So that the name of Iryna Zarutska “is never forgotten”. A species of butterfly was named in honor of this Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed multiple times last August on a streetcar in Charlotte, North Carolina, ABC News reported on Friday, October 24.
Iryna Zarutska’s name “will be immortalized in the form of a butterfly,” Harry Pavulan, president and director of the International Lepidoptera Survey, who named the insect in honor of the Ukrainian, told the American television channel.
Flying primarily in South Carolina, a state neighboring North Carolina, the Iryna Azure has light blue-topped wings and may also exhibit a violet-blue tint.
First seen in South Carolina in 1985, it previously had no official name, according to Harry Pavulan, who collected several specimens of these butterflies in 2018 before examining them.
The death penalty demanded by Donald Trump
Harry Pavulan had already thought of a name for this butterfly, but changed his mind after seeing the images of Iryna Zarutska’s murder that were shared online. “I still have tears in my eyes,” she told ABC News.
The 23-year-old, who arrived in the United States in 2022 after fleeing Ukraine, was returning from her job at a pizza restaurant on August 22 when she was stabbed three times by a man wearing an orange hoodie.
The suspect, Decarlos Brown, 34, faces the death penalty. Last month, Donald Trump himself called for the death penalty against the alleged murderer on social media.
Pending the legal outcome of this tragedy, Harry Pavulan assured ABC News that his gesture had “contributed to the appeasement” of Iryna Zarutska’s family. He also sent him a frame with the butterflies discovered during his research.
In exchange, the investigator indicated that he had received a letter from the victim’s mother. In it, he describes the tribute paid to his family as “generous” and “coming from the bottom of his heart.”
Source: BFM TV
