WASHINGTON - A fugitive wanted for the murder of six relatives, including his pregnant wife and three-year-old son, has been captured by California police who found him hiding in his mother's garden.
Nikolay Soltys, 27, a Ukrainian immigrant, was discovered cowering beneath a desk at the property in the city ofSacramento, northeast of San Francisco. He had been on the run for 10 days.
Mr Soltys disappeared after allegedly slashing the throats of five members of his family in a killing spree that stunned the small West Coast Ukrainian community.
After the killings of his wife and four other members of his family he went on the run with his young son, Sergey.
Soon afterwards, police found notes in an abandoned car that led them to the child's body, dumped in a cardboard box. His throat had also been cut.
Many had expected that Mr Soltys, who was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, would take his own life before being captured.
But Lou Blanas, the Sacramento County Sheriff, said officers had found him on Thursday morning, apparently unharmed.
Police were tipped off about Mr Soltys's presence by his brother, who apparently left their mother's home and placed a call to the 911 emergency line.
"A short time ago officers who were [watching] the house ... arrested Nikolay Soltys, who was hiding under a desk in the rear yard. We have him in custody," Mr Blanas said.
He added that Mr Soltys was barefoot and dirty and "looked like he could have been hiding in a field somewhere".
He said: "As soon as we approached him, we pulled him out from under the desk and he didn't try to run or fight. He was not combative at all."
Television news showed Mr Soltys, dressed in a blue Tshirt, being put in a police car outside the house in the Citrus Heights neighbourhood, just a few miles from where the crimes occurred on 20 August.
Police said that Mr Soltys, an unemployed former shoemaker, apparently went on the killing spree to silence family members who had spoken about matters he considered private.
