2 Charged With Ax Murder of Estonian Activist in N. Hollywood

Two Estonians who deserted 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, are 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 lived with them until two months before the killing.

The two suspects pleaded not guilty in San Fernando Municipal Court to charges including murder while lying in wait, robbery, burglary and selling stolen property. Waidla also pleaded not guilty to a charge of extortion and Sakarias pleaded not guilty 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 tried to re-enter the United States from Canada in separate crossing attempts at Rouses Point, N.Y.

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,” said Police Detective David Crews.

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 sent by the husband 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.

Three Baltic states--Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania--were occupied by Soviet forces in 1940 and remain under Soviet control. The World War II occupation resulted in thousands of refugees fleeing the Soviets. 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 also are from Estonia and they deserted the Soviet army in December, 1986, by crossing from East Germany into West Germany. Police said they entered the United States in January, 1987, under refugee immigration status and at first lived in 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 began to extort money from the Piirisilds. 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.

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