Greenfield family of 4 killed in Virginia bus crash on I-95 — Channel 5 Boston

channel 5 boston reports that Dmitri Doncev, his wife Ecaterina, and their two children were killed when a passenger bus crashed into a line of cars on Interstate 95 in Virginia. The family had left late Thursday night for a wedding in South Carolina.

The crash also killed a woman from Worcester in another vehicle. By Saturday, relatives and neighbors were describing the Doncevs as a family rooted in Greenfield, where they lived after moving from Moldova in 2008.

Dmitri Doncev and Ecaterina

Dmitri worked as a nurse at Holyoke Medical Center. He and Ecaterina married in 2007, and their daughter Emily was 14 years old while their son Mark was 7.

Emily and Mark sang in the church choir at the Greenfield Russian Baptist Church. Emily played the piano and was a straight-A student, while Mark was described as an outdoorsy kid who loved games.

Greenfield Russian Baptist Church

Carolina Bublik, Dmitri Doncev’s niece, said the family gathered every Sunday after church. “There was not a week that would go by that we would not gather all together as a family and spend our Sundays together after church,” she said by phone on Saturday.

Bublik said the loss would be felt at the lunch table and in ordinary church routines. “Now it’s going to be very difficult, the next Sunday that comes around, where we will not be able to have them sit next to us at the lunch table.”

1 Willow St.

Bublik said Dmitri helped with renovations around the church when he was not working. She said Ecaterina organized church events, volunteered in the kitchen, and helped with kids’ camp in the summer. “Dmitri would never even call to say, ‘Do you need help?’ He would just give a helping hand,” Bublik said, adding, “Ecaterina - very much the same.”

Anatoliy Bublik said of Dmitri, “He was always there to help out if there was a need.” On Saturday afternoon, Aria Cypher and her mother, Vanessa Cypher, brought flowers to the Doncev home at 1 Willow St.

Bublik also said the family’s youngest child was born early. “Then Mark came along, and he was born at 26 weeks, and we prayed for them continuously,” she said. “To lose our two miracles that we held so dear in our hearts, along with our dear Dmitri and Ecaterina, who I’ve known my whole life, it’s really heartbreaking, and it’s very difficult.”