The Death of a Marriage

Well, you are the first to know outside of Kherson, but about 2 hours ago, around 5:00PM local time, I proposed to this wonderful girl Irina that I met and she accepted!!!

Weston (Rogers, operator of Russian Women Video), this is the culmination of lots of planning and research, including, for example all those chat room meetings and discussions, e.g. Elena valuable advice about body language, as Irina's was super positive with me from day #1!

Your friend, Ron
Culver City, California November 4, 2002

The above quote and photo were found on the testimonials page at Russian Women Video, an internet marriage agency. Ron and Irina are one of the agency's success stories; or they were until Irina failed to come home late last month and "financial documents belonging to the aspiring model were among the blood-soaked items found in garbage bags dumped in a trash bin behind a Woodland Hills strip mall."

I've read of several "mail order brides" being murdered or abused (see this article and this previous post), but unlike those cases, this one does not involve the husband. Instead, the police are searching for Irina's lover, a 59-year-old who is believed to have fled to Mexico. To read more about him and this case go here.

An AP article on the murder can be found at the Kiev Ukraine News Blog, where an anonymous poster also wrote this in the comments section:

This is rather sad news. I knew Irina well from the time I lived in Kherson where she came from, and also knew of her dishonest ways. She was typically one of the so many Ukrainian girls who was out to get as much money as she cold, no matter who she lied to or hurt. Prior to her moving to the U.S., I tried to warn Ron Singerman about her dishonesty, even mailing him copies of all of the e-mails she was sending to different men, getting them to send her money based on her promises to come and see them. I spoke with him after sending him the package. He said he was still going to continue his relationship with her since they were engaged. Too bad she continued her behaviour. Some people think you can always be dishonest and hurtful towards and get away with it. Obviously this is not the case.