Slavic Enclave Grieves for Its 6 Dead

In an open-casket service conducted under heavy security, thousands of mourners from the large Slavic immigrant community here paid final respects Sunday to the six victims of a Ukrainian family massacre last week.

Standing before blue and white caskets on the altar of the Bethany Slavic Missionary Church, family members eulogized their lost kin in tearful Russian and Ukrainian. An orchestra played funeral hymns, sometimes featuring mournful strains from the lute-like bandura, a Ukrainian folk instrument.

Outside the massive church, six hearses awaited the bodies. Four would be taken to Quiet Haven Memorial Park in Sacramento for burial. Two others, the slain wife and son of the man suspected of the killings, are to be returned to their homeland.

Her head covered with a black shawl and her eyes welling with tears, Zoya Kukharskaya said the stabbing death of her 9-year-old daughter affected her as though a “sword had pierced my own heart.”

She said the killings, which included the stabbing deaths of her in-laws and a 9-year-old nephew, had tested her strong Christian faith. She spoke of how the last deeds of her in-laws, Petr Kukharskiy, 75, and Galina Kukharskaya, 74, were acts of kindness: They had been preparing gift packages to send back to their native Ukraine.

“It was as though they knew their time was up,” Zoya Kukharskaya said.

As for the slain children, Kukharskaya said that prayer meetings with her relatives reminded her that “the same Lord who had given us these children had now taken them away.”

Throughout the four-hour service, the relatives and clergy repeatedly asked the congregation to draw on their strong faith to cope with the tragedy.

In the last decade, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, more than 70,000 Russian and Ukrainian Protestants have migrated to the Sacramento area as religious refugees.

The service took place in a cavernous church converted from a gymnasium of a former sports training compound. Behind the U-shaped altar, a large choir sang. Relatives of the victims sat in rows alongside the open caskets.

Three large screens hung above the altar and remote video operators repeatedly zoomed in on the mourning relatives and the faces of the embalmed victims.

A handmade blue banner from the elementary school of the two 9-year-olds read: “Love, from the White Rock School Family.” Another banner quoted scripture in Cyrillic and English: “May the Lord Answer You in Your Day of Trouble.”

Waves of flowers arrived around the altar up until the start of the service.

Many were drawn here by the shortwave radio broadcasts of an evangelist who described Sacramento as the “land of milk and honey where two rivers [the Sacramento and the American] come together.”

In one of the most emotional moments, the director of Christian education at the church spoke endearingly about “our little Tanya and our little Dima,” the two 9-year-olds.

“Death has cut short their days,” said Vladimir Kebets, “But these kids are still members of the choir. Only now they are singing in the heavenly choir.”

The suspect, a former Ukrainian shoemaker named Nikolay Soltys, 27, is still at large. According to police reports, Soltys, disgruntled with life in America, slit the throat of his pregnant 22-year-old wife, aunt, uncle and two young cousins in suburban Sacramento before fleeing with his 3-year-old son. The stabbed body of the son, Sergey, was found later at a trash dump.

A $70,000 reward has been offered for Soltys’ arrest. Soltys is now at the top of the FBI most wanted list.

Because Soltys is a fugitive, plainclothes sheriff’s deputies manned the entrances and milled in the large crowd throughout the ceremony.

“We had a security contingency plan in case he came back,” said Sacramento County Sheriff’s Sgt. James Lewis.

Lewis said the department is evaluating 200 tips from people who thought they had spotted Soltys after he was featured Saturday on the television program “America’s Most Wanted.”

In all, Lewis said, the department has received 700 tips regarding Soltys’ whereabouts, none of which have panned out.

In several speeches during the service, clergy urged the congregation to share any information they might have about Soltys with authorities.

“I have heard that some of you might be timid in dealing with police after your experience in the totalitarian Soviet regime,” said Senior Pastor Adam S. Bondaruk. “We have had the complete support of law enforcement. I urge you to cooperate with them.”

Some of the families in the congregation said they were concerned that the massive coverage of the Sacramento slayings and the constant references to the “Ukrainian immigrant” suspect would cause a backlash against the community.

Mikhail Palamaryok, 48, and his wife, Eugenia, said they have had a successful life in America since immigrating here eight years ago. The husband, a former park ranger in the Ukraine, has a security job at a state office building. Their two older children are now working. Eugenia Palamaryok has begun taking nursing courses at a community college.

“We are enjoying a perfect life here,” said Eugenia Palamaryok. “But I am worried that this incident has made people suspicious of Ukrainians. Now when we speak Ukrainian in a store people turn their heads and stare. I want it to go away. When that woman in Texas killed her children it was big news for a few days then went away.”