Soltys Joins FBI Most Wanted List

Authorities Say Criminal Associates Likely Helping Him Avoid Capture

(CBS)  The man suspected in a rampage that killed six family members may have several thousand dollars at his disposal as he tries to elude a manhunt that now has him on the FBI's Most Wanted list, authorities said.

Nikolay Soltys, 27, is believed to have stolen several thousand dollars from the home where he allegedly killed his aunt, uncle and two young cousins Monday, said sheriff's Capt. John McGinness. He also allegedly extorted money from community members, meaning he could have up to $15,000 in cash on hand.

"If you look at the handful of his associates and the people he could intimidate for things like welfare money, he could be pretty well set in terms of cash," McGinness said.

Despite reports placing Soltys in the southeastern United States, police believe he is probably still in the Sacramento area. The reward fund for his arrest rose to $70,000 on Thursday as Soltys' name was placed on the Most Wanted list.

Adding Soltys to the list means more publicity and manpower, said Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas. "Most wanted" posters of Soltys will be posted nationally and internationally, said Richard Baker, special agent in charge of the FBI's Sacramento office.

Soltys is accused of stabbing his pregnant wife to death on Monday and then driving 20 miles to the suburb where he allegedly slashed the aunt, uncle and cousins. Authorities said Soltys showed up bloody and disheveled at his mother's house shortly after the slayings, where he picked up his 3-year-old son, who was later found with his throat cut.

That contradicts the mother's earlier claims her son was calm and clean.

"We never did believe it," McGinness said. "She's still reluctant to say she saw blood, but she did."

Soltys left a cryptic note on the back of a photograph suggesting he killed his family members to punish them and other family members for speaking outside the family.

But police suspect Soltys may have gone to his relatives' home in Rancho Cordova looking for money to help him flee after killing his wife.

Police also believe he may have pressured elderly Sacramento immigrants for a portion of their monthly aid money.

"He's a thug," McGinness said.

Tight-knit immigrant communities facing language barriers and cultural isolation are especially vulnerable to such threats and extortion, said Marouf Jwanmery of the National Crime Prevention Council in Washington, D.C. Immigrants, now 25 percent of California's population, will often pay cash to avoid beatings, Jwanmery said.

Distrustful of banks and police because of bad experiences back home, immigrants are doubly vulnerable, he said. Rejecting banks, "they have cash under the mattress."

When victimized, immigrants often fear retaliation and don't report crimes, Jwanmery said.

CBS News Correspondent John Blackstone reports the appeal for information is broadcast often on Sacramento's Russian language radio station, knowing every listener may feel threatened.

Soltys habeen known as a cruel man even toward his own parents, the Ukrainian newspaper Fakty reported Thursday.

In an interview, Soltys' father-in-law, Ihor Nakonechnyi, said Soltys attacked his wife with an ax in their village in western Ukraine's Ternopil region.

The Nakonechnyi family was planning to attend their daughter's funeral. A memorial service has been scheduled for Sunday for the slain family members at 10 a.m. at the Bethany Slavic Missionary Church outside Sacramento.

Police in California and Charlotte, N.C., where Soltys once lived, are protecting his relatives. He also has family in Seattle and New York state.

Soltys likely has criminal associates helping him avoid capture, police said, possibly involved with an auto-theft ring. Soltys may have had access to unregistered cars, such as the mid-90s emerald green Ford Explorer in which he was last seen, McGinness said.

However, Soltys was not mechanically inclined, he said, and hired a mechanic Monday night to remove the Explorer's roof rack.

That was the last confirmed sighting of Soltys, and the last time his son was seen alive. The boy was wearing a T-shirt featuring a teddy bear — the same shirt he was wearing when he was found face down in a cardboard box on a trash pile Tuesday afternoon.

Because he has killed with such ease and brutality, McGinness said, Soltys is likely to kill again. "He does appear to get some satisfaction by what he's done. There are easier and simpler ways to commit a murder.

"I think he enjoys it."