Salem police look for link between murder-suicide and man's death

SALEM, Ore. - As police investigate the murder-suicide case that claimed the lives of five people, they are also looking into the killing of another man nearby.

A medical examiner confirmed Wednesday that 26-year-old Natalya Lazukin was shot twice. Her 3-year-old daughters were also shot to death and her infant daughter was suffocated. Their bodies were found in their burning home.

Police say it looks like Natalya's husband, Nikolay Lazukin, killed his wife and kids then killed himself in his car about 80 miles away in Cottage Grove early Tuesday morning.

Another man, 21-year-old Devin Matlock, was found dead in the road right up the street from the Lazukins' home. Sources close to the two cases told KATU News that Salem police are investigating whether Matlock's death is linked to the Lazukins' case. Matlock's family is asking the same question.

At first Matlock's death appeared to be a hit-and-run accident but now it's listed as a death investigation with Salem police. Matlock's mother, Colleen, said she just learned Wednesday afternoon someone beat her son to death and she has no idea why.

"Why would they say it was hit-and-run, and then we find out his head has been bashed in, and then they don't even tell us," she said.

What she does know is that her son was recording music at a friend's home at Lancaster Commons Monday and into Tuesday. The back gate to the Commons is just 500 feet from the Lazukin family home on Fisher Road where Natalya Lazukin and her three children were murdered at about the same time Matlock died.

Matlock's body was found just three tenths of a mile north of the Lazukins' home on the path back to the apartment he shared with his mom.

Colleen Matlock didn't hear what happened until Tuesday afternoon when two Salem police officers knocked on her door.

"They said, well, he's dead. We found him along the side of the road, and they thought it was a hit-and-run," she said.

She said her son walked that same path nearly every day for the past year, usually carrying a backpack with a laptop inside and listening to music as he walked.

She can't help but wonder if her son was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he walked past the Lazukins' home. Now she wants justice.

"I want the truth to come out," she said. "I want the people, person or people, whoever it is caught and punished to the fullest."

Her son would have turned 22 in less than two weeks. She said police have not told her whether they found her son's backpack and laptop with his body.

Salem police also continue to say very little about what they believe happened at the Lazukin home.

Meanwhile, friends gathered Wednesday night at the Lazukin home to remember the family.