ST. GEORGE, Utah — It started as a typical Valentine’s Day morning for 21-year-old Kateryna Tovmash’s family, but it ended in heartbreak hundreds of miles away, according to family member Amberlyn Brown.
“My brother says it's so strange to wake up and have his coffee and her not come in and talk to them,” said Amberlyn.
Her family called her Kate, and she moved to Utah three years ago.
“They had come over with their family to escape the Ukrainian war as refugees in 2023, and they settled in St George,” Brown said.
Kate lived in Southern Utah until her parents divorced and her mother remarried and moved to North Carolina.
“As a refugee, she had a lot of ambition and wanted to get to know the states and to travel,” Brown said.
During her travels, she met her former boyfriend, Caleb Fosnaugh.
“Kate came in and showed him such love. She was there for him in times that were hard. That's why she went to live with him in Ohio,” Brown said, “I think that he clung to that connection with her, and when she left, he just felt like he had nothing.”
The relationship wasn’t working out.
“When she was moving home from Ohio, she'd been friends with and talking with, Matthew Wade, he was a military service member that was stationed there in Fort Bragg,” Brown said.
The two eventually started dating, and on Valentine’s Day, both were asleep in her North Carolina home, with her siblings next door, when officials and family said Fosnaugh showed up.
“Caleb entered into the home, and he made his way into the room where he proceeded to shoot both of them, and they passed away,” Brown said.
Officials said Fosnaugh fled back to Ohio and was arrested later that day.
He was charged with felony breaking and entering, and two counts of Murder.
“Justice will be served, but it's just a sad situation, and we hope to find peace in forgiving him,” Brown said.
Kate will be flown back to St. George, where her father still lives, to be buried.
“We believe we'll see her again, and she's still here with us in spirit,” Brown said, “I’m sure, wherever she is, she is out there exploring and just loving her life still.”
