Nov 16, 2016 4 min read

Dalia Sabae spoke six languages. She taught dance and yoga. The 28-year-old, who had been a pharmacist in Egypt, was working as a pharmacy intern at Jeffreys Drug Store in Canonsburg in order to earn her license to practice in the United States.

Five months pregnant, Sabae was looking forward to the birth of her baby boy, whom she told co-workers she was going to name Antonio.

On Nov. 10, Sabae’s estranged husband, Michael Cwiklinski, 47, shot her with a rifle in their Canonsburg home, killing her and her unborn child. The gunman also shot and killed Canonsburg police Officer Scott Bashioum and wounded another officer, James Saieva, in an ambush after the policemen responded at 3:19 a.m. to reports of a domestic situation at the Woodcrest Avenue duplex. He then turned the gun on himself.

Devastated co-workers at Jeffreys, where Sabae had worked since June 2015 and was beloved, said she “was the biggest light in any room.”

“She was an amazing woman. She had one of the biggest hearts of anyone I’ve ever met,” said Holly Wargo, a pharmacy technician. “When I came back to work after my husband died last year, she was the first person to come to me. Even though she struggled with her situation, she cared more about me.”

Sabae will be buried in Oak Spring Cemetery.

Visitation will be held from 2 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Salandra Funeral and Cremations Services Inc. in Canonsburg.

A celebration of life and dove release will be held graveside at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Oak Spring Cemetery, 238 Oak Spring Road, Canonsburg. All are invited to meet at the cemetery.

Funeral expenses are being covered by Jeffreys Drug Store, Salandra and the Washington County District Attorney’s Office Victims Compeion Fund. Oak Spring Cemetery has donated a burial plot. Malone Flower Shop has donated a casket lid spray.

Jeffreys Drug Store owner Gerard O’Hare said he and the pharmacy employees became a family to Sabae, taking her on work outings, including to a Pittsburgh Pirates game, introducing the vegetarian to chicken spinach pizza, and inviting her to holiday get-togethers.

O’Hare gave her a car when she finally earned a driver’s license – after a dozen attempts.

“She was incredibly smart and bright, and her laugh. She had the best laugh,” said pharmacist Brian King, who noted Sabae watched a movie every day in one of the six languages she spoke in order to keep sharp.

Sabae also ate at least one Snickers bar every day at the pharmacy, said pharmacy technician Donna Nozum.

“She was always upbeat, always in a good mood,” said Nozum, and co-workers said she always sang along to the radio that plays in the front of the store.

But O’Hare and co-workers feared for her safety.

Twice, Sabae sought protection-from-abuse orders, including once after her estranged husband hit her in the head with a heavy bagful of cans at a grocery store. Cwiklinski recently told her that she and their unborn baby should die.

Store manager Cheryl Kusky said she and other co-workers had offered many times to let Sabae stay with them, but she declined, saying she didn’t want to endanger anyone else.

O’Hare said Sabae told him her estranged husband had guns, and employees worried that he would come into the store to harm her and them.

Kusky said Sabae planned to leave her estranged husband after she found out she was pregnant.

Sabae’s death marks the third time in 13 months that a Washington County woman has been killed by her estranged husband.

Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern Pennsylvania will hold a “Call to Action, Call for Peace” rally at 11 a.m. Saturday in front of the Canonsburg borough building in response to Sabae’s death.

DVSSP also is hosting a program on PFAs at 6 p.m. Thursday at Citizens Library.

Sabae was not living with Cwiklinski, whom she met 10 years ago and lived with briefly in Russia before moving to Canonsburg, at the time of the murders. She was staying in the duplex by herself, and had just rented another apartment she was preparing to move into.

“She was on her way to leaving him. She was really getting her life in order,” said Kusky. “She had just picked out carpeting, and she was planning her future with her baby. She said she had made her decision and she was going to get away from (her estranged husband) because she was going to protect the baby.”

Memorial contributions may be made to Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern Pennsylvania, 308 E. Maiden Street, Washington, PA 15301, the Washington City Mission, or any women’s shelter.