EVERETT, Wash. — Irah Sok was shot and killed early Friday morning. Now, her family is speaking out — only on KIRO 7.
Such a tragic story, a beautiful mother with a budding photography business. She opened her photography business just seven months ago. Now, incredibly, she is dead — killed in her own home with her family nearby.
Even in their profound grief, Irah Sok’s family can easily conjure up the qualities that made her so beloved.
“She is hilarious, you know,” said Aileen LaPuz, her cousin. “She’s very, she has full of life, full of dreams. She’s very kind. She has no like hate in her heart.”
LaPuz, who was more like a sister to Irah Sok, says Sok’s violent and untimely death has made the family wonder if her success perhaps made her a target.
“I don’t know how to envy another human being for what they have,” LaPuz said, tearfully. “You know my cousin worked very hard, worked very hard.”
Just last January, Irah Sok held a grand opening after realizing her dream to open a photography studio in Mill Creek. Her specialty was family photographs, including expectant mothers and their children, after they were born.
“Amazing mother, amazing wife,” said Makara Sok, her husband, his voice breaking. “I love her to death. I wish she still here with me right now.”
Makara Sok says they met at the Boeing Company. He is a Cambodian-American and she was a native of the Philippines. They married and had a son. All three were in their South Everett home early Friday morning when three men burst in. He was hurt but Irah Sok was killed.
“My emotions are everywhere right now,” Makara Sok said. “I’m sad. I’m hurt. I don’t know what to do.”
We agreed not to discuss what happened inside to safeguard the investigation. Makara Sok says he is speaking out for one reason.
“I’m here just to find justice for my wife,” he said. “I’m begging the community to come out and help me catch these people. This is a shameless act. Who think you would wake up and lose your wife.”
Her family is even thinking of raising money to make sure the Snohomish County sheriff has the resources he needs to investigate her murder, as they are worried that rumors of the police being defunded could come true.
But a spokesman for the sheriff says defunding is not a concern and that the authorities are vigorously investigating this murder.