Oshrenko family murder trial begins in Beersheba

Suspect’s mother: I don’t want to believe it was him.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
The trial of Dimitry Kirilik, charged with first-degree murder in the brutal killings of the Oshrenko family that shocked the nation last October, opened Monday at Beersheba District Court.
Kirilik, 39, is charged with murdering Ludmilla and Edward Oshrenko, both 56, their son Dimitry, 32, and his wife Tatiana, 28, and their children Revital, three, and Natanel, three months old, before attempting to set the house ablaze to destroy evidence linking him to the murder.
Dimitry’s wife, Natalia Kirilik, who is charged with manslaughter, destruction of evidence, conspiracy and robbery, is also on trial.
Olga Kirilik, Dimitry’s mother, and Maria Ilynich, Natalia’s sister, testified Monday, and Dimitry and Natalia’s teenage daughter was set to take the stand.
In her testimony, Olga said she could not recall specific details about the weekend over which the murders occurred.
“I still do not believe that there is any connection between my son and the murder,” Olga said. “Maybe I simply do not want to believe that it is him.”
When the police previously questioned Olga, she reported that she came home Saturday morning from her job to see her son cut up and bloody. However, in her recent testimony she claims not to remember whether she saw her son on Saturday or the next day, Sunday, and that he told her he was simply “in a fight.”
“Nothing special happened,” she said. “I had no idea that something serious had happened. This happened half a year ago, I don’t remember if I saw Dimitry on Saturday or Sunday, but when I did see him, he told me that he had been beaten up.”
Olga added that when she came home on Saturday morning the suspect’s door was closed. She then went to sleep, and when she woke up, she went to work and didn’t see her family until later that evening.
During the initial investigation, Olga stated that a few days after the murder she visited her son in jail, and that in a confrontation between them she had asked her son why he did it.
In her testimony Monday, she claimed that by “it” she was not referring to the murders, rather to the allegations against him.
“I said to him, ‘Dimitry, why did you do this?’ and he said to me ‘Mom,don’t make a circus out of this.’ I said this to him because I heard hewas being accused of it, but I still don’t think that there is anyconnection between him and the murder.”
Dimitry’s sister-in-law Maria, who was residing at the family’s houseduring that time, also testified. When Maria was questioned byNatalia’s defense attorney, Avi Cohen, as to whether her sister wasafraid of Dimitry, she confirmed that she was. Nonetheless, Mariarefused to say where that feeling stemmed from, and remained silent onthe stand.
Maria said that on the morning of the murder her sister looked pale andfrightened, and proceeded to take pills after she returned from a briefpolice questioning.
“Natalia was pale, her head hurt and she was unable to stand upright.She entered a state of shock after she heard of the murder on theradio,” claimed Maria.