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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

FBI Puts Nikolay Soltys on 10 Most Wanted List

Aired August 28, 2001 - 20:00   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.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, inside a manhunt. He's accused of butchering six members of his California family. More than a week after the killings, the victims have been buried and Nikolay Soltys is on the FBI's list of 10 most wanted fugitives. The Ukrainian immigrant is considered armed and extremely dangerous. And while he may still be in the Sacramento area, law enforcement officials say he could be anywhere.

We'll examine how authorities go about hunting down fugitives. And I'll discuss the manhunt with investigators from the FBI and the Sacramento County Sheriff's department and with John Walsh, crime fighting host of "America's Most Wanted."

Good evening, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting tonight from Washington.

Nikolay Soltys is 27 years old. He came to this country from Ukraine. He speaks English with a heavy Russian accent. He's also now in the FBI's 10 most wanted list, suspected in the killing last week of six members of his own family.

Law enforcement authorities around the country and in Canada are engaged in a massive search for him. They concede they don't have many leads and desperately want your help. And that's our focus tonight: inside a manhunt.

The killing spree began in a Sacramento suburb of North Highlands, where Soltys' wife, three months pregnant, was found fatally stabbed in front of a neighbor's house. Authorities say Soltys then drove a few miles away to the home of relatives in Rancho Cordova. His elderly aunt and uncle were killed inside. Outside, their 10-year-old grandson was found dead and their 9-year-old granddaughter was found fatally wounded.

At this point, authorities issued a nationwide alert for Soltys, who had been seen leaving both locations just ahead of the authorities. After the killings, Soltys had picked up his three-year- old son from his mother's house in another suburb. Following a clue left in his abandoned car, authorities found the toddler's body the next day, in a cardboard box in a remote location in a neighboring county.

Within days, Soltys was added to the FBI's 10 most wanted list. He is described as armed and extremely dangerous and may now be traveling in a dark green Ford Explorer of mid '90s vintage. Soltys has ties as far as Canada and North Carolina, but investigators say at this point, they don't know where he is.

A lot of tired and -- tried and tested police work goes into the search for a fugitive.

We asked CNN investigative correspondent Art Harris to break it down for us. He looks now at the anatomy of a manhunt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just over a week after six Ukrainian immigrants are murdered in Sacramento, police use the accused killer's mother to appeal for his surrender.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Turn yourself in immediately. There has been too much pain and suffering in our community.

HARRIS: Local sheriffs' deputies and the FBI use old-fashioned techniques, like knocking on doors. And officers who speak Russian. But Nikolay Soltys, 27, is still on the lam. It's another manhunt, another accused serial killer. A search for clues in motive and where to find him.

The crime busting tool, say police, are the tried and true.

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE DETECTIVE: Beating the bushes, that's the first thing you want to do. And after you've exhausted all those kind of things, databases, see if they have any prior criminal history, look for credit reports, where they might have lived in the past, last known addresses, last known associates.

HARRIS: Another murder, another manhunt. Gianni Versace, designer to stars and superstars.

JOHN DOUGLAS, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Versace's clothes demanded attention.

HARRIS: And so did his killer, who told friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody has an impression of who I am, but nobody knows the real me.

HARRIS: Andrew Cunanan, wanna-be celebrity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He definitely made a career lifestyle being a gigolo.

HARRIS: A gay gigolo with fading appeal, who left bodies and shell casings behind. A spree killer, the FBI called him, as they appealed for tips.

DOUGLAS: A serial killer is someone who kills three or more victims. And there's a cooling off period in between each of the victims. In a spree killing, the difference is there is no cooling off period. The person just keeps killing and killing and kills with frequency. HARRIS: It's a full court press, FBI undercover agents dressed to blend in at airports, bus stations, South Beach, and gay neighborhoods.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a close working relationship with the gay community now for quite some time. They have been very helpful.

HARRIS: Then, a yacht break-in. The owner calls 911, hears a gunshot. Cunanan has just killed himself with the same gun he's used before.

In Texas, another serial killer rode the rails in 1999, Rafael Resendez Ramirez, beating three people to death and leaving clues linking him to at least five others. It was a case of extraordinary violence, DNA evidence and fingerprints, and a unique lucky break few cases see. The fugitive surrendered.

Art Harris, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And while the search for Nikolay Soltys goes door-to- door in Sacramento's large immigrant community, it's also stretching coast-to-coast.

To help us go inside the manhunt, I'm joined now by Sergeant James Lewis of the Sacramento County Sheriff's department and FBI special agent Nick Rossi, both in Sacramento. And from CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm joined by John Walsh, the host of "America's Most Wanted," who featured this case Saturday night on his program, which over the years has helped nab close to 700 fugitives.

I want to begin with you first of all, John. Tell us if your program Saturday night resulted in any really solid leads?

JOHN WALSH, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": Well, we got 137 tips, Wolf. And what really incensed me, we changed the whole program on Saturday night to put Nikolay Soltys on the top of FBI's 10 most wanted. And as you know, last week we had great luck. We nailed Eric Rosser, FBI top 10 pedophile Thailand.

So the FBI, the Sheriff's Department and the U.S. Marshall said, "Can you get Nikolay Soltys on the show on Saturday night?" We did and we got 137 tips. As you said earlier, the Sacramento PD, the FBI, the marshals are working feverishly to try to nail this guy.

I mean, this guy has crossed the line, killed three children. He's dangerous psychotic. And we got some information in the last couple days that he was small-time criminal. He was extorting people in the Ukrainian community to get them on welfare by asking them to give him money. So he's pretty ruthless.

But I still say this, and I want to make this appeal to the Ukrainian community. I know you're probably afraid of calling police. They're from the former Soviet block countries. They were afraid of the KGB. They were afraid of authorities. They don't want to work with authorities.

If you know where the guy is, you can call "America's Most Wanted" 1-800-CRIMETV. You can give us that tip.

You talked about Resendez Ramirez, Wolf. We got the tip from Resendez Ramirez' sister in California who watched the show and said, "I cannot stand the killing anymore." She told us where he was in Mexico. And he surrendered because the Texas Rangers went down there because of a tip from a relative. I'm saying if you're harboring this guy or you know where guy is, he's liable to kill you. Make that call.

BLITZER: All right, let's go to Sergeant Lewis. Update us on how this investigation is moving along. Do you have any hard leads about the whereabouts of Nikolay Soltys right now?

JAMES LEWIS, SACRAMENTO SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: Well, nothing we can sink our teeth into, but we do have about 900 tips that have come into our command center. A lot of that was directly attributed to the airing of "America's Most Wanted" broadcast and the intense media coverage here in the area and across the nation. So we've been able to prioritize some of those leads, pass them out to investigators. And we're working on them feverishly.

BLITZER: Agent Rossi, take us inside. I know the role of the FBI is obviously very intense right now. Take us inside Nikolay Soltys. Tell us who he is?

NICK ROSSI, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, you know, Wolf, one of the things that's been difficult about this investigation is that we've gotten a variety of different accounts of just who this guy is. And we're working right now to try to confirm those details.

As John Walsh mentioned, some information has suggested that perhaps he was a petty thief or perhaps extorting members of own community. But at the same time, we've gotten other information suggesting that he was kind of a dullard and somebody who really didn't do very much at all.

On the flip side of that, you've got information back in the Ukraine. He ran a business. He tried unsuccessfully apparently to get into the military there.

One of things we're doing right now is contacting our office in Kiev, Ukraine and asking them to try to follow up with authorities in the Ukraine about his history, because we've heard so many different stories, especially from Ukrainian newspaper accounts suggesting that perhaps he had history of domestic violence and perhaps he was found to be unfit for service because of his mental condition. Those are all very speculative right now. And those of the kind of things we're trying to confirm as we work towards developing an accurate profile of this guy.

BLITZER: John Walsh, you've been doing this now for some 13 years. Tell us -- compare this search for Nikolay Soltys to some of the other major manhunts that you've observed over the years? WALSH: Well, we've tracked a lot of serial killers. I was there in Miami when Andrew Cunanan was caught. We had profiled him every week. We actually profiled him when he committed his first two murders. He killed his ex-lover and his lover's new friend. And we tracked him around the country.

Nikolay Soltys is a very dangerous psychotic guy. I think he's very unpredictable. I know that the FBI and the Sacramento Sheriff's Department know that he his a loose cannon. I mean, anybody that can stab and slit the throat of 9-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, and then beat your own son to death and leave him in a cardboard box is very different than most the serial killers we profile on "America's Most Wanted" and most of the serial killers that the FBI's looking for.

This guy has crossed the line. He's psychotic. He's very mentally disturbed. Just like the FBI just said, he's a slackard. And people think that he killed his aunt and uncle because they criticized him for not having a job.

I say he's a wild card. I say that he's not like the typical spree killer. He's not like the typical serial killer. He's crossed the line and killed his own relatives. And when you kill three children, you have nothing to lose. This guy's dangerous, violent, and he needs to be taken down. And if anybody has one inconsequential tip that they think is important, please, have the guts to make that call.

BLITZER: Sergeant Lewis, we heard now from John Walsh, from FBI agent Rossi, that perhaps he was involved in extortion and may in fact, as some law enforcement authorities suspect, have a large amount of cash on hand. Can you confirm that? And if does have a lot of cash, presumably he could get out of this country?

LEWIS: Yes, that's certainly something that we're looking into. We've talked to a number of people who have given us, again, differing accounts of what this guy is all about. We have got reports that he was involved in extortion, that he was extorting some of the elderly people within the Ukrainian community.

None of those are confirmed reports. Because of the nature of the crime, extortion, the victims don't generally come forward to law enforcement for fear of retribution. If he does, in fact, have the means to support himself, that certainly extends the boundaries with which could travel.

We're focusing here in the Sacramento area because that's where the leads have led us, but we're not closing our mind to the possibility that he could be anywhere throughout the United States or abroad.

BLITZER: And so, you've formerly gotten in touch with Interpol and asked them to help out in this search?

LEWIS: As a matter of fact, the FBI has made some of those notifications, primarily on the Canadian border as well, just based information that we've obtained during one of interviews that suggested he was aware of the lack of a passport needed to cross the border there.

BLITZER: All right, gentlemen, stand by. We have to take a quick break. In just a moment, we'll continue our discussion on the manhunt for Nikolay Soltys. And I'll also ask John Walsh, the host of "America's Most Wanted" about another intensive search, this one for Chandra Levy. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. We've been going inside a manhunt, discussing the search for Nikolay Soltys, accused of killing six members of his family last week in California. With me once again, from Sacramento are FBI special agent Nick Rossi and Sergeant James Lewis of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. And from CNN Center in Atlanta, John Walsh, the host of "America's Most Wanted."

Agent Rossi, there's been some suggestion perhaps that Nikolay Soltys may have some link to organized crime, the so-called Russian mob. Any evidence to back that up?

ROSSI: Unfortunately, Wolf, most of information that we've gotten at this point has been uncorroborated. It's largely speculative information from people that we're interviewing on the streets.

As you mentioned in your intro to this piece, one of the best things that we can do right now is simply pound the pavement, old fashioned police work, getting out and talking to people and going door to door. The thing is when you do that, oftentimes you get a variety of stories.

And right now, we're in the process of comparing those stories to one another and trying to see where the truth is. Because unfortunately, we've heard things at both end of the spectrum, you know, from those suggesting that he was a good churchgoing man, to others suggesting that he was involved in serious criminal activity. And we're trying to find out where the truth is.

BLITZER: Sergeant Lewis, how difficult is to penetrate the Ukrainian community, given some of the language barriers, obviously, the cultural differences? How much more complex is this investigation because of that factor?

LEWIS: Well, those factors, absolutely played made a major part in our investigation. The initial stages, we're faced with the significant language barrier. We've been able to overcome that with the use of interpreters and officers within our own department that speak the Russian or Ukrainian language.

The other aspects of this investigation that have been difficult are the cultural differences. The Ukrainian community is really distrustful of law enforcement for the best part. And we had a lot of difficulty getting information. We have since overcome those boundaries as well and are getting a good deal of cooperation from the community.

BLITZER: John Walsh, while I have you, as you probably know today, George Rivas, the mastermind of the so-called Texas Seven, the escapees last December who were on the loose for several days, finally captured in Colorado thanks to a tip to your program, "America's Most Wanted." He was appearing today at his sentencing hearing. I want you listen to what he said because I want to make some comparisons to this current manhunt. Listen to George Rivas right now, earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE RIVAS, CONVICTED MURDERER: I've been to a lot of violent prisons, but that one was actually the worst.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do you say that?

RIVAS: It was actually the first time I actually ever felt like an animal, actually.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it the inmates or was it the guards?

RIVAS: Actually, it wasn't the inmates. It was the guards, actually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You obviously a tip to your program, helped capture the Texas Seven. He obviously right now, doesn't want the death penalty. He's fighting to avoid that. What do you suspect that Texas jury is going to give them?

WALSH: Absolutely, he's going to get the death penalty, Wolf. You know, listening to that whining, wimp, coward makes we want to puke. There were three convicted murders, a child beater, two rapists. As a matter of fact, a guy who raped 12 women and stuck an ice pick through four of their chins. What the heck do they think they were in prison for? Because they're low life cowards.

They killed a cop on Christmas Eve. They shot him 11 times. They drove over his head with an SUV until his head was flat. You know what they deserve, Wolf? They deserve the death penalty. Makes me sick to hear this guy on the witness say he didn't like prison. What do you think he was in doing in prison in the first place?

He wasn't in there to learn how to play chess. He was in there to be punished for some horrible crimes. And he broke out and killed somebody. Makes me sick, Wolf. He's going to get the death penalty.

BLITZER: And we only have a few seconds left. John, while I have you, any new leads whatsoever in the search for Chandra Levy?

WALSH: No, a very, very frustrating case. And Wolf, I suspect the worst. And the Levys I think are prepared for the worst. Right now, what's killing them is the not knowing. And they just don't have a clue where her daughter is. We're going to keep doing the case until we get a tip, just like we've broken 680 cases. I say this again on to the Ukrainian community or anybody that knows where Chandra Levy or anything about her. If you're afraid of police and you don't want to call police, you can call "America's Most Wanted."

People have done it 680 times. We don't tape calls. We don't trace calls. Law enforcement officers, we work closely with them, but they don't answer the phones. If you know something about either one of these cases, have the guts to make that call.

BLITZER: All right, John Walsh, not only the host of "America's Most Wanted," the author of new book "Public Enemies," a good read. Thanks for joining us, Agent Rossi. Sergeant Lewis, thanks to both of you as well. We really appreciate it. Good luck in your search.

ROSSI: Thank you.

LEWIS: Thank you.

BLITZER: Thank you. And just ahead, we'll tell you how a standoff with suspected bank robber ended in Chicago.

Also, there's a new device to help people with weak hearts. We'll tell you how it works. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. In other top stories, a Chicago police officer is in critical condition tonight, after being shot when he tried to serve an arrest warrant for a suspected bank robber. Police say soon after an exchange of gunfire, the suspect took the officer hostage, along with family members. A three-hour standoff ensued, ending with the capture of the suspect.

A new twist on the use of replacement workers in the NFL. For the first time, the National Football League is set to use replacement officials. The move follows the breakdown of talks today in Dallas between the league and the NFL Referees Association. The replacement officials could take the field as early as Thursday night, for six exhibition games.

Another possible strike against one of the hottest pitchers in little league baseball. First, information surfaced that Danny Almonte may actually be 14, two years older than the League rules allow. Now, a U.S. official indicates the native of the Dominican Republic has overstayed his visa. In case you missed it, less than two weeks ago, Almonte pitched the first perfect game in the Little League World Series in 44 years.

Tonight on the "leading edge," new hope for people with congestive heart failure. Today the government approved a new pacemaker-like device that might help their hearts beat normally. Normal pacemakers work by zapping hearts that beat too slowly, or irregularly. The new device helps by boosting the pumping power of weak hearts, by delivering an electrical impulse that makes the ventricles pump together.

It was the first landfill in the country to cover its garbage with dirt every day, a milestone in the history of public health. For that distinction, Interior Secretary Gale Norton designated the Fresno, California landfill a historic landmark yesterday. Now others are crying foul, saying the facility has been on the EPA's Superfund toxic waste site list for 12 years.

Up next, I'll open our mailbag. Our coverage last night of Gary Condit's media campaign generated lots of reaction. Some of you still support him and hate us. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Time now to open our mailbag. The reaction to Gary Condit's media interviews continues to pour in.

J.J. in San Francisco writes this, "Who cares if he is a jerk? The real question is, did the police get all their questions answered by Condit? And are there any unanswered questions they still need to ask him?

Gabrielle from Newport Beach, California writes, "Condit does not merit being a leader of our country. With his distorted perception of reality, how could we trust him to vote on major issues for us, such as war, etcetera? And he blames the media for this?"

Remember, I want to hear from you. Please e-mail me at wolf@cnn.com. And you can read my daily online column and sign up for my e-mail previewing our nightly programs. Just go to my web site, www.cnn.com/wolf.

That's all the time we have tonight. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. "THE POINT WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN" begins right now.

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