A Minnesota man has entered guilty pleas on two counts of premeditated first-degree murder for killing his wife and unborn child last May. He will spend more than 65 years in prison for the crimes, in which he attempted to escape his home with the couple’s two children.
Authorities believe that Yevgeniy “Eugene” Savenok killed his wife out of fear that she was going to leave him and take their two children, according to court records. At the time of the murder, Lyuba Savenok was 26-weeks pregnant when Savenok stabbed her more than a dozen times in their home.
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Yevgeniy had already moved out of the home the two shared when the murder occurred, as the couple had become estranged.
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Officers replied to the domestic disturbance in May to discover the chilling scene, with Lyuba already dead on the floor with the murder weapon still plunged into her chest.
After being rushed to the hospital, a medical team performed an emergency cesarean section on the victim and the boy survived for a few minutes after being removed from his mother, but ultimately passed away.
Prior to committing the murder, Savenok placed their two children in his car before returning to the home he used to share with Lyuba to attack her.
Savenok fled the scene in Eden Prairie, MN to bring the children to a hospital in St. Paul, MN, where he confessed to the murder to a security guard.
When speaking to detectives, Savenok detailed how his marriage was ending and his wife would potentially take his children from him and the killing her was his “only way out.”
Lyuba’s sister was also at the residence at the time of the attack, and when she first saw Savenok restrain her sister in a headlock, fled the house to contact 911.
Savenok’s attorney’s told PEOPLE that “part of the desire to bring this case to a close was to allow everyone to now focus on the best interests of the two surviving Savenok children.” As far as how he was able to pull off such heinous crimes, his attorney’s claim their client was “in a very depressed and confused state of mind.”
Lyuba’s family set up a GoFundMe in the aftermath of the crimes, in which the victim was described as “an amazing mother of two beautiful children, a dear daughter to her parents, an amazing sister to her siblings and a faithful friend to many.”
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[H/T PEOPLE]
