Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, was charged with the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska.

The mother and sister of Decarlos Brown, the suspect in the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian woman on Charlotte light rail, say that he struggled with mental illness for years after being released from prison and that he claimed there was a “material” in his body that controlled him.

Brown, 34, was arrested on Aug. 22 after police say he stabbed 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska three times while riding the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte, according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News.

In audio recordings of a conversation between Brown and his sister several days after his arrest, obtained by ABC News, Brown maintains that he has “material” in his body that caused him to attack Zarutska.

“Make sure it was me that did it, not the material. And I’m telling you, the material did it,” Brown said, according to the recordings.

The suspect can be heard telling his sister that he did not “even know the lady at all.”

Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, was arrested on Aug. 22 for stabbing a 23-year-old woman on Charlotte’s light rail, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department

“I never said not one word to the lady at all. That scary, ain’t it? So, like, why would somebody stab somebody for no reason?” Brown can be heard telling his sister.

Brown has been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of North Carolina with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, which could make him eligible for the death penalty, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

“This brutal attack on an innocent woman simply trying to get to her destination is an attack on the American way of life. Of course, crimes like this affect the victim the most — Iryna deserves justice, and we will bring justice to her and her family,” U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said in a statement on Tuesday.

Brown’s sister and mother said they noticed a difference in his behavior following his incarceration, which ended in 2020, and that it got worse over the three years since he was released.

Brown’s mother, Michelle Dewitt, said her was son was diagnosed with schizophrenia and after his time in prison, he “was different.”

“He wasn’t the normal Carlos, the fun Carlos,” Dewit told ABC News in a separate interview.

The 34-year-old suspect has a criminal record including larceny and breaking and entering charges. He also spent five years in prison for robbery with a dangerous weapon starting in 2015, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. He was also arrested this year for misusing the 911 system, according to court records.

In total, Brown has been charged 14 times in the past, including an arrest in January, but was “still on the streets” leading up to the attack, North Carolina FBI Special Agent James Barnacle Jr. said on Tuesday.

Iryna Zarutska in a photo posted to her Instagram.
Iryna Zarutska/Instagram

Brown’s mother told ABC News that after her son had been released from prison in 2020 after serving time for armed robbery, “he was different” and began showing violent behavior like slamming doors and yelling in her face. While he was living with her, he would also walk around the home and talk to himself, Dewitt said.

Dewitt said her son had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had been given medication, but she said he refused to take it.

Dewitt said she grew increasingly concerned about the safety of her and her husband and took Brown to a mental health hospital. She said the hospital told her they didn’t have enough room to admit Brown and because he wasn’t threatening to hurt himself, they couldn’t take him.

She said the hospital told her, “You can’t make a person come” to the facility.

Dewitt said she was left with no option but to go to court to file with a magistrate a petition for her son to get help. As a result of that, she said, a mental health facility kept Brown for 14 days, but eventually released him back to her and her husband’s care.

Iryna Zarutska, who is not pictured, was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack while riding the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Charlotte Area Transit System

She said she had hoped to keep Brown on a schedule and to create a routine for him, but it didn’t work after he stopped taking his medication.

“We’re just not going to do it anymore,” Dewitt said of how she and her husband were feeling at the time. “We dropped him off at a shelter.”

The mother identified that shelter as the Roof Above Lucille Giles Men’s Shelter in Charlotte, which is run by a nonprofit organization called Roof Above.

ABC News reached out to the shelter, but no one from the shelter was immediately available to comment.

In recent months, Dewitt said she has seen her son on the street, walking up and down, and her younger daughter would see him riding the bus.

When he was arrested in January for misusing 911, she said he kept saying “he had a chip in him,” and that “the police put it in him.”

According to the affidavit from Brown’s arrest in January, officers were responding to a welfare call when Brown told them he believed someone gave him a “man-made” material that controlled what he ate and how he walked and talked.

Brown’s next court appearance in is scheduled for Sept. 19, according to court records. It is unclear whether Brown has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.

Brown’s sister, Tracey Brown, said she is not trying to excuse her brother’s alleged actions.

“At the end of the day, I’m not making any excuse for what happened,” she said. “I am saying that if he had the proper care this wouldn’t have happened.”

DETAILS EMERGE: Iryna Zarutska’s Mother Reveals Heartbreaking Discovery of Her Daughter’s Damaged Diary

In the wake of Iryna Zarutska’s tragic murder on a Charlotte light rail train, her family continues to uncover fragments of her life that deepen their grief and fuel their quest for closure. In an exclusive interview with Grok News, Iryna’s mother, Olena Zarutska, shared a poignant detail about her daughter’s cherished habit of keeping a diary. The 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, killed on August 22, 2025, in an unprovoked knife attack, left behind a worn notebook found in her Charlotte bedroom, stuffed inside a backpack. The diary, containing 31 pages of handwritten entries, was damaged—its spine broken and one page, number 18, mysteriously torn out. “Iryna poured her heart into that diary,” Olena said through a translator, her voice heavy with sorrow. “Seeing it broken, with that missing page, feels like losing another piece of her. We don’t know what she wrote there, and it’s tearing us apart.”

Iryna’s story has captivated the nation since the release of chilling surveillance footage from the Lynx Blue Line, showing her final moments. The video, made public on September 5, captured Iryna scrolling on her phone, unaware of Decarlos Brown Jr., a 35-year-old homeless man with a history of schizophrenia, attacking her with a knife. The footage also revealed a commemorative necklace—a dove pendant symbolizing peace—slipping from her neck, only to vanish later that day. Her father, Mykola, previously shared his anguish over 30 locked videos on Iryna’s phone, inaccessible due to an unknown password. Now, the discovery of the damaged diary adds another layer of mystery and heartbreak to a family already grappling with unimaginable loss.

Olena discovered the diary two weeks after Iryna’s death, while sorting through her daughter’s belongings in their modest Charlotte apartment. The notebook, a simple black moleskin with a frayed elastic band, was tucked inside a backpack alongside art supplies and a few Polaroids of Iryna with friends. “She always wrote in it,” Olena recalled, her eyes welling up. “Late at night, after her shifts at Zepeddie’s Pizzeria or her classes at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, she’d sit by her window and write. It was her way of processing everything—leaving Ukraine, starting over here, her dreams.” Iryna, who held a degree in Art and Restoration from Synergy College in Kyiv, used the diary to capture her thoughts, sketches, and aspirations, including her goal of becoming a veterinary assistant.

The diary’s 31 pages, written in a mix of Ukrainian and English, offer a glimpse into Iryna’s vibrant inner world. Early entries describe her excitement upon arriving in Charlotte in 2022, fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with her mother, sister, and brother. She wrote about her first taste of American pizza, her love for volunteering with animals, and her pride in mastering English phrases. Later pages reveal deeper reflections: her fears about the war back home, her longing for her father in Kyiv, and her joy at small victories, like landing her job at Zepeddie’s. “She wrote about the necklace too,” Olena said, referencing the dove pendant that symbolized the family’s survival. “She called it ‘my peace in my pocket.’ But page 18 is gone, and we don’t know why.”

The missing page has become a focal point of the family’s grief. Numbered meticulously by Iryna, the diary skips from page 17 to page 19, with jagged remnants along the spine indicating page 18 was deliberately torn out. Olena believes it was removed before Iryna’s death, as the notebook was found in her room, not at the crime scene. “Iryna was private about some things,” Olena explained. “Maybe she wrote something she didn’t want anyone to see, or someone took it. We just don’t know.” The family has scoured her room for the missing page, checking drawers, books, and even the backpack’s pockets, but found nothing. The diary’s damaged state—its spine cracked and pages creased—suggests it was handled roughly, possibly stuffed into the backpack in haste.

The discovery has sparked speculation among Iryna’s loved ones and the wider community. Iryna’s sister, previously interviewed under the pseudonym Anya, wonders if page 18 contained a clue about her final days. “She was so happy that last week,” Anya said. “She was taking the train alone, feeling independent. Maybe she wrote something about someone she met, or a worry she didn’t share.” Friends recall Iryna’s habit of sketching in the margins of her diary, often doodling doves or animals. A post on X, part of a thread with thousands of shares, speculated that the missing page might relate to the necklace or the locked videos on her phone, which remain inaccessible. “What was on page 18? A secret? A fear? It’s haunting,” one user wrote.

Olena’s revelation comes amid ongoing pain for the family, who watched Iryna’s burial via FaceTime due to Mykola’s inability to leave Kyiv. The surveillance footage, which left them in tears at the six-minute mark when Brown’s silhouette appeared, continues to haunt them. The diary’s condition mirrors their fractured state. “It’s like her story was broken too,” Olena said. “She wrote to make sense of her life, and now even that is incomplete.” The family has shared scans of a few diary pages with police, hoping for insights, but kept most private out of respect for Iryna’s memory. They’ve also renewed pleas for information about the missing necklace and are working with tech volunteers to unlock Iryna’s phone.

The diary has fueled broader conversations about Iryna’s life and death. Her murder by Brown, who had 14 prior arrests and was released after a mental health evaluation, has intensified debates over public safety and mental health care. Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles has promised increased transit security, while advocates on X call for systemic reforms. Right-wing figures like Rep. Nancy Mace have cited the case to demand tougher crime policies, while others stress the need for better mental health interventions, given Brown’s claim that Iryna was “reading his mind.” The family, meanwhile, focuses on preserving Iryna’s legacy. A GoFundMe, now over $250,000, includes donations inspired by the diary’s story, with donors urging, “Find that page.”

Olena clings to the diary as a tangible connection to her daughter, reading its pages nightly despite the pain. Entries describe Iryna’s love for Charlotte’s skyline, her sketches of local stray cats, and her pride in her job. One passage, dated August 15, reads: “I took the train alone today. Felt free, like I’m really home.” Olena paused, tears falling. “That was a week before she died. If we hadn’t let her go alone, maybe she’d still be here.” The missing page 18, likely written around that time, looms large—a lost piece of Iryna’s final chapter.

The Ukrainian community in Charlotte has rallied around the family, incorporating diary imagery into vigils alongside doves for the lost necklace. A tribute video on X, showing Iryna laughing and sketching, now includes a sketch of an open notebook with a torn page, captioned: “Her words live on.” As federal charges against Brown escalate, the Zarutskyis seek answers—not just about the murder, but about the missing page, the lost necklace, and the locked videos. “Iryna’s diary was her heart,” Olena said. “That missing page is like her voice, silenced. I just want to know what she needed to say.”