A touching gesture has been made by the International Lepidoptera Survey: the organization has named a new butterfly species after Iryna Zarutska, the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee fatally stabbed on the Charlotte light rail.
“This will outlast most other tributes because it’s a living organism. Her name will be immortalized as a butterfly,” Harry Pavulaan, the president and director of the International Lepidoptera Survey told ABC News.
It is a “timeless honour” through which she is “never forgotten”.
Zarutska was killed in August while riding the Blue Lynx Line in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The butterfly, “Iryna’s Azure”, appears in April in South Carolina.
It has light blue wings on its dorsal side, but can also have “a distinct violet-blue tint”.
First observed in the 1980s but never named, Iryna’s Azure is the “first known hybrid introgression” for the Azure butterflies, informs Pavulaan.
“When I saw the story break … I’m 70 years old and I’m still driven to tears”, he said. He sent her family framed pictures of the original butterflies, receiving a letter from Iryna’s mother praising his “noble” and “heartfelt” gesture.
The 34-year-old Decarlos Bown was indicted on the federal charge of violence against a railroad carrier and mass transportation system resulting in death, and thus may qualify for the death penalty.
He stabbed her three times with a knife which he took out of his pocket. Video footage shows a horrified young woman realizing what is happening to her, and then collapsing.
She left behind a family and a boyfriend.
Iryna Zarutska fled Ukraine, where she had temporarily reside in a bomb shelter, and arrived in the United States in 2022. She was taking English classes at a community college and hoped to become a veterinary assistant.
She is buried in the United States.
The murder has had serious reverberations. In September, North Carolina legislature passed a bill named after Zarutska that would issue reforms to the state’s criminal justice system. Also known as House Bill 307, it proposes removing cashless, studying the “intersection between mental health and the judicial system”, as murder on public transportation is considered a particularly grave moral offense.
In addition to sending copies of the research paper to the family, Pavulaan noted that he also sent a picture frame displaying the original butterflies he had found while researching.
Pavulaan said Zarutska’s mother sent him a letter in response to the dedication, calling his tribute “noble” and “heartfelt.”
