Enrique Marquez’s Strange Marriage

LATimes:

Marquez married Mariya Chernykh in November 2014, according to county records. The marriage added another connection to the Farook family; Chernykh’s sister was married to Syed Raheel Farook, the shooter’s older brother.

The sisters are from Russia, according to marriage records. Raheel and his wife were both witnesses at Marquez’s wedding, records show. Raheel and Chernykh’s sister, Tatiana Gigliotti, were married in 2011.

The women came to the United States separately on J-1 visas, which allow foreign individuals to enter for work-study cultural exchange programs, according to the federal official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Marquez’s marriage could strike some people as odd, although Ramirez did not find it unusual. Marquez did not live with his wife, she said, and he never explained his living arrangements.

“He never really talked about the friends he had. He wouldn’t bring anybody up,” Ramirez said. “He was more of an in-the-moment person.”

Brittani Adams, a neighbor of Syed Raheel Farook, said she had seen Marquez and Chernykh around the family home but the two looked like anything but a married couple.

“He would never leave with her, come with her, not hug her,” Adams, 24, said. “None of them seemed like they were married. It was very weird.”