Strange and unnatural deaths of Christian refugees for religious reasons in Oregon

· On Emigration, Vestibule, Portland, Pentecostals

In Oregon’s capital, Salem, the investigation continues into the mysterious murder of the Lazukin family, reports MirVam.org. Relatives of Nikolai Lazukin say they do not believe the police version that the head of the family, Nikolai Lazukin, killed his wife and three children and then took his own life. Nikolai’s brother Andrei Lazukin spoke about this Thursday on a live broadcast of Radio 7 in Portland.

https://www.facebook.com/c0deZ

As Nikolai’s other brother, Artem Lazukin, wrote on his Facebook page, the victim was found in his car with his throat cut and his fingers and ribs broken. Artem Lazukin also published two photos of the deceased, which show bruises on his face. He writes that Nikolai is not guilty and that the authorities are deliberately concealing information.

Here is what Artem Lazukin writes; we reproduce the material without changes (in English):

Personally, I’m tired of the news media manipulating the public. The investigators and detectives are being run by the shadow government. I can’t watch it when innocent people get framed for other peoples’ mistakes and there is intentional miss-information. Something that happened on Monday night, Tuesday morning is much deeper than anyone could imagine. I know people will start talking more about this, but Nick is innocent. He was found dead in the jeep. His throat is sliced, all his fingers broken, his ankles broken, his eyes knocked out. Looking at the evidence there was more than 3 people involved in this massacre. Why would Nick break every one of his fingers, ankles, break his ribs and his right hand so hard that it would become like rubber. If you still think this is a suicide, then I’m sorry but you don’t have a brain and you rely on someone else’s thinking. There are people that know what happened, and when it happened, and intentionally are hiding it from the public. I just want to clear up Nicks name once and for all. Nick is INNOCENT! The text message that some people received from “Nick” is not from Nick. It is not how he talks, chats, texts. It’s too perfect and well prepared. Judging by his fingers there is no way he could even hold an object in his hands, nor even see through his eyes.

According to the forensic pathologist’s conclusion, death resulted from a gunshot wound to the head. One version suggests murder followed by suicide. Police believe Nikolai Lazukin first killed his family, set the house on fire, then drove some distance away and shot himself in the head. However, neither the police nor the pathologist have officially called the death a suicide yet.

We remind you that on Tuesday morning in Salem, firefighters discovered the bodies of 26-year-old Natalya Lazukina, Nikolai’s wife, three-year-old Angelica, one-year-old Zoe, and infant Sefi in the Lazukins’ burned‑out home. Sefi had been strangled; the rest were shot.

In addition, as RIA Novosti reported on Friday, the body of another man—21-year-old Devin Matlock—was found on a road near the murder scene. According to KATU News, on the day of the tragedy, he was recording music in his friend’s studio about 150 meters from the Lazukin home. Police are investigating a possible link between the Lazukin murders and Matlock’s death.

On Wednesday, one of the Salem police investigators working the case emerged from the Lazukin house carrying a rifle case and placed it in his car, notes the news site Oregon Live.com. He did not tell journalists what weapon was in the case.

The deceased family’s relatives continue to try to convince Salem police and the media that he would never have done such a thing to his loved ones. Lazukin’s brother-in-law Cody Campbell stated that Nick was a good husband and loving father. According to him, during a meeting with him and his brother Artem Lazukin the day before the tragedy—Monday, May 21—he noticed no signs of depression or low mood in the man.
The Lazukins’ neighbors unanimously describe them as a wonderful family, kind and attentive parents. They say the family regularly attended Sunday church services and planned to send their daughters to Sunday school when they were older.

Relatives do not rule out that the Lazukin family could have been targeted by unknown persons who, after killing Nikolai, set him up as the murderer and suicide. Cody Campbell told KPTV that when the family was shown Nick’s body, it looked as if the man had been beaten before he died: bruises on his arm and all over his body, hemorrhaging around his eyes.

At the same time, state forensic medical examiner Dr. Karen Gunson insists that no signs that Nikolai Lazukin was beaten were found during the autopsy. Because the victim shot himself in the head, hemorrhaging formed around the eyes, the expert notes. The remaining bruises are also related to the way blood pools after death.

More than 100 people gathered for a memorial service at the Lazukins’ home on Wednesday evening. Members of the teen choir of the Slavic Christian Church in Salem, where the Lazukins were parishioners, tied inflated balloons to the wall of the house and sang the hymn “O, Grace” in Russian.

“They were wonderful people. Nick (Nikolai) loved his children. I don’t know why this could have happened, but sometimes people change,” Irina Thompson, a relative of Nikolai, told the news agency. She called Natalia “a very strong person.” She also noted that Nikolai “was always very cheerful.” “He constantly made us laugh, but he was also a very generous man; he never held a grudge,” Thompson said. Peter Ignatovich, an administrator of the Slavic Christian Church, for his part, called the Lazukins “a very happy couple.” Nikolai and Natalia Lazukina were members of the Pentecostal Slavic Church in Salem, where the pastor is Vyacheslav Boynetsky.

Eleven days before the murder of the Lazukin family and David Matlock, on May 11, Nikolai Lazukin’s 22‑year‑old cousin Natalia Tupikova, who had been missing since the night of May 9, 2012, was found dead. She was found in a ditch near State Route 503 and Main Street in Battle Ground, Washington. Police believe she was hit by a car. Natalia attended the “Smyrna” church of Nikolai Kotyakov in Battle Ground, where the funeral service took place on May 16.

Materials on this topic:

Some details of the death of a Christian family in Salem have become known

A family of Russian‑speaking Christians found dead in Oregon

statesmanjournal.com

It was initially reported that the Lazukins came from Russia, but it was later established that they had come to the United States from Ukraine. In discussing what drove Nikolai Lazukin to commit such a grave crime, the press has advanced the theory that the faith he adhered to could have led to the tragic outcome. According to the newspaper “Izvestia,” the Lazukins were parishioners of a neo‑Pentecostal Slavic Christian Church, which some Russian experts classify as a sect. The publication found that the pastor of the “Good News” church is Vyacheslav Boynetsky, who founded it in the early 1990s. In 1992 he emigrated to the United States and gathered a congregation of immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Oregon.

Yevgeny Mukhtarov, a member of the council for conducting state religious‑studies expert reviews under the Russian Ministry of Justice, told Izvestia that, in his opinion, Boynetsky’s church is one of the varieties of neo‑Pentecostal sects. “The ‘signature feature’ of neo‑Pentecostals is ‘speaking in other tongues,’ when a believer falls into a trance during worship,” the expert noted. Mukhtarov claims that specialists from the Serbsky Institute have previously studied this form of worship specifically and concluded that it can cause irreparable harm to mental health.

As in other sects, pastors are extremely interested in retaining parishioners, since they are required to give a tenth of their income to the church and make regular donations, the expert emphasized.

It is worth noting that despite such interpretations by experts from the Ministry of Justice, who label most believers not belonging to Russia’s “traditional” four religions as sectarians, neo‑Pentecostals are nonetheless officially represented on the Presidential Commission for Relations with Religious Organizations.

Video of the funeral service from Salem Pentecostal Church

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On May 31, 2012, a conversation with relatives of Nikolai and Natalia Lazukin aired live on Portland Christian radio. Natalia’s father declined to say much on the radio, but stated that if church pastors were concerned about the problems of families, such tragedies would not happen. He also said that he had seen Nikolai and Natalia a week before the tragedy. They were withdrawn and worried, and did not refuse to discuss anything that had happened. During the program it was said that Nikolai did not maintain warm relations with Natalia’s family, owned a pistol, gambled in casinos and lost heavily, and owed certain amounts of money. The Lazukin family sometimes came to church on Sundays. When the discussion turned to Nikolai, his father protested vehemently. Nikolai’s relatives believe he is innocent, asserting that a person who prays fervently cannot kill his family. They have prophecies.

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