Mother charged in kids' slayings
2 children stabbed at least 200 times each

By Liam Ford and John Keilman, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporter Mary Fergus contributed to this report
Published April 30, 2005


Tonya Vasilev, a woman described by friends as kind, caring and godly, was accused Friday of stabbing her two children to death in a frenzied attack at their Hoffman Estates home.

A Cook County judge denied bail for Vasilev, 34, who was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the Wednesday night killings of Christian, 9, and Gracie, 3. The medical examiner's office stated each child was stabbed more than 200 times, authorities said.

While prosecutors offered no motive in court for the slayings, investigators said Vasilev told police she had killed the children to protect them from members of the family's new church, fearing the children would be sexually abused.

"It is a nightmare," said friend Nadine Hill. "I cannot even believe it's real."

Authorities said Vasilev's husband, Nikolai, 36, returned home about 9:20 p.m. with a friend who had been staying with the family. He found his son on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood, mortally wounded.

Nikolai Vasilev picked up his son and walked toward the front door, frantically dialing 911, then headed upstairs with his friend, yelling for his daughter, Assistant State's Atty. Richard Karwaczka said.

Then, Karwaczka said, Nikolai Vasilev found Gracie upstairs in a pool of blood, and his wife sitting next to the child's body with a knife in her hand.

When officers arrived, they brought Christian outside to give him first aid, only to realize he had already died, said Hoffman Estates Police Lt. Rich Russo. Gracie also was dead at the scene, he said. Tonya Vasilev was taken to the Hoffman Estates Police Department, where she waived her Miranda rights and admitted the crime, Karwaczka said.

Investigators said Tonya Vasilev told police she first attacked her daughter and that her son tried in vain to get away when he saw what was happening. She then moved from one child to the other, inflicting more and more stab wounds, investigators said.

Russo said there was evidence the children had struggled during the attack. Tonya Vasilev had minor cuts on one hand when police arrived, but authorities said they didn't believe they were from a suicide attempt.

Tonya Vasilev appeared in court Friday afternoon wearing the baggy blue uniform of the Cook County Jail, her left hand wrapped in gauze. Meek and downcast, her soft voice wavered when she gave her name to the judge.

She said little more, only that she was not employed and had no lawyer aside from a court-appointed public defender.

It wasn't clear whether police videotaped Tonya Vasilev's alleged admission, a point raised by her public defender, Scott Slonim. He also criticized prosecutors for not submitting a written summary of their allegations.

"If they have such confidence in their evidence, I would hope that they would have mentioned it," Slonim said.

Tonya Vasilev's husband did not attend the bond hearing.

Tonya Vasilev grew up in a small rural community near Winston-Salem, N.C., friends said. She attended the now-defunct East Coast Bible College in Charlotte, receiving a degree in elementary education in 1993.

Former roommate Whitney Godfrey recalled Tonya Vasilev as kind, popular and diligent about her studies.

"She was just really into teaching and wanted to do it," she said.

Tonya married Nikolai Vasilev, a native of Bulgaria, while at the college, Godfrey said. They then studied at a theological institute in Cleveland, Tenn., coming to Chicago around 1996 so Nikolai Vasilev could work at a church here, said Rossen Spassov, a friend and minister.

In 2000, the couple lost their 3-month-old daughter in a fire at their Elk Grove Village townhouse. Tonya Vasilev twice had to be pulled from the smoke-filled home as she tried to save her child. Spassov said she later received psychological care.

Every parent is going to suffer after the death of a child," he said. "It only shows what a good mother she was."

The cause of the fire was never determined, though foul play was not suspected. Elk Grove Village police are now taking a second look at the case.

The Vasilev slayings come on the heels of another northwest suburban mother's conviction in the beating death of her newly adopted son. Earlier this month, a jury found Irma Pavlis of Schaumburg guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the 2003 death of her 6-year-old son from Russia.

"Tragedy happens everywhere, all the time," said Slonim, Vasilev's lawyer. "Sometimes, when it happens in the suburbs, it gets noticed. Clearly this is an unspeakable tragedy."

The tragedy was especially difficult for family friends to understand; they said they never saw any sign of trouble in the home.

"Nobody in the community had any idea there was any problem," said Stoyan Stoev, president of the Bulgarian American Council in Arlington Heights and a business acquaintance of Nikolai Vasilev. He described them as "a happy family with two young kids."

Yet the scene of the crime was so disturbing that the Police Department was offering counseling to everyone from the dispatcher who took the 911 call to the responding officers, Russo said.

"I don't think that it can get much worse than this," he said.