Associated Press

Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas announces the capture of Nikolay Soltys at a news conference in Rancho Cordova, Calif., yesterday. Soltys, the 27-year old Ukrainian immigrant suspected of killing six family members last week, was caught in the backyard of his mother's home, ending a 10-day nationwide manhunt.

Friday August 31, 2001

CITRUS HEIGHTS, Calif. - A man sought for the killings of six of his relatives was captured while hiding under a desk in his mother's back yard yesterday, ending a 10-day nationwide manhunt.

Nikolay Soltys, 27, was found after his panicked family fled the home and his brother called 911 at about 8 a.m. Soltys apparently had sneaked into the yard during the night, authorities said.

The brother was so nervous he dialed 1-1-9 instead of 911, a witness said.

Authorities believe Soltys had been staying in woods behind the house. A sleeping bag was found nearby, along with a backpack containing a knife "consistent with the murder weapon," Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas said. Soltys had a metal potato peeler in his pocket and a map of the Sacramento area, Sacramento Police Sgt. Virgil Brown said.

He was barefoot, unshaven, dirty and shabbily dressed "and looked like he could have been hiding in a field somewhere," Blanas said. He did not resist arrest.

Soltys was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list in connection with the deaths of his pregnant wife, 3-year-old son and four other relatives.

Soltys' brother, mother and other family members were staying at his mother's house under surveillance from detectives. More than a dozen relatives, including the slain children's siblings, had been under police protection for the past week.

After spotting Soltys, the family members drove to a frame shop two or three blocks away, followed by detectives, and the brother called police, said sheriff's Capt. John McGinness.

Jennifer Murphy was unloading a shipment of frames when the family drove up.

"A man came up to me with his cell phone and he was all shaky. He kept pushing buttons 1-1-9, so I knew he wanted to dial 911," Murphy said. "I brought him into the store and dialed 911 for him."

Deputies then stormed the back yard and saw Soltys' feet sticking out from under the desk, which was next to an old refrigerator.

"He appeared as if he was going to run, but the inoperable refrigerator door was open, blocking his exit," said Joachim. "It wasn't a very good hiding place."

Police were unsure if the Ukrainian immigrant had remained in the Sacramento area since the killings.

"We never had any actual sightings we could verify outside of the Sacramento area," Blanas said.

Police say Soltys slashed the throat of his 23-year-old wife, Lyubov, at their North Highlands home on Aug. 20, then drove to another suburb to the home of his aunt and uncle, Galina Kukharskaya, 74, and Petr Kukharskiy, 75.

Police say Soltys killed the two and their 9-year-old grandchildren, Tatyana Kukharskaya and Dimitriy Kukharskiy, who lived next door.

Soltys allegedly went to his mother's house an hour later and cleaned up before leaving with his 3-year-old son, Sergey. The boy's body was found a day later in a cardboard box on a trash heap. Police suspect Soltys lured the boy there with new toys.

Soltys left notes in his abandoned car leading police to the body of his son and offering a rationale for the killings, investigators said. All were stabbed to death because they or other relatives "spoke out" about topics Soltys considered private, authorities said.

Deputies pursued more than 700 tips, including about 130 to the "America's Most Wanted" television program that aired a segment on Soltys Saturday night. A $120,000 reward had been posted for Soltys' arrest.

The search had expanded to Russian-Ukrainian communities in San Francisco and Oregon, and to Seattle, Charlotte, N.C., and Binghamton, N.Y., where Soltys once lived or had family ties.