Mihail Leshtarski

Leshtarski was born in 1959 in the village of Tsarevets as one of two children. His father Tsvetan was a wealthy shopkeeper, but a very aggressive and nervous man, while his mother was a housekeeper. Mihail was an unruly child, and in order to discipline him, his father would chain him to the family bed and put food just out of reach,[3] starving his young son, with his mother never trying to protect or even interact at all with him. His father would even chain him to the family car and drive around the yard, and beat him with a motor cord until his skin turned blue.[4] He studied up to the 8th grade, but didn't finish his education, and was continuously incarcerated for various robberies throughout the rest of his life,[2] during some of which he was also abused and even gang raped by some of the inmates. In order to evade beatings by his father, the young Mihail would go out at night stealing and robbing people. Eventually, at 15 or 16 years old, he was called for mandatory service in the army, and began visiting the village only from time to time.[1]

One day, Leshtarski had to return to his regiment following a short break, with his father offering to drive him and his mother to the nearby village in the family's newly bought Moskvitch. From there, Mihail would catch a train to Roman. However, shortly after they took off, his father - who had drunk heavily - got into a car crash. Although Mihail was unscathed, his father had had his legs broken and his mother suffered a heavy concussion, allegedly causing her mental health issues. According to Leshtarski, she would be in the kitchen cooking and when the cat would jump on the table, she would drag along the cat's fur before putting it back into the pot, and even burned down some of the family's sheep pens. His mother would eventually accuse him of raping her, for which Mihail was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment.[3]

During his stay in prison, he was regularly visited by his brother, who'd often ask him for money to buy various house appliances. One of the women in the facility also taught Leshtarski how to do donations, in order to have his sentence reduced. Shortly after his incarceration, his mother suffered from a stroke and stopped talking. Leshtarski was described as an "excellent prisoner, bad citizen", and after 12 years behind bars, he was released in 2005. According to him, his father then told him that his mother had started talking again soon after seeing him.[1]

After this, Leshtarski resumed with stealing and robbing rich people, being incarcerated and released at various times.[1] He had bought off an underage Romani prostitute to have as a live-in girlfriend, but the girl later abandoned him, hurting him deeply. From 2005 to 2008, he worked in hotel complex "Chaika" in Vratsa as a worker. He was described as a good, hard-working employee, but one day, just after his probation period had ended, he went berserk, breaking all of the company cars' and trucks' windows before fleeing.[4] Feeling that he couldn't fit into normal society, Leshtarski began living in caves around the mountain range, surviving by eating 3-4 spoonfuls of honey every day and hunting animals with a self-made bow, with some reports claiming that he had eaten live bats. He was also a skilled climber who scaled his way to most of his hideouts and even during his later confessions, he claimed that he could walk 30 kilometers to the seaside in the span of several days.[4]

For a span of four months, he hid in the house of former cellmate Stoyan Mladenov in Dolna Kremena, threatening to kill the man and his family if they ratted him out. Leshtarski slept in their attic, making a hole in the walls to see what's going on downstairs. He'd disappear for 4-5 days, leaving his hideout by climbing out the roof. On one occasion, he attacked Mladenov with a stool, and even raped his wife.[1][4]

On August 27, 2009, Elena Tomova, a 59-year-old woman who lived with her daughter and her husband in Sofia and often visited her renewed villa in Vlado Trichkov, noticed that somebody had been in her house and had slept in her bed. The woman even found a hunter's hat lying around, but none of the more expensive items were touched. Tomova contemplated calling the police, but decided that it's no use and abandoned the idea, instead wondering if she should remain in the villa or return to Sofia. As the villa was a bit farther away from other homes, Elena had decided to get her axe and place it nearby. Elena then went off to collect wild berries, later asking her neighbor if she could stay at her house, but the latter denied, as she had visitors. Soon after, while trying to read a book, she heard somebody open the wooden gate.[1] That somebody turned out to be Leshtarski - scruffy, with a long, graying and bushy beard.[5]

The day before, he had boarded a train from Mezdra to Sofia and landed in Vlado Trichkov, where he then proceeded to wander around the hillside, sleeping in abandoned houses without doors or windows before continuing to drift along. He eventually reached Elena's house, entering through a broken window from the back side, and began looking for food and water. Leshtarski found and drank a bottle of gin, and then ate some canned mushrooms and cucumbers before deciding to leave. He then returned a few hours later to check if anybody was home, noticing that Elena was there - a plump woman, 160 cms tall, blond hair, wearing a dress, a vest and some slippers.[5]

After noticing him, he asked Tomova for some food, after which the good-natured woman gave him two slices of bread. Mihail confessed that he intended to sleep in the house, before asking to make himself an omelette, to which Elena agreed. While he was baking the eggs, Tomova phoned her daughter Zornitsa, telling her that there was a man in the house and that her father was sleeping in the adjoining room (which was a lie, as she had been divorced for 10 years, and visited the villa alone). After offering Mihail to go outside for a smoke, the two returned to the room, where Tomova, who was a Jehovah's witness, started lecturing him about the Bible and God.[2] Upon hearing this, Leshtarski got agitated, telling her that she reminded him of his mother.[3][1][5]

The two got into a quarrel, with the enraged Leshtarski pushing Tomova off her chair. Elena had grabbed the axe and tried to defend herself, but she was overwhelmed. Mihail then pushed her onto the bed, intending to rape her while choking Elena with his hands. When he let her go, she did not move anymore.[1] Supposedly, Mihail then sat on the bed and started crying, and after some time, he lowered his victim's clothes to her spine, before taking a knife and carving a cross on her forehead. He then took a metal spatula and severed her left breast, leaving it under the bed, put the sheets and the Bible over the deceased, grabbed the bottle of gin and left.[1][2][5]

On August 28, her daughter Zornitsa rang on Elena's telephone, but nobody answered. She called her mother several times and on the following day, along with her husband and son, traveled to the villa. The husband found the corpse and immediately called the police. The police conducted a search on the entire area, checking twice, but after months, the investigation into Tomova's death was called off.[5][4]