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Suspect Caught

Soltys Reportedly Found in Sacramento Suburb

Aug. 30 — Nikolay Soltys, the Ukrainian immigrant wanted in the brutal slayings of six family members, was captured today in a family member's home in a Sacramento, Calif., suburb, sheriff's officials told ABCNEWS affiliate KXTV. Despite a nationwide manhunt, Soltys, 27, managed to elude authorities for 10 days after the rampage. He is in custody after police found him at his mother's home in the Citrus Heights suburb of Sacramento. Police grabbed the fugitive in the backyard after Soltys' brother called 911, sheriff's officials said.

Officers who captured Soltys at about 8 a.m. said he was barefoot, dirty and shabbily dressed, "and looked like he could have been hiding in a field somewhere," Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas told The Associated Press.

Soltys made the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, and the case was featured on the television program America's Most Wanted. Reward money offered for his capture exceeded $100,000.

Soltys allegedly slashed the throats of his family members on Aug. 20 in a killing spree that lasted several hours and led police on a gruesome search for victims throughout the area.

Police believe Soltys stabbed his 23-year-old pregnant wife Lyubov to death on the morning of Aug. 20, then drove to another home where he stabbed and killed his 9-year-old nephew, his 9-year-old niece and his aunt and uncle.

Soltys changed his bloody clothes and went to his mother's house, according to investigators. He picked up his 3-year-old son, who was later found dead in a cardboard box.

Pictures with notes scrawled on the back in Soltys' abandoned car led police to the boy's body and gave a hint to a motive for the killings — that Soltys believed his family members "spoke out" on too many topics, police said.

In the days since the slayings, police fielded reported sightings of Soltys in North Carolina, Tennessee and Oregon. But law enforcement officials primarily focused their search in the Sacramento area.

Soltys' relatives in the Sacramento area have been under police protection since the slayings.

KFBK Radio in Sacramento

-- Anonymous, August 30, 2001