http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst ... ead29.html
Kids stabbed as many as 500 times
April 29, 2005
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO, ANNIE SWEENEY AND DAN ROZEK Staff Reporters
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They moved here with a mission -- to build a Christian community for Bulgarians who had settled in Chicago.
Nikolai Vasilev was the pastor and his wife, Tonya, was the Sunday school teacher. Together they nurtured an evangelical community in the northwest suburbs and created their own family. They had three children and survived the death of one of them in a 2000 fire.
Wednesday night, Nikolai came home to find his two remaining children, a 9-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, stabbed to death -- some 500 times -- and his wife bathed in blood, a source close to the investigation said.
Tonya Vasilev, 34, has given statements to Hoffman Estates police and was expected to be charged in the murders today, the source said.
Investigators believe 3-year-old Gracie was attacked first, around 8:30 p.m., and then her mother brought her to the second floor, where her older brother, Christian, was watching television, the source said, citing the mother's statement to police.
"The boy looks up, sees his sister all bloody, and asked the mother, "What's going on? . . . The mother then attacked the boy. The boy runs from her, flees to the first floor, where she catches up with him, and she then alternates between attacking the boy and the girl.''
Nikolai arrived home around 9:20 p.m. "He sees signs of life in the 9-year-old boy and tries to give him CPR, obviously in vain, and then calls 911," the source said.
The source said it was not clear what set off the stabbing, but added that the mother had been treated for mental illness for "some years.''
Authorities said they are going to re-examine the 2000 fire, the cause of which was never determined.
By most accounts the Vasilevs had few family members here. Those who got to know them here were shocked at what happened inside the tidy two-story house and said it was impossible for Tonya to have been involved.
"This lady, this family, they deserve so much love, so much mercy,'' said a woman who knew the family through the Bulgarian Evangelical Church of God New Life Church, which they founded in Des Plaines. "They have very big hearts, and their hearts are open to people's pain. They are much more than good people.''
Nikolai, 36, had recently decided to leave the Des Plaines church to start his own congregation, said Stan Tanev, pastor of the Des Plaines church. The split was amicable and because of a difference in styles, including that Nikolai was going to preach in English, Tanev said.
Investigators were looking at this as a possible motive in the attacks, the source said.
"The motive is bizarre. . . . The mother feared people in the new religion were going to sexually molest these children,'' the source said.
Tanev, when asked about this, said the new congregation -- which was still part of the Church of God -- included members of the church whom Tonya already knew.
Tanev said the couple came to Chicago in 1995. They met while attending a Bible college in the South and married in 1994. Tanev said Nikolai left his native land in the early 1990s after the fall of communism and came to the United States, where he knew he could study theology and fulfill his dream of being a minister.
"That's what his calling was,'' said Tanev. "They left a comfortable life there just because they felt called to minister to the Bulgarian community.''
Tanev said Tonya's family was from North Carolina. Her calling, he said, was to minister to children.
Together, the couple warmly welcomed members at the Des Plaines church, said the woman who knew them through church. She did not want her name used.
She said Tonya was particularly attentive to children. And she doted on her own constantly, she said.
"She was like a little bird on her children,'' the woman said, her eyes tearing up with each mention of their names. "[They were] always clean. Always happy. Always with a lot of love.''
Christian was a third-grader at Schaumburg Christian School who liked to play with the tools his father used as a carpenter. Friends remember that Gracie was "sweet" and always smiling.
Tanev said the couple sought counseling after another child, 3-month-old Gabrielle, died in 2000 in a fire in the family's Elk Grove Village condominium.
"I was right next to them. It was terrible,'' Tanev said. "She was devastated. Little by little, they were overcoming.''
The fire started in the laundry room, and the infant was found in a baby seat on top of a dryer. Tonya was home at the time but had left the child unattended, Elk Grove Village Deputy Chief Larry Hammar said.
Hammar said there was no sign of foul play at the time and that investigators focused on the furnace as the likely cause of the blaze. But no exact cause was ever found and the manner of death was never determined by the doctor who examined her body. Gabrielle's case file was pulled for review early Thursday, a source said.
Knew of no problems
The family moved out of Elk Grove Village after the fire.
A family friend said there had been some recent strains in the family, largely because of a college classmate of Nikolai's who had been staying at the house.
Tanev said he was not aware of any problems. He said Tonya was the only member of the church who did not speak Bulgarian, which might have made her feel lonely. But neither he nor other members believe she killed her children.
"I liked her from the first moment,'' the woman said. "She was full of life.''