were both detained for possession of
heroin in January 1999. As a known pimp, he was repeatedly questioned, but investigators initially dismissed him as the killings continued. They resumed looking into him in late 1999, after it was found that he was in contact with Andrey Suschikh and Elena Mikhaltsova, who also lived near the Almaty-1 railway station. By this time, Mikhaltsova had quit prostituting herself and had become a pimp. Investigators realized that one of the victims, 21-year-old Dilya Kamolova, was acquainted with Mikhaltsova and lived with her until her death in June 1999. After looking further into the pair's social circle, investigators learned the names of a number of other acquaintances known only by their first names, all of whom were in close contact with "Borman" since the murders began. In December 1999, Suvorov was again interrogated at the SIZO-1 in Almaty about the murders. Unlike his previous categorical denials, he started comntemplating what to do when he was told that the police were looking into his acquaintances. Lt. Col. Alik Shpekbaev later shared that although the evidence against Suvorov was very circumstantial, he suggested to the officers that they look into Suschikh and Mikhaltsova, and he might help them out. Isupov, who also initially refused to cooperate, later changed his mind and said that he wanted to familiarize himself with the other gang members' confessions.
Follow-up arrests On 18 January 2000, officers detained Andrey Suschikh, but he managed to escape and board onto a train at the Almaty-1 railway station. For unexplained reasons, he returned home two days later and was arrested a second time in the company of a drug dealer. In the first interrogation, he fully admitted his guilt for purchasing and possession of drugs, but refused to admit involvement in the murders. Only four days later, once he learned that Suvorov had expressed willingness to cooperate, Suschikh began giving confessions at a rapid rate. However, the circumstances he described did not match any of the known murders. During that same period, another gang member, Anvar Karazhanov, was arrested and later convicted of killing Jane Doe No. 4. On 7 February 2000, another member, Alexander Popikov, was arrested for the rape and attempted murder of an underage girl named Galkina in the Iliyskiy district. Initially, Karazhanov and Popikov claimed that they acted alone and had nothing to do with Suvorov. However, their claims were refuted by the fact that semen traces found on the bodies of some of the victims belonged to multiple different men. Despite this, Karazhanov claimed that he was solely responsible for one murder, while Popikov unexpectedly admitted for a further 11 murders that he claimed to have done by himself. On 16 March 2000, 37-year-old Alexander Popikov hanged himself with his own pants in his cell in SIZO-1, leaving a suicide note in which he asked law enforcement officers not to blame his cellmates for his death. After his suicide, the investigation into the case was suspended, as no evidence linking Popikov and Karazhanov to Suvorov or Isupov was located.
Dissolution After Suschikh's arrest, Mikhaltsova and the remaining members panicked and deliberately provoked their arrests on charges such as theft and drug possession. Upon learning of this, the task force officers suspected that they wanted to be imprisoned on milder charges and divert attention from themselves. However, Alik Shpekbaev, together deputy head investigator Vasily Ralchenko and the deputy head of the Department of Internal Affairs of Almaty Farhad Nurmukhamedov decided to transfer all those arrested to a more secure detention center, where they subjected them to cross-examination. Through this, they learned the names of even more gang members, all of whom were caught. Initially, Suvorov used his influence in the criminal underworld to force his accomplices to remain silent by sending them letters or telling their cellmates to threaten them with physical violence. This all ceased on the orders of Berik Shymyrbaev, a
thief in law who, after learning about the nature of the case, prohibited anybody from following Suvorov's commands. Having lost his credibility, Suvorov eventually confessed, but sometimes made mistakes about various details due to the large number of crimes his gang committed. He explained this away by saying that most of the members were either drunk or on drugs.
Motive In the beginning, Suvorov claimed that he and his gang killed prostitutes because they considered themselves "sanitarians of society" and fighters for morality and ethics, but later admitted that they carried out their crimes due to a hatred of women and severe drug addiction. His own reasons for doing this was relationship issues and his own personal failures in life. He also said that he had ordered the remaining gang members to continue killing women to divert attention from him and Isupov. This happened as instructed, with some members such as Suschikh describing in vivid detail how some of the murders were carried out. ==Aftermath==