Svitlana Okley

Svitlana Viktorivna Okley (Світлана Вікторівна Оклей; born 31 October 1969) is a Ukrainian convicted murderer from Krasnodon, who in August 2012 kidnapped 3-year-old Khrystyna Kabakova together with her husband and eldest daughter in order to hide the murder of two adopted children.

The crime received widespread attention, showing serious problems in the work of the children's service in Ukraine.

The Okley family from the city of Krasnodon, was the pride of the entire mining district.

The head of the family Svitlana Okley and her husband Oleksandr raised their seven children - six girls and one boy.

All children were laureates and winners of numerous district competitions, talented and gifted.

Okley wrote children's fairy tales, which she later published in self-published collections, wrote songs and organized the children's family ensemble "Oklei", which participated in all significant events of Krasnodon and the Krasnodon Raion.

In 2003, the local authorities presented a five-room apartment in the center of Krasnodon to an exemplary family with many children at the address of kv.

Radyanskyi 2/111, to which the family is moving from a neighboring village.

Also in 2007, by order of President Viktor Yushchenko, Okley received the honorary title of mother-heroine.

Neighbors behind the apartment building described the family as withdrawn and unfriendly.

Starting in February 2011, Okley began to inflict numerous blows and beatings on the adopted children in order to force the adopted children to strictly comply with all her demands.

In February, Liza died from beatings.

When Okley realized that the girl was dead, she ordered her husband and eldest daughter to get rid of the body.

They put the corpse in a bag, took it outside the city to the rural house in which they had previously lived, and after moving to Krasnodon they began to use it as a dacha, and there the father and daughter burned the girl’s corpse in a metal vat for four hours.

In November 2011, Okley killed Liza’s sister Katya.

For "educational purposes", Svitlana beat the child for a long time, and when she died, the body was dismembered and buried not far from the dacha.

After the murders, the family did not stop taking part in the public life of the city.

One of Okley’s eldest daughters, Yulia, said that the children could stand in the corner all day.

They were forbidden to move, otherwise Okley would punch them on the head, kick them on the back and all over the body.

She beat me cruelly and sophisticatedly.

Adoptive Katya constantly had a large bump on her head, and the girl lost consciousness several times.

Okley pierced her lower jaw right through, and when Yulia fed the girl, food leaked from the bottom of her chin, since there was a through hole through her mouth.

On 30 July 2012, the police received a call.

A resident of Simeykyne called.

She reported the abduction of her three-year-old daughter Khrystyna Kabakova.

According to her, her six-year-old eldest son was walking with his sister on the street when strangers drove up to them - a man, a woman and a girl.

The girl was grabbed and thrown into the sidecar of a motorcycle, where one of the kidnappers was sitting, and taken away in an unknown direction.

The entire city police were raised to their feet, and based on the boy’s words, a composite sketch of the kidnappers was compiled.

Orientations were sent out.

As a result, the girl was found on 31 July under a bed, covered with a pile of rags at the Okley family’s dacha.

A few minutes later, the owners showed up and said that this girl was their daughter Liza.

Soon the parents of the kidnapped Khrystyna Kabakova arrived at the house.

The Okleys began to get out of it, declaring that two of their adopted daughters allegedly disappeared back in the winter, allegedly someone kidnapped them.

They didn’t want to report it to the police, but decided to take revenge and kidnap someone else’s child.

Next to the parents was their son Illia.

The police were horrified when they noticed him in which the boy was covered in bruises and scars.

Seizing a moment when his adoptive mother was not looking at him, the child pulled the hand of one of the policemen and whispered: "Take me away from here, otherwise they will kill me."

Oleksandr, the husband of Svitlana Okley, was later found in the attic, where he tried to hide.

The father and daughter were the first to confess.

They told the true motives for the kidnapping of 3-year-old Khrystyna; they needed the kidnapped child in order to replace one of the murdered girls.