American's MOB Trip To Russia Ends in Death

[Muleskinner]

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An American who was visiting Moscow to see his fiancee was confirmed to have been killed in a raid on a theater besieged by Chechen rebels, his family said Tuesday.

Relatives of Sandy Booker told Oklahoma City television station KWTV on Tuesday that U.S. consulate officials called them at 5 a.m. to tell them Booker had died.

Armed Chechen separatists had raided the theater Wednesday night and taken 800 people hostage. More than a hundred hostages were killed when Russian authorities used a mysterious knockout gas to end the standoff Saturday.

Booker's fiancee, Svetlana Gubareva, who also was exposed to fumes in the theater, identified his body Tuesday after she regained consciousness, family members said. Gubareva also called Booker's Oklahoma relatives, who according to a friend had been unaware that he was in Moscow visiting her.

"She feels like we're family," said Booker's brother, Rick, who was choking back tears. "From talking with her this morning, I feel that she's family."

Booker, a 49-year-old industrial electrician for General Motors, had met Gubareva through a mail-order bride arrangement and had gone to Russia to visit her and to speed up the red tape so she could join him in the United States.

Gubareva's 13-year-old daughter, who went to the theater with the couple, also was killed, said Lucy Shropshire, a Russian-American who helped arrange Booker's trips to meet potential brides.

Shropshire, who works at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, has been in contact with relatives in Moscow who showed Booker around the city on a previous trip. She helped Booker by having her Russian relatives place a newspaper ad for a wife.

Booker met another woman on his first trip to Russia, but that relationship did not work out. He met Gubareva on his second trip, said a friend, John Day.

Booker had not told his mother or brother that he went to Russia, Day said. "He wanted to keep this one a little low-key, and I understand that," he said. "That whole mail-order-bride thing was just controversial."

He said he became worried when Booker didn't e-mail him from Russia as promised. Then he heard on television about the seizure of the theater.

At least one other American was said to have been in the theater; she survived. Her name has not been released.

[Pete E]

... in response to American's MOB Trip To Russia Ends in De..., posted by Muleskinner on Oct 31, 2002

Just goes to show you you never know.You could travel the outback of Colombia like some here with no problems,then a guy gets killed at a theater in Moscow.But thats a hugely low percentage thing to happen.Could you immagine the heat if the US government did something like that?It might have been a good idea if they understood the chemical they used and had the doctors ready to treat for it.
Of course there are risks in everything.To try to totally avoid risk could lead to a very boring life.
Reminds me of a somewhat health nut ex girlfriend I had giving my smoking drinking overweight cousin a lecture he was going go die.Well she died of a heart defect she didn't know she had and he is still kicking 20 years later.His answer at the time was "when its your time,its your time".That answer seemed to ignore logic,but some events seem to ignore logic.

Pete

[puckster]

... in response to Dangers of Colombia?Who would have thoug..., posted by Pete E on Oct 31, 2002

Well put Pete, there are forces moving through the conscious grid work that we a simply not aware of. Not to say there isn't reasons but it's lost in the abyse.To a blind man birds are a myth.