they seemed like an ordinary middle-class family with jobs that made them pillars of the community they lived in.
But dentist Roman Podkopaev, wife Inessa Tarverdiyeva and her daughter Viktoria Tarverdiyeva were in fact a ruthless gang of killers who robbed and murdered their way through a region of Russia in a six-year reign of terror.
They even roped their 13-year-old girl Anastasiya into the spree during which they shot dead or butchered at least 30 victims, including children and police officers.
The gang were dubbed a “family of monsters” who set off on their missions of murder like they were “going to the office for a day’s work”.
Podkopaev, 35, was killed in a shootout with police last week as officers finally closed in.
Killer dad: Roman Podkopayev
Former nursery nurse Inessa, 46, was badly wounded in the battle.
The family, from the Stavropol region of Russia, killed and robbed in ­neighbouring Rostov as a means of getting money, despite having a comfortable life and good home.
Vladimir Markin, of the Russian Investigative Committee, said: “They looked like a totally good, nice family.
"Imagine them... a mother, a father, two children, including an underage girl.
“I am sure when they were together one could hardly imagine they could even plan a crime.
"Looking like a housewife, Inessa says policemen were killed with a view to get extra arms. Others were shot purely for money.”
Killer daughter: 25-year-old Viktoria
Inessa confessed to police: “I am a gangster by nature.”
The family told neighbours they were going camping before they vanished on their sprees.
In one attack, they gunned down paratrooper Dmitry Chudakov, wife Irina and son Sasha, seven, before ­stabbing daughter Veronika 37 times.
They made off with a laptop, hair dryer and camera worth £950.
On another occasion the gang tortured and killed two teenage girls, gouging out their eyes.
Mr Markin said: “They didn’t pay mercy to any of the victims.”
Victims: Dmitry Chudakov and his family
Inessa, whose daughter Viktoria, 25, was from a previous marriage, confessed she hated police.
But she told officers: “It was not me who killed the children. My husband shot them.”
She then showed officers how she used a gun to snuff out her victims.
Searches of the family home ­uncovered automatic rifles, grenades, shotguns, silencers and ammunition.
Podkopaev’s sister Anastasiya, 26, and her former policeman husband Sergei Sinelnik, 31, have been held on suspicion of helping the crime family.
Inessa and Viktoria have confessed their crimes to police, which will be taken in court as a guilty plea.