AP News, August 6th, 2007
Inga Contreras and Martynas Simokaitis had big dreams. They immigrated separately to Atlanta from Lithuania looking for a better life than they thought they could find in the former Soviet bloc country.
Contreras, 25, was studying for the LSAT in hopes of going to law school.
Simokaitis, 28, spent his free time networking in Atlanta's entertainment circles hoping to make a name for himself as a manager in the music industry.
In the meantime, they worked at a car dealership for another Lithuanian, Rolandas Milinavicius, who opened his suburban Atlanta store two years ago to help fill the high demand for American cars back home. It was a means to an end for the two young immigrants, friends and family say.
But 10 days ago, police say, Milinavicius snapped. Investigators believe the 38-year-old car dealer shot and killed his two employees July 26 in a fit of desperation over money problems.
Contreras and Martynas Simokaitis were cremated and flown back to Lithuania for funerals on Saturday. In Atlanta, friends and family gathered Sunday at St. Ann's Catholic Church in suburban Marietta for a Lithuanian Mass to honor the two immigrants.
The killings have shocked Atlanta's small but close-knit Lithuanian community, one that prided itself on being peaceful.
"We were such a quiet little community," unaccustomed to much crime, said Roma Klicius, a Marietta resident and honorary consul of the Republic of Lithuania.
"It's so horrible."
Klicius estimates there are 5,000 people in metro Atlanta who are from Lithuania, married to a Lithuanian or the children or grandchildren of Lithuanians. Most of them are concentrated in the northern Atlanta suburbs, she said.
Simokaitis moved to Atlanta five years ago to join his cousin, Jaunius Simokaitis, 30, who had already begun a life here. The two worked as ice cream truck drivers until they could find better jobs.
Martynas Simokaitis freelanced for local entertainment publications as a photographer. He was naturally artistic, helping a pizza restaurant in midtown Atlanta with wall murals, his cousin said.
The last time the two cousins saw each other was July 14 for Jaunius Simokaitis' birthday party.
"I was getting ready to put the birthday pictures on my Web site so my mom can see it, but now I don't know what to do," Jaunius Simokaitis said. "The situation is so incomprehensible."
Contreras always had a new adventure in mind _ her newest plan was to buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, said her friend Auste Nakutyte.
She had turned in her two weeks' notice to Milinavicius and was helping train her replacement at RM Auto International when the killings happened.
"She was not supposed to go to work that week," Nakutyte said. "She was such a kind person that, even though she didn't like it there, she would never say no. She did them a favor by going there that week."
Authorities said Milinavicius turned himself in two days after the shootings and confessed to the killings, telling police he was under a lot of stress. He is charged with two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
He is being held without bond and is scheduled for an Aug. 14 hearing.
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On the Net:
Atlanta Lithuanian-American Community: http://www.lietuviaiatlantoje.org/index.php?id1&L1
