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American Morning
Nation Wide Manhunt For Nikolay Soltys
Aired August 27, 2001 - 11:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A tough weekend in Sacramento. It has been a week now since six members of a California family were stabbed to death.
Friends and family members of the victims gathered yesterday in Sacramento for funeral services for the six victims. The suspected killer, the husband and father of two of the victims, remains on the run. He is 27-year-old Nikolay Soltys, an immigrant from Ukraine. And he is now on the FBI's 10 most-wanted list. Authorities say they've received more than 100 tips since the case was featured Saturday night on the FOX television show "America's Most Wanted."
Joining us now on the phone with the latest on the case, Sergeant James Lewis with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.
Sergeant, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
SGT. JAMES LEWIS, SACRAMENTO CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: Good morning, thanks for having me.
KAGAN: Was it is a big help to your department having this featured on "America's Most Wanted?"
LEWIS: Absolutely. Every effort from the media has been a great deal of help. After it aired, we had about 200 calls in the 12-hour period. We're going through those tips now.
KAGAN: Anything lead to anything so far?
LEWIS: Not so far. But we do have some tips that we have prioritized as ones that need to be investigated immediately. In addition to that, we have the lower priority ones that will start being investigated once we get through all of the priorities.
KAGAN: Are you getting a sense of where Mr. Soltys might be?
LEWIS: We're still concentrating here in the Sacramento area, just because of the fact that we haven't had any sightings that were credible that may be in some other part of the country. We're not ruling out the possibility that he could be somewhere else, but again, you have to start somewhere, and all of the roads lead right now to the Sacramento area.
KAGAN: What was the latest possible sighting of him? LEWIS: Sometime last week, middle of last week, we had a sighting where he was identified as being in a green Ford Explorer, which is the vehicle that we're now still searching for. That's been widely broadcast, so we're hoping that a sighting of that will lead to his ultimate apprehension.
KAGAN: Was that the car that was supposedly involved in a car accident?
LEWIS: That's right. It was -- actually a witness reported that she came into contact with the rear of the vehicle. It was a low, very minor collision. And when she pulled over to exchange information, the car sped off.
KAGAN: Is it possible that Mr. Soltys has changed his appearance?
LEWIS: That's entirely possible. Although, I don't know what he could do that would alter his appearance significantly. The reality is, is that he has a very thick Ukrainian accent. He doesn't have a lot of distinguishing marks or anything that distinguishes him from anyone else. It would be somewhat difficult to change his appearance.
KAGAN: Before this case came up, I don't think a lot of people realized that there is this significant and large Ukrainian community in the Sacramento area. Do you think that he could be hiding in there? And are you getting good cooperation from the community?
LEWIS: The community as a whole has been very cooperative. They were a little reluctant initially, but we've been working really hard to get through those boundaries.
One of the first things that we first faced, obviously, was just the sheer language boundary...
KAGAN: Sure.
LEWIS: ... but we've overcome that, and have got a good deal of cooperation. But it's still possible that somebody within the community could be enabling him, or even harboring him.
KAGAN: And you have a national audience here, sir. So, if people do think they have information about his whereabouts, what should they do with it?
LEWIS: Anybody that has information should get ahold of us. We have a 1800 number of 1-800-AA-CRIME, and that goes through our crime alert system here in the Sacramento area, and those tips get to us directly.
KAGAN: Very good. Sergeant James Lewis with the Sacramento Country Sheriff's Department. Thanks for joining us.
LEWIS: Thank you.
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