DALLAS — An internationally renowned concert pianist arrived at his estranged wife’s home in Texas to pick up their two daughters and found the girls slain in their beds, police said Friday. Authorities say their Russian mother, who had suffered knife wounds, faces a mental health exam.
Vadym Kholodenko stopped Thursday morning at the suburban Fort Worth home where he formerly lived to pick up Nika, 5, and 1-year-old Michela, Benbrook police Cmdr. David Babcock said. The Ukrainian-born musician found his wife, Sofya Tsygankova, in an “extreme state of distress” and discovered the dead girls. The pianist then called 911, police said.
Kholodenko, who won the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth in 2013, is not a suspect and is cooperating with police, Babcock said. Police said no suspects were being sought in the deaths of the girls or the stabbing of Tsygankova, who was recovering Friday at a Fort Worth hospital.
Babcock, when asked, declined to say whether police believe the stab wounds were self-inflicted. Tsygankova was being held on a mental health evaluation, Babcock said. Asked if she was a suspect in the girls’ deaths, he declined to say.
“We are still looking at all avenues,” he said, but added that authorities don’t believe there’s any immediate risk to others in the area.
Autopsy results were pending on the children, who had no visible trauma, police said. Tsygankova’s wounds were from a knife, said Babcock. He declined to say whether a knife was recovered at the home.
Kholodenko and his family moved to Fort Worth in 2014 after he won the $50,000-prize Cliburn competition, which resulted in Kholodenko touring and playing with major orchestras.