Loved ones are mourning the loss of Ilya Tsaruk and Sophia Kovalevich of Snohomish, Washington, and their unborn baby following a tragic drowning in Hawaii, . “She was going to become a girl mom,” said Tia Tsaruk, Sophia’s sister-in-law, who was on vacation with the couple in Maui when they died. “They never came back to us.
” The Maui Fire Department reported that firefighters responded to swimmers in distress on Saturday afternoon. First responders located the pregnant 26-year-old in the water and brought her to shore, but despite CPR efforts, she was pronounced dead. Crews later found her husband, also 26, on the ocean floor about 150 yards from shore, where he too was pronounced dead.
USA TODAY has reached out to the victims’ family and church, the Sulamita Slavic Church. The couple leaves behind an 18-month-old son. “We lost a dear sister and brother, daughter and son, and beautiful niece,” wrote Andrew Tupikov in an online .
“Ilya and Sophia both loved the Lord and were always serving in the church.”.