New FNTT chief a laconic detective who investigated 767 murders

Mikulskis solved his first murder case back in 1982 when he — then a 21-year-old police patrolman — was called to a bus stop in Vilnius where a man had been stabbed to death. The young policeman soon found the murderer in a public lavatory where he had run to wash blood off his hands and clothes. The police officer has since been called to investigate another 766 murders.

Mikulskis has spent all his professional life in Vilnius. After two years of service as a patrolman, he joined the capital’s criminal police force. He has held the post of deputy chief of the Vilnius County Police Headquarters in the past nine years.

The father of three, Mikulskis is an ethnic Pole of Lithuania and a fifth-generation Vilniusite whose ancestors settled in the capital’s Liepkalnis neighborhood a hundred and a half years ago.

Those around Mikulskis know about his hobby of growing roses, but the no-nonsense officer is reluctant to speak about his personal life.

Dailius Dargis, a journalist and an author of books about the underworld, says that Mikulskis has contributed to solving a great number of headline-making crimes in Vilnius.

“My respect for the man who always goes to the scene of the crime, a rarity among high-ranking officers in police units in other cities. He is certainly dangerous to criminals, because he is a man of the older generation. It is a fact that detectives of the older generation are really stronger than present-day officers. (He is) a famous person. A colleague of his has called him ‘Sherlock Holmes of Vilnius'”, he told BNS.

Trade unions have a good opinion about Mikulskis. Vladimir Banel, chairman of the Association of Officers’ Trade Unions, says that the Vilnius police chief’s habit of being at the epicenter of events may be an advantage in investigating large-scale economic crimes.

“If the state wants to protect the treasury, rather than fighting kiosks, then (…) he is good for that role. He is not much of an office man, though,” he said.