Bellingham police dog helps arrest kidnapping suspect after woman forced into van
Two individuals were arrested Sunday in Bellingham for kidnapping and other crimes after authorities say they both forced a woman into a white van and one of them held her at gunpoint.
Police say the woman was visiting a person she knew in the early morning hours of May 4 at an apartment in the 200 block of Fraser Street when she received multiple threatening text messages from Christopher William Zvara, 27, whom she knew previously, telling her to go outside to meet him.
The woman went to meet Zvara in the parking lot along with two other acquaintances for safety, Bellingham Police Department Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald.
When the woman met Zvara outside, police said he put her in a headlock that restricted her breathing and pointed a handgun at the two other people with her. He then dragged the woman to his van and forced her into the passenger seat while holding the gun, at which time Margaret G. Bespalova, 28, also of Bellingham, got out of the van and helped the him get the woman inside, according to police.
Zvara and Bespalova got back inside the van and fled, with the woman inside, police said. The woman told police Zvara drove around, holding her at gunpoint, before eventually ending up in Bellingham’s York Neighborhood in an alley, where the abducted woman was able to run and call police.
Police found the abandoned van several hours later in the 1200 block of Grant Street and processed it for fingerprints, which they say helped identify Bespalova.
Police say they located the two suspects later that same day in a car at Cornwall Park in Bellingham. Zvara refused to surrender peacefully and pulled out a handgun, Murphy told The Herald. Officers hit him with drag-stabilized baton rounds, after which he dropped the gun, according to police. Still, he did not surrender, Murphy said. Police said he appeared as if he might try to run away, so they released Rudy, a police service dog, to assist in apprehending him.
Zvara sustained non-life-threatening injuries from the drag-stabilized baton hits and was taken to a medical facility for necessary medical care, police said. Bespalova was taken into custody at Cornwall Park without issue and booked into the Whatcom County Jail that same night.
Zvara has since been booked into Whatcom County Jail, where he remains in custody. He has been charged with first-degree kidnapping, a class A felony. He was also charged with second-degree assault and two counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, class B felonies. Charges were also filed for unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree, a class C felony; obstructing law enforcement, a gross misdemeanor, and altering identifying marks on a firearm, a misdemeanor.
Bespalova has been charged with first-degree kidnapping, a class A felony. She remains in custody at the Whatcom County Jail.
Editor’s note (May 14): This article was updated to include the suspect’s name once he was formally charged.
This story was originally published May 9, 2025 at 12:05 PM.
