Jealous Husband Chops Off Wife's Hands With Ax Over Alleged Extramarital Affair

After suspecting his wife of having an affair, a Russian man chopped off her hands with an ax near Panikovo village, which is located 60 miles south of Moscow, on Dec. 11.

The medieval-style attack by 26-year-old Dmitry Grachyov on his wife, Margarita, with whom he had two kids, took place in a forest. After accusing her of being unfaithful, Grachyov took his wife to the forest and proceeded to torture her in an attempt to make her confess, New York Post reported.

He first struck at her fingers with the ax in order to threaten her. After she kept on denying the accusations against her, the man chopped off one of her hands followed by the next in a fit of rage.

According to the reports, Grachyov then drove his bleeding wife to a hospital before handing himself over to the police. The doctors operated on Margarita for nine long hours before managing to reattach one of her arms. The other hand was damaged beyond repair.

Alexander Myasnikov, the chief physician of City Hospital No 7 in Serpukhov, Russia, where Margarita was admitted, said he had never seen a more gruesome case and congratulated the medical staff for saving the victim’s life.

“I am immensely proud of my doctors,” he said. “This was an outrageous case – a young woman had both hands cut off. I just cannot show the original pictures. It is just a bloody mess, even I have to strain and prepare myself to look at them. The surgical team did an incredible job – sewing her up even though this seemed impossible at first.”

Another unnamed surgeon from the facility expressed doubt over how effective the surgery actually was.

“Let’s hope that it is not in vain because so many people participated in seeking to (mend the severed hand),” he said.

Apparently Margarita agreed to take a lie detector test to prove her innocence, just like her husband demanded prior to the attack, but Grachyov decided to torture her regardless.

While some friends described the relation between the couple as “sweet and loving,” others said Margarita was planning to file for divorce.

According to an unnamed family friend, Grachyov once told Margarita, “I’ll kill you. If need be, I’ll go to jail.”

Although Margarita had gone to the police on a previous occasion to complain about her husband’s behavior, they did not take her seriously, limiting their investigation to just talking to Grachyov. It was not immediately clear as to why the authorities declined to take a deeper look into the matter. At present, Grachyov is in police custody, awaiting formal charges.

Crimes committed with ax are not exclusive to the Kremlin. In November, a 70-year-old Virginia man assaulted his wife with a hatchet before killing himself with a chainsaw. In another incident in September, a Louisiana man was accused of fatally attacking his ex-wife with an ax, before unsuccessfully chasing his mother-in-law with the same weapon.