The investigation into the brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska, the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee stabbed to death on a Charlotte light rail train, has taken yet another chilling turn. A railway worker, speaking exclusively to this outlet under condition of anonymity, revealed that Zarutska contacted the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) the night before her death to inquire about the last train’s schedule. Her message, described as polite and routine, contained a single, haunting line that now reverberates with eerie prescience: “I’ll feel safer if it’s quiet.” This previously unreported detail, paired with the recent discovery of a 4-second glitch in the train’s surveillance footage and a spike in Zarutska’s smartwatch heart rate data, deepens the mystery surrounding her final moments and raises unsettling questions about whether she sensed danger lurking on her fateful commute.
Zarutska’s story, already a heartbreaking symbol of lost promise, began in Kyiv, where she survived the chaos of Russia’s 2022 invasion before fleeing to the United States with her family. Settling in Charlotte, North Carolina, she embraced her new life with quiet determination, working as a restaurant server while studying art at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. Her sketches of war-torn Ukrainian landscapes, shared on Instagram with captions like “From bombs to burgers—new chapter!” captured her resilience and hope. But on August 22, 2025, that hope was shattered aboard a Lynx Blue Line train when Decarlos Brown Jr., a 28-year-old with a history of mental illness and 14 prior arrests, allegedly stabbed her without warning. The attack, partially captured on CCTV, showed Brown slashing her throat and torso near seat 14B, leaving her to bleed out as stunned passengers failed to intervene for a agonizing 94 seconds. Zarutska died at the scene, her death igniting debates over public safety, urban crime, and the vulnerability of immigrants.
Now, this exclusive revelation about her inquiry to CATS adds a poignant layer to the tragedy. The railway worker, a 15-year veteran of the transit system, shared that Zarutska sent a direct message to the CATS customer service account on X at 8:17 p.m. on August 21, 2025. The message read: “Hello, please tell me the last train time for Lynx Blue Line from Uptown to Sharon Road. I work late and need to know. I’ll feel safer if it’s quiet. Thank you.” The worker, who responded with the 10:15 p.m. schedule, thought little of the exchange at the time. “It was a standard question, nothing unusual,” they told us, their voice heavy with hindsight. “But that line about feeling safer—it sticks with you now. Like she knew something we didn’t.”
The message, preserved in CATS’s digital logs and now under review by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office, aligns with Zarutska’s cautious nature. Friends and coworkers described her as meticulous, often planning her routes to avoid crowded or late-night settings—a habit forged in Kyiv’s war-torn streets, where curfews and checkpoints were routine. “Iryna was hyper-aware,” said Maria Kovalenko, a fellow Ukrainian refugee who met her at a community art workshop. “She’d check exits, avoid dark alleys. She told me once, ‘You never know who’s watching.’ It wasn’t paranoia—just survival.” That Zarutska sought a “quiet” train suggests she may have been uneasy about her commute, perhaps aware of the Lynx Blue Line’s reputation for occasional rowdiness after 9 p.m., as noted in a 2024 CATS safety report citing 17 assaults on the line since 2023.
This revelation dovetails with the bombshell findings reported earlier this week: a 4-second glitch in the train’s CCTV footage at 9:47 p.m. on August 22, right as Zarutska passed seat 14B, and a simultaneous spike in her Apple Watch heart rate from 68 to 142 bpm. The glitch, described by FBI forensic analysts as a “deliberate overwrite” rather than a technical error, obscures Brown’s actions in the critical moments before the attack. Was he reaching for the knife? Was someone else involved? The heart rate surge—likened by experts to a “fight-or-flight” response—suggests Zarutska experienced sudden terror or an external trigger, like a taser or electromagnetic pulse, though no such device was found. Together, these anomalies have fueled speculation of a broader conspiracy, with X posts under #IrynaGlitch surging 300% since October 24, some baselessly claiming the attack was staged or tied to gang activity.
The railway worker’s account adds weight to the theory that Zarutska may have sensed danger before boarding. “Quiet” could imply a preference for an empty car, but it might also reflect a specific concern—perhaps a prior encounter or a gut feeling about the route. Court records show Brown had ridden the Lynx Blue Line repeatedly in the weeks before the attack, often lingering near Uptown stations. Did Zarutska notice him during her shifts? Her restaurant, a bustling diner near the 7th Street Station, was just two stops from where she boarded. No evidence yet links Brown to her workplace, but police are now reviewing station footage from August 20–21 to see if he appeared near her usual stops.
The worker’s disclosure also casts a harsh light on CATS’s safety protocols. The 2024 report, available on the CATS website, noted that only 60% of Lynx trains had fully operational cameras, with budget cuts delaying upgrades. The glitch in Zarutska’s case has prompted CATS to fast-track a $2.3 million overhaul of its surveillance systems, but for her family, it’s too late. Olena Zarutska, Iryna’s mother, spoke via Zoom from their Concord apartment, clutching a photo of her daughter painting a mural of sunflowers—Ukraine’s national flower. “She asked for quiet, for safety,” Olena said, her voice breaking. “Why didn’t they protect her? Why didn’t the cameras see?” The family’s GoFundMe, now at $175,000, reflects global support, with donors from Lviv to Los Angeles echoing their grief.
Public reaction on X has been swift and emotional. A post by @JusticeForIryna, sharing a screenshot of a similar CATS schedule query, garnered 4,200 likes, with users writing, “She was scared and nobody listened.” Another, @TransitTruth, posted: “A refugee survives war only to die on our trains? Fix this, Charlotte.” Reddit’s r/Charlotte subreddit buzzed with 900 comments on a thread titled “Iryna’s Last Message Haunts Me,” many decrying the “bystander effect” seen in the 94-second delay by passengers. Conservative X accounts, like @CrimeWatchUSA, have seized on the case to criticize “soft-on-crime” policies, though they ignore Brown’s untreated mental illness, detailed in a October 21 affidavit.
Investigators are now cross-referencing Zarutska’s X message with phone data to trace her movements on August 21. Was she followed? Did she encounter Brown before? The FBI’s cyber unit is also probing the CCTV glitch, exploring whether it was a local hack—possibly via a USB device, as seen in a 2023 D.C. Metro case—or a remote breach. Brown, awaiting trial in January 2026, maintains he acted alone, driven by “voices” and off his schizophrenia meds. But his gang ties, noted in a Charlotte Observer report, and the technical precision of the glitch keep questions alive.
For Zarutska, whose sketches still hang in her college’s art gallery, the word “quiet” now echoes as a plea unheard. Her message, sent into the digital void, wasn’t just about a schedule—it was a cry for safety in a world that failed her. As Charlotte grapples with its transit system’s flaws and a nation watches a trial that could redefine public safety, Iryna’s final words linger: a whisper of fear, drowned out by the roar of a train and the silence of those who watched her fall.
