Texas police arrest estranged wife of Ukranian pianist in daughters’ deaths

By NOMAAN MERCHANT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

9 years ago

Award-winning concert pianist Vadym Kholodenko poses with his wife, Sofya Tsygankova, and daughters Nika, 4, and Michela, at their home in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2014. Benbrook Police Cmdr. David Babcock said Monday, March 21, 2016, that police have arrested Tsygankova, Kholodenko’s now-estranged wife, in the deaths of the two young children. (Joyce Marshall/Star-Telegram via AP, File)

DALLAS — Texas police say they’ve arrested the estranged wife of an internationally renowned pianist on capital murder charges in the deaths of the couple’s two young children.

Benbrook Police Cmdr. David Babcock said Monday that police have served an arrest warrant on Sofya Tsygankova, the wife of the Ukranian pianist Vadym Kholodenko.

Police found the couple’s two children, 5-year-old Nika Kholodenko and 1-year-old Michela Kholodenko, slain in their beds Thursday in Benbrook, a suburb of Fort Worth. Authorities said Tsygankova was in an “extreme state of distress.”

She remains in a Fort Worth hospital for a mental health evaluation. Authorities say she suffered knife wounds.

Vadym Kholodenko won the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth in 2013.

An attorney for Tsygankova did not return immediately messages Monday.