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Public Service Held for Pianist's 2 Slain Daughters

Mourners gathered Tuesday evening to remember the two girls who were found dead last week at a Benbrook home.

The service at Arlington Heights United Methodist Church was open to the public.

Nika Kholodenko, 5, and Michela Kholodenko, 1, were found dead last Thursday at the Benbrook home that the children shared with their mother, Sofya Tsygankova, who is now charged in their deaths.

The children's father, renowned concert pianist Vadym Kholodenko, attended Tuesday's memorial service and played a movement from Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 3 with three string players from the Fort Worth Symphony.

"In times like this, we seek answers for how something so terrible could happen," the Rev. Mary Spradlin said. "It is profoundly unsatisfying to know there are no clear answers. There are some questions we will never be able to answer."

The victims were laid to rest Monday.

An official with Robertson Mueller Harper Funeral Home said Kholodenko attended the private committal service at a Fort Worth cemetery but declined to say where the children were buried.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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