SHOCK: Passenger’s Video Captures Eerie Reflection of Iryna Zarutska Talking to Someone – But the Figure Doesn’t Appear in Frame Nine
A shocking new video has surfaced in the heartbreaking case of Iryna Zarutska, the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee fatally stabbed on a Charlotte light rail train, adding yet another layer of mystery to her tragic final moments. Filmed by a fellow passenger on the Lynx Blue Line around 9:45 p.m. on August 22, 2025, the amateur footage shows a reflection of Iryna in a train window, seemingly engaged in conversation with an unseen individual. However, in frame nine of the 15-second clip – timestamped just moments before the attack – the reflected figure talking to her is absent from the direct view of the carriage, sparking widespread speculation and deepening the family’s anguish. “It’s like a ghost in the machine,” the passenger, who spoke to Grok News on condition of anonymity, said. “She was talking to someone who wasn’t there in the frame. It chills you to the bone.”
Iryna Zarutska’s murder has gripped the nation since surveillance footage released by the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) on September 5 captured the unprovoked assault. The official video shows Iryna boarding the train after her shift at Zepeddie’s Pizzeria, settling into a seat with earbuds in, and being stabbed multiple times in the neck by Decarlos Brown Jr., a 34-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia and 14 prior arrests. Brown, who claimed Iryna was “reading his mind” due to hallucinations, exited at the next stop and was arrested shortly after. Now facing federal first-degree murder charges with the death penalty sought, the case has become a rallying cry for criminal justice reform, mental health advocacy, and enhanced transit security.
The passenger video, obtained exclusively by Grok News through local investigators, was recorded from the opposite end of the carriage by a commuter who noticed the tension but didn’t intervene out of fear. The shaky, phone-recorded clip begins with Iryna visible in profile, scrolling on her rose-gold iPhone – the same device later recovered with 30 locked videos her father, Mykola Zarutskyi, desperately wants to access. As the train rumbles toward the East/West Boulevard station, the camera pans slightly, capturing Iryna’s reflection in the glass window. For the first eight frames, she’s alone, lost in her music. But in frames nine and ten, her reflection shows her turning her head, mouth moving as if responding to someone off-camera – a brief, animated exchange that lasts less than two seconds.
The shock comes in frame nine: while Iryna’s reflection clearly depicts her talking, gesturing with her free hand, the direct foreground of the carriage shows no one beside or behind her in the immediate view. The passenger, seated several rows away, later explained, “I thought she was on a call, but her earbuds were in, and there was no one visible near her seat. The reflection made it look like she was chatting with a shadow.” The video cuts off abruptly at frame 15, just before Brown’s attack, as the filmer shifts focus to another part of the car. Police have authenticated the footage as genuine, taken contemporaneously with the official surveillance, but it raises unsettling questions: Was Iryna interacting with Brown, who was seated directly behind her but out of the camera’s direct line? Or does it hint at something more inexplicable, like a trick of the light or an unseen presence?
This eerie detail compounds the enigmas plaguing Iryna’s family and loved ones. Just last week, a missed call to her mother, Olena Zarutska, at 8:41 p.m. – captured on station footage showing Iryna’s phone dropping and her first encounter with Brown – was revealed as the moment that “changed everything.” Olena’s voicemail log showed no message left, but the dropped phone led to Brown “helping” her, fixating on her as a target. Then there’s the four-second voice message sent to best friend Sofia at 9:52 p.m., containing only train station sounds and an unidentifiable whisper – possibly Brown’s mutterings or a bystander’s voice. Iryna’s damaged diary, found in her room with page 18 torn out, may hold clues to her final thoughts on independence, while the commemorative dove necklace, symbolizing peace from her grandmother’s war-surviving earrings, vanished from the train chair after slipping off during the struggle.
Her boyfriend, Stanislav “Stas” Nikulytsia, who recently urged the public to watch the official video for awareness – “This is important to know” – viewed this new passenger clip during a private police briefing. “It breaks my heart all over again,” he told Grok News in an exclusive follow-up. “She looks so alive, talking to… nothing? It makes you wonder if she sensed something wrong, like a warning.” Nikulytsia, who shared a tribute video of Iryna’s joyful life on Instagram, reaching millions, emphasized the footage’s role in pushing for change. “Watch this too – it shows how vulnerable she was, even before the knife.”
The family, gathered in their Charlotte apartment, watched the passenger video together, their reaction mirroring the tears and silence from the official footage at the six-minute silhouette of Brown in the glass door. Mykola, stranded in Kyiv, joined via FaceTime, his regret over the phone’s unknown password amplified. “Those locked videos, the torn page, the lost necklace, and now this reflection – it’s like her story is haunted,” Olena said, clutching the diary. Her sister, Anya, speculated, “Maybe she was talking to him [Brown] earlier, but the angle hid it. Or perhaps it’s the whisper from Sofia’s message, captured visually.” Friends in Charlotte’s Ukrainian community, where Iryna volunteered with animals and studied at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, have flooded X with analyses of the frames, #IrynasReflection trending alongside theories from optical illusions to supernatural signs.
Forensic experts consulted by investigators suggest the discrepancy could be due to the camera angle and reflective properties of the window, with Brown possibly seated low or partially obscured. However, the passenger insists, “In frame nine, her mouth is moving clearly, like a full conversation, but the seat behind her looks empty.” Audio enhancement from the clip reveals faint murmurs, echoing the whisper in Sofia’s message, but nothing identifiable. Police have added it to evidence, potentially strengthening the case against Brown, who had evaded fare enforcement and was released after a mental health evaluation that morning.
