According to Onoprienko, he fatally shot the parents before hacking their two girls, ages seven and eight, to death with an axe. After an hour, Onoprienko reportedly shot and murdered a nearby businessman called Tsalk who was walking about the Bodnarchuk property, then chopping his corpse with the axe. Anatoly Onoprienko was born on January 4, 1958 in Kiev, Ukraine. His father, Vladimir Petrovich, was a senior lieutenant-general in the Soviet Army who died when Anatoly was just nine years old. His mother, Liudmila (née Smirnova), was a school teacher. He has one older brother named Sergei. Anatoly Onoprienko's childhood was surrounded by tragedy and violence. When he was only five years old, his father was killed during a military operation in East Germany. Then, when he was just twelve years old, his mother was also killed during a robbery attempt. He was then sent to live with his uncle who was a colonel in the Soviet Air Force. When Anatoly Onoprienko turned seventeen years old, he joined the Soviet army as a motorcyclist. However, he was soon arrested for stealing cars and for selling them to buy drugs. In 1979, he was sentenced to ten years in a labor camp in Siberia.