🍕 BREAKING: Iryna Zarutska’s Missing Apron: CCTV Shows Her Leaving Work in Uniform, but It Vanished Before Her Fatal Train Ride

At 7:38 p.m. on August 22, 2025, Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, stepped out of Zepeddie’s Pizzeria into the humid Charlotte evening, her red work apron still tied around her waist. The bright fabric, emblazoned with the pizzeria’s logo, flapped slightly as she clutched a small brown-paper box and waved goodbye to coworkers. Surveillance footage from the South Boulevard establishment captures her vibrant smile, a fleeting moment of normalcy before tragedy struck. Less than two hours later, at 9:51 p.m., she was fatally stabbed on the Lynx Blue Line, her blood pooling on the train floor as she gasped “Run” in a two-second call to her boyfriend, Alexei Novak. But when the train doors closed, the red apron—conspicuous in its absence—was nowhere to be found, adding another layer of mystery to a case already riddled with unanswered questions.

This latest revelation, drawn from newly analyzed CCTV footage and police reports obtained by this outlet, deepens the enigma surrounding Iryna’s final hours. The missing apron, like the unrecovered brown-paper box and the cryptic “Watch the shadows—they follow home” note scrawled on a patron’s receipt, has ignited fervent speculation. Did Iryna remove it herself, or was it taken in the chaos of her attack? Could it hold clues to her mindset or the motives of her killer, Decarlos Brown Jr.? As Charlotte grapples with its grief, the absent apron becomes a haunting symbol of a life interrupted and a city searching for answers.

A Red Apron, a Final Shift

Zepeddie’s Pizzeria, a beloved South End fixture known for its artisanal pies and warm atmosphere, was Iryna’s sanctuary. Having fled Kyiv’s war-torn streets in 2022, she found purpose in the rhythm of tossing dough and sketching whimsical cartoons on napkins for customers. On August 22, her double shift was typical—bustling, but buoyed by her infectious energy. “She was singing some Ukrainian tune, teasing me about my bad latte art,” coworker Maria Delgado told CMPD, her voice breaking in a recent interview with WCNC. “When she left, that red apron was still on—she never untied it early, said it felt like her ‘superhero cape.’”

The pizzeria’s exterior camera, timestamped 7:39 p.m., shows Iryna exiting with her backpack slung over one shoulder, the small box tucked under her arm, and the red apron cinched tightly. The footage tracks her for 12 seconds as she heads toward the East/West Boulevard Lynx station, a 10-minute walk away. Her phone logs, previously reported, confirm a 7:42 p.m. text to her mother in Kyiv—“Shift over! Heading home—miss you, Mama ❤️”—suggesting she was still in high spirits. But by 9:50 p.m., when she boarded the Lynx Blue Line, train surveillance reveals a stark change: Iryna, now in a plain black T-shirt and jeans, has no apron in sight. The box is still visible, clutched tightly, but it too vanishes by the time police scour the crime scene.

CMPD investigators, speaking anonymously due to the ongoing investigation, confirmed the apron’s absence from the train, Iryna’s backpack, and the platform where Brown was apprehended. “We’ve got nothing—no apron in the vicinity, no mention of it in witness statements,” the source said. “It’s like the box: either it was taken, discarded, or never made it onto the train.” The discrepancy has fueled theories, from the mundane—she removed it en route—to the chilling: that it was stripped during the attack, perhaps as a trophy or an overlooked clue.

Shadows of Suspicion

The missing apron dovetails with other mysteries in Iryna’s case. Just an hour before her death, she served patron Elias Thorne, scribbling “Watch the shadows—they follow home” on his receipt alongside a cat doodle. Thorne, a regular, described her as “electric” but noted a fleeting wariness in her eyes, possibly tied to a loiterer outside the pizzeria earlier that day. The brown-paper box, seen in her arms as she left work, remains unaccounted for, its contents unknown. And her final call to Alexei, a desperate “Run” at 9:51 p.m., suggests she sensed imminent danger as Brown, a 34-year-old drifter with untreated schizophrenia, lunged with his pocketknife.

The attack, captured on Lynx surveillance, was over in seconds: three slashes to Iryna’s neck, back, and shoulder, leaving her crumpled and bleeding. As she dialed Alexei, her phone slipped from her hand; no apron appears in the grainy footage, nor does Brown, arrested minutes later, mention one in his erratic statements. Bystander Marcus Hale, who tried to stem her bleeding with his shirt, told police he saw only her backpack and phone—no box, no apron. “She was clutching at her neck, whispering something about not knowing him,” Hale testified. “If there was an apron, I didn’t see it.”

Online, the apron’s absence has sparked a firestorm. On X, #WheresTheApron trends alongside #JusticeForIryna, with users speculating it was stolen by a bystander or deliberately removed by Brown, though his rap sheet—robbery, larceny, psychiatric holds—suggests no motive beyond random violence. “Was it a keepsake? Did she ditch it to blend in?” one post reads. Others tie it to her wartime instincts: “In Kyiv, she’d hide bright clothing to avoid snipers. Maybe she sensed a threat,” a Ukrainian expat tweeted. Alexei, tormented by the accumulating riddles, wonders if the apron held significance. “She loved that thing—called it her ‘armor,’” he said, clutching one of her sketches in their NoDa apartment. “If she took it off, it was for a reason. If someone took it… why?”

A Trail of Clues, a City in Mourning

@cnn

Gruesome video shows the deadly stabbing of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a light rail train in Charlotte, NC. 34-year-old suspect Decarlos Brown was taken to a local hospital for treatment of a laceration and charged with first-degree murder. A judge has ordered Brown to be evaluated for 60 days in a local hospital. #cnn #news #northcarolina

♬ original sound – CNN – CNN

Iryna’s journey to that night was one of defiance against a brutal past. Born in Kyiv in 2002, she restored war-damaged icons during Russia’s 2022 invasion, fleeing with her family to Charlotte. There, she embraced a new life: English fluency, community college, and Zepeddie’s, where her napkin art charmed all. With Alexei, she dreamed of veterinary school and a home filled with pets. Her final day was ordinary—Spotify folk tunes at 9:15 p.m., a Google search for poetry slams at 9:48—until Brown’s blade stole it all. Now charged with first-degree murder and federal transit violence, he faces life or death row, his muttered “I got that white girl” chillingly detached.

The apron’s mystery has galvanized Charlotte. Governor Josh Stein’s promised Lynx patrols face skepticism as lawsuits mount against CATS for security lapses. Vigils bloom—sunflowers at Zepeddie’s, candles at the train station. Iryna’s mother, Olena, now in Charlotte, sees the apron as a tether to her daughter: “That red was her joy. Where is it now?” CMPD is scouring South Boulevard for additional footage, re-interviewing witnesses, and testing Iryna’s backpack for trace evidence. The note, the box, the apron—each a fragment of a puzzle unsolved.

Alexei channels his grief into Iryna’s legacy, her watercolors funding refugee scholarships. “She wore that apron like a badge of survival,” he says. “If it’s out there, it’s a piece of her we can’t lose.” As #WheresTheApron fuels rallies and art shows, Iryna’s final hours whisper a challenge: Find the threads of her story—red, brown, or shadowed—and weave them into justice.