2 Soviet Army Deserters Held in Murder of U.S. Sponsor

Two Estonians who deserted from the Soviet army and were welcomed by fellow countrymen in Los Angeles were charged Friday with the murder of a North Hollywood woman, a well-known Estonian activist who had fled her homeland during World War II to escape the Soviets.

Peter Sakarias, 21, and Tauno Waidla, 20, were being held without bail in the July 12 murder of Viivi Piirisild, 52, who was found beaten to death with the blunt side of an ax in her home in the 6900 block of Goodland Avenue.

Police said Waidla had been “sponsored” by the victim and her husband and had lived with them until two months before the killing.

The two suspects pleaded innocent in San Fernando Municipal Court to charges of murder while lying in wait, robbery, burglary and selling stolen property. Waidla also pleaded innocent to a charge of extortion and Sakarias pleaded innocent to an additional count of auto theft.

They had been sought since shortly after the murder was discovered, police said. Both were arrested during the last two weeks by U.S. Border Patrol officers when they attempted separate crossings from Canada into the United States at Rouses Point, N.Y.

Border Alert

Both waived extradition and were returned to Los Angeles on Thursday night.

“We knew they had friends in Montreal so we had alerted the people at the border,” Detective David Crews said. “They apparently had gotten up there to visit their friends and then tried to get back into the United States. They were recognized at the border.”

At the time of the murder, Piirisild’s husband, Avo Piirisild, was out of the state on a business trip. His wife’s body was found by Bernard Nurmsen, a friend whom Avo Piirisild sent to check on his wife when he could not reach her by phone.

Nurmsen, president of the Estonian Society of Los Angeles, said Viivi Piirisild was well-known in the Estonian refugee community through her work with Estonian language radio and newspapers. Nurmsen said Avo and Viivi Piirisild helped form the Baltic American Freedom League in 1981. Viivi Piirisild had also compiled two books of Estonian recipes.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are three Baltic states that Soviet forces occupied in 1940. They remain under Soviet control today. The World War II occupation resulted in thousands of refugees fleeing to escape the Soviets.

Left in 1944

Viivi Piirisild and her parents left Estonia in 1944. The Red Cross rescue ship that carried them across the Baltic Sea was torpedoed by a Soviet ship and sunk. Her brother drowned, but she and her parents survived.

Police said the two suspects are also from Estonia. In December, 1986, they deserted from the Soviet army by crossing from East Germany into West Germany. Police said they entered the United States in January, 1987, with refugee immigration status and at first lived with members of the Estonian community in New York.

Sakarias and Waidla came to Los Angeles in mid-1987, according to an Estonian immigrant who met the suspects in Los Angeles and asked not to be identified. He said he and other members of the local Estonian community welcomed the two men and arranged an apartment for them in Reseda.

“We sponsored them,” the acquaintance said. “They both seemed like such innocent kids. We wanted to help them get started here. We welcomed them.”

He said that in late 1987, Sakarias left the apartment to move to Georgia. Waidla moved in with the Piirisilds, helping them renovate their North Hollywood home.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Meredith Rust said Waidla moved out in May and then began an extortion scheme. Rust said Waidla threatened to report the Piirisilds to the city building department for constructing an illegal addition to their home unless they gave him $3,000 or a car.

About the same time, Sakarias stole a pickup truck he had been hired to drive from Massachusetts to Oakland and arrived in Los Angeles, the criminal complaint said. In early July, the suspects visited the Piirisilds, and the demands for cash and their car continued.

On July 12, while Viivi Piirisild was at a dentist’s office, the suspects broke into her house and waited for her, the complaint states. When she returned, she was struck with the ax “as soon as she walked through the door,” Rust said.

Emerald earrings and a necklace were stolen from the victim’s purse and later recovered from a pawn shop, she said.

Estonians in Los Angeles expressed shock at the arrests Friday.

“The whole thing is terrible,” the acquaintance who knew the suspects said. “Viivi only wanted to help people who made their way here. It is awful what happened.”

“Those two kids, we tried to help them,” said Arnold Muursepp, a friend of the Piirisilds. “It’s hard to believe they could have done this.”