Ex-Wheaton man suspected in wife’s slaying

Husband held in Minnesota; troubles began here

Yeveginy and Lyubov Savenok posed for their engagement photo in 2010. (courtesy of Karrah Kobus Photography)

A 2010 wedding photo of Yeveginy and Lyubov Savenok. Lyuba Savenok was found stabbed to death Saturday and her husband, formerly of Wheaton, is being held on suspicion of murder. (courtesy of Karrah Kobus Photography)

Police were called to a home Saturday in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and found a 23-year-old woman stabbed multiple times. (courtesy of the Star Tribune/David Joles)

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By Justin Kmitch (jkmitch@dailyherald.com)

A 2008 graduate of Wheaton College is being held in a Minnesota jail, authorities said, suspected of stabbing to death his pregnant wife.

Yeveginy Savenok, 30, a standout wrestler at Wheaton College, is being held on suspicion of two counts of murder, according to Hennepin County jail records.

Police from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, responded to a domestic disturbance call at 10:37 a.m. Saturday at the home Savenok shared with his wife, Lyubov Savenok, and their two children. There, police say, they found the 23-year-old woman with multiple stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the Hennepin County Medical Center.

Police said Yeveginy Savenok, a 2004 graduate of Wheaton Warrenville South High School, turned himself in to St. Paul police about 1 p.m. Saturday. He was driving the couple’s SUV and had the couple’s 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter with him.

No charges in the case were expected before today, authorities said.

Police said they were called to the house for a domestic disturbance at least one other time in the past year; Savenok was facing criminal charges in connection with that case.

Chuck Laszewski, spokesman for the county attorney’s office, said Savenok was due in court Tuesday morning to face charges of violating an order of protection that Lyubov filed in Wheaton in 2014.

“The order of protection was out of Illinois, but the allegation is he violated it in Minnesota,” he said.

That order, filed on Aug. 27, 2014, claimed Lyubov Savenok was the victim of several domestic abuse incidents that month.

On Aug. 1, 2014, she wrote: “Hit me during sex. I yelled, pushed him off and called the police. He broke a window out of rage.”

Nine days later, on Aug. 10, 2014, she said he “wrestled and hit me repeatedly (45 min), left bruises and bloody nose.”

She wrote on Aug. 25, 2014, that he “pulled me up by the hair.”

Finally, on Aug. 27, 2014, she wrote, “The only way this will end is me in the hospital or him in jail.”

Court records also show Lyubov filed for divorce in DuPage County on Nov. 5, 2014, but voluntarily rescinded the filing on April 14, 2015.

The Rev. Edward Mamalat, of the First Russian Baptist Church in Wheaton, said he’s known Yeveginy Savenok “really well” since the two were in grade school. He said both families attend the church.

“I don’t even know what to think. I just know that I know him, that he’s from a good family,” Mamalat said. “There were no indications that something would happen like this in our community or in the family. This is just like such a surprise.”

• Daily Herald staff writer Steve Zalusky contributed to this report.