The women killed near Lake Kathryn were remembered as artists, volunteers and neighbors after authorities said a family dispute erupted into a mass stabbing.
GIG HARBOR, Wash. — The four women killed in a Feb. 24 stabbing attack near Lake Kathryn were mourned in the weeks that followed as community advocates, volunteers and loved ones, while investigators worked to explain how a family protection-order case turned into a five-death scene.
Authorities identified the victims as Zoya Anatolyevna Shabliykina, 52; Joanne Kathleen Brandani, 59; Stephanie Killilea, 67; and Louise Sandra Talley, 81. The suspect, 32-year-old Aleksandr Aleksandro Shablykin, was shot and killed by a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy who arrived after witnesses reported people being stabbed outside a home on 87th Avenue Court NW. The immediate criminal threat ended there, but the wider story did not. The deaths touched family, public safety, local government and the volunteer life of the Gig Harbor area all at once.
The sequence laid out by law enforcement began with a domestic call, not a report of mass violence. At 8:41 a.m., the sheriff’s office said, authorities received word that a man was at a home despite a no-contact order. Deputies learned the order had not yet been served, which meant it was not valid for enforcement at that moment, and they headed out with a copy to serve it. Before they could do that, the situation broke open. Around 9:30 a.m., witnesses began telling 911 dispatchers that a man was stabbing people outside. A deputy arrived alone and encountered the suspect during the attack. Shots were reported at 9:33 a.m. Three women and the suspect were pronounced dead at the scene. A fourth woman was taken from the area by emergency crews and later died at a hospital. Authorities have said the deputy fired while the suspect was still stabbing people.
The victims’ names gave the public its first fuller picture of what had been lost. Shabliykina was the suspect’s mother and the woman who had earlier turned to the court system for protection. Brandani and Killilea served on the Gig Harbor Arts Commission, placing them in regular city volunteer work connected to grants, local arts policy and public programming. Talley, who was 81, was remembered as a longtime volunteer in the Gig Harbor area. Local accounts described the three women as trying to stop the violence or help during the attack. Community members later spoke of the women not only as victims of a crime but as people known for showing up for others. That point became central to public mourning: the women were remembered for the same instinct to help that appears to have placed at least some of them in the path of danger that morning.
Court records and family statements added weight to the history behind the killings. According to local reporting, a protection order was granted in May 2025 after Shabliykina described threatening behavior by her son and raised concerns tied to mental health and substance abuse. One reported threat said her grave had already been dug. Family members later said Shablykin had bipolar disorder and had stopped taking medication shortly before the killings. Those details are important context, but they do not form an official finding on motive. Investigators have not announced a complete motive, and they have not publicly explained whether the conflict on Feb. 24 centered on access to the home, a renewed dispute within the family, or some other trigger. They also have not publicly answered why the order had not yet been served or whether earlier attempts had been made to do so. Those unknowns now matter because they shape how the public understands the breakdown between warning signs and enforcement.
With the suspect dead, the main formal process now falls to investigators reviewing both the stabbings and the deputy-involved shooting. The Pierce County Force Investigation Team took over that work on Feb. 24. Such reviews typically focus on forensic evidence, scene reconstruction, witness interviews, dispatch records and officer actions. In this case, investigators also face unusual public interest in the earlier protection order, any prior law-enforcement contacts at the address and the timeline between the first domestic call and the later reports of people being stabbed. No charging decision is expected against the suspect because he died at the scene, and officials have not announced a date for a final investigative release. That means the next phase is likely to unfold through records, medical findings, internal review and possible public requests for body-camera or incident materials, rather than through a courtroom homicide trial.
The community response has been measured but deeply emotional. At a March 4 vigil in Gig Harbor, residents stood with candles near photos of the victims while local leaders spoke about shock, grief and the women’s ties to public life. Mayor Mary Barber said the city could not make sense of the killings. Chaplain Gary Rudd said the women were “well loved in the community,” a phrase echoed by others who described the sense of loss across the peninsula. Family members and neighbors also spoke in practical terms about trauma, funeral costs and the strain on those who were present or nearby during the attack. In a place where civic life often runs through volunteer boards, church groups and small local events, the deaths of four women with visible community roles became more than a crime story. They became a test of how a small area absorbs sudden violence and remembers people whose names were already familiar long before the headlines.
Investigators have released the names of the dead and the broad outline of what happened, but a fuller account of the morning has not yet been made public. For now, the case stands as both a completed act of violence and an unfinished investigation, with the next key development expected from the force-investigation team’s review and any release of additional records.
Author note: Last updated March 26, 2026.