The young parents, who had an 18-month-old son and an unborn baby girl, tragically drowned while vacationing in Hawaii on Saturday.
Ilya and Sophia Tsaruk, from Washington state, were pregnant with their second child when they died in the water while swimming in the tropical paradise of Maui, according to local fire officials and family members.
Maui Fire and Marine Rescue responded to the Ahihi Kinau Wilderness Area just after noon after receiving a report of “swimmers and snorkelers in distress,” authorities said.
Emergency workers found 26-year-old Sophia unresponsive in the water and rushed her to shore, where firefighters began administering CPR.
She was with her husband, but when she was told he was nowhere to be found, she headed back out to sea to look for him.
Ilya, 25, was quickly found on the ocean floor about 100 to 150 yards from shore, fire officials said. He was brought to shore and emergency personnel began CPR.
But neither Sophia nor Elijah resumed breathing, and they were pronounced dead on the beach, along with Sophia's unborn baby, the Maui County Fire Department said in a statement.
The couple leaves behind an 18-month-old son, Logan, who was staying with his aunt and uncle while his parents were in Maui, according to a GoFundMe campaign set up to cover funeral expenses.
According to the fundraising page, the young parents were very involved in their church and loved God.
“Both Ilya and Sophia loved the Lord and were always serving in the church and serving those around them,” Andrey Tupikov wrote in a description of the campaign in both English and Russian. “Sophia had an angelic voice and together with Ilya she sang in the church worship group.”
The GoFundMe had exceeded its $100,000 goal by more than $6,000 as of Tuesday evening, and its founders said the money would go toward transporting Ilya and Sophia's bodies from Hawaii to Washington state.
“We are blessed to have had them both in our lives and have many wonderful memories and moments we shared with them. We will never forget their spirit of service and warm friendship. May God help us all to love and serve one another as Ilya and Sophia served,” Tupikov wrote.
