A Washington couple who drowned while honeymooning in Hawaii threw a gender reveal party before their trip to celebrate their soon-to-be baby girl.
Ilya “Billy” and Sophia Tsaruk of Snohomish drowned Saturday while snorkeling in unpatrolled waters off the coast of the Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve in Maui with their brother and his wife, Tony and Tiasiya.
Sophia, 26, was 30 weeks pregnant with their baby and the couple shared an 18-month-old son named Logan, who is currently with the family.
Before their trip to the Hawaiian island, they held a gender reveal party, where the soon-to-be parents of two boys seemed very happy to learn they were having a girl, according to a video shared with Fox 13 Seattle sample.
The couple, both dressed in black, huddled excitedly near a tree as they prepared to receive the news.
“Ready?” Sophia asked her husband, to whom she had been married for four years. “Ready… go!”
In unison, they released pink smoke into the air and Sophia let out a lively squeal of surprise and satisfaction as the pair embraced.
Ilya “Billy” and Sophia Tsaruk of Snohomish, Washington, drowned Saturday while snorkeling in unguarded waters off the coast of the Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve in Maui with their brother and his wife.
Just before their trip to the Hawaiian island, they held a gender reveal party, where the soon-to-be parents of two boys seemed very happy to learn that they were having a girl.
“Oh my God!” Sophia exclaimed in disbelief before her husband picked her up and spun her around while kissing her.
“How excited are you?” asked Ilya, 25.
—We’re having a girl! Oh my God, I can’t believe it! —Sophia said, covering her mouth with her hand.
The couple planned to name their daughter Melody, Tiasiya revealed.
“They were preparing the room, the baby’s room for her,” she said. KITV‘They were very excited about life and what it would bring them.’
“She was going to be a mom to a girl,” she told Fox 13 Seattle.
Ilya and Sophia had just bought a new house and were traveling to the Hawaiian island to celebrate Sophia’s pregnancy, along with her brother, his wife and another couple.
Sophia, who was not a good swimmer, had mentioned that she was feeling a little sick that fateful day.
The group split up to explore the seabed before another swimmer approached Tiasiya and told her he had heard screams in the water.
The Maui Fire Department was called to the area after receiving reports that the couple was “in distress,” according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
When rescuers arrived at the scene, they found Sophia unconscious and pulled her out of the water about 100 to 150 meters from the shore.
Ilya was later found at the bottom of the ocean and brought back to shore.
Both victims were administered CPR, but rescue crews’ efforts were unsuccessful and they were pronounced dead.
Taisiya believes the snorkel masks the couple were wearing may have played a role in their deaths.
“When we were in the water, I was gasping for air, like I couldn’t breathe,” she told KITV. “I felt like the mask was suffocating me and I had to take it off so I could breathe.”
“They both choked, but she had the mask on, which I don’t know,” he continued. “I think that played a role, because, like I said, I experienced a loss of breath with the mask on and we were wearing the same mask.”
Sophia, 26, was 30 weeks pregnant with their baby and the couple shared an 18-month-old boy named Logan, who is currently staying with the family.
Logan was left with nothing but photographs of his young parents.
Social media in Hawaii has been filled with comments from dismayed locals warning of the dangers that snorkel masks pose to inexperienced users when exhaled air is not expelled properly.
However, Tony does not believe that the mask took his sister’s life.
“It’s possible that it may have contributed to scaring her and causing her to panic. At this point, it’s all just speculation,” he said.
The fire department said surf conditions were relatively calm that day and the area is not known for rip currents.
The area the couple was swimming in is unguarded and the nearest lifeguard station is at Makena State Beach Park, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
The tragedy remains under investigation.
DailyMail.com has contacted the Maui Fire Department for comment.
The group was snorkeling in the unguarded waters of the Ahihi-Kinua Nature Reserve (pictured) in West Maui.
Rescuers desperately tried to resuscitate the young parents after they were pulled from the water.
In tribute to the couple in a GoFundMe The page written by the fundraiser’s organiser, Andrey Tupikov, said the couple were active in the Slavic Shulamite Church and that ‘Sophia had the voice of an angel and together with Ilya they sang in a worship group at their church’.
“The Kovalevich and Tsaruk families are in mourning today, and this pain will not pass soon, but we continue to pray and rely on the Lord,” Tupikov wrote.
“We were lucky to have had both of them in our lives and we are left with the sweet memories and moments we shared together.”
The money will go toward funeral expenses and the transportation of the couple’s bodies to Washington, Tupikov said. The remaining money will go toward Logan’s future.
A boy was left with nothing but photographs of his young parents, but the rest of his family has kept him company.
“He is not alone for a moment,” said Sophia’s older sister, Ilona Tsymbalyuk.
‘Everyone is constantly turning to want to hug him because they left a little bit of him and her in him.’
Ilya’s brother, Tony, and his wife, Taisiya, had joined the couple for the trip to Maui.
“Her birthday is the day after Christmas,” the sister added. “She was always talking about how she could bring that little girl she dreamed of into the world on her birthday.”
The couple’s life will be celebrated next Thursday and their funeral will be held the following day.
