A 21-year-old Ukrainian refugee, Kateryna Tovmash, was shot and killed in her home in North Carolina early on Saturday, Feb. 14, US authorities said.
The Moore County Sheriff’s Office said that deputies responded to a shooting at about 7:45 a.m. EST at a residence in the Woodlake community of Vass. Inside the home, officers found Kateryna and her 28-year-old partner, Matthew Wade, dead.
According to investigators, their main suspect is Tovmash’s ex-boyfriend, 25-year-old Caleb Hayden Fosnaugh.
Local officials said Fosnaugh traveled to North Carolina before the attack and unlawfully entered the house where Tovmash was staying with her younger siblings. Two school-age sisters and a six-year-old brother were inside the home at the time.
According to an Instagram post by Kateryna’s brother, the suspect woke the children and forced the young boy to show him where his sister was sleeping. He then opened fire, killing Kateryna and her partner.
The suspect fled the scene but was detained in Ohio on the same day, following coordination between law enforcement agencies.
Fled Russia’s War in Ukraine
In his Instagram post, Kateryna’s brother Mykhailo Tovmash, said his sister had fled Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“A refugee who fled the war in Ukraine seeking safety in the United States was murdered in her own home,” he wrote.
Her younger siblings were not physically harmed, he added.
Kateryna was originally from the central Ukrainian city of Bila Tserkva and had lived in the US for about two years.
The police investigation into her death is ongoing.
Another Ukrainian refugee killed in the state
The killing follows another fatal attack on a Ukrainian refugee in North Carolina last year.
On Aug. 22, 2025, Iryna Zarutska was traveling on a Charlotte New Light Rail train when a man attacked her from behind with a knife, security footage showed. The attack was unprovoked.
Zarutska, who fled Ukraine with her family in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion, was fatally stabbed.
The perpetrator, identified as 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, had multiple prior convictions, including eight years in prison for armed robbery, and early reports indicate he has a history of mental illness. Brown has since been charged with first-degree murder.
Her murder received little national attention initially, but recently surged in visibility after Republican lawmakers and far-right influencers shared CCTV footage of the attack.