NY - Socialite, Lara Prychodko, 48, found dead at bottom of Manhattan trash chute, 10 July 2018

[dotr]

Two years after woman was found dead at bottom of Manhattan trash chute, father maintains she was murdered
''This July marks two years since a New York woman was found dead at the bottom of a luxury Manhattan building’s trash chute, and while officials have found no signs of foul play in her death, her distraught family believes she was murdered.

Lara Prychodko, 48, died less than a month after she celebrated her birthday in Paris and Ibiza with friends. Her body was found at the bottom of the trash chute after plummeting from the 27th floor of the Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square, where she was living at the time.

NYPD viewed security footage that showed Lara entering the building at 4:10 p.m. on July 10, 2018, and getting on the elevator by herself.''

rbbm.
Father of socialite who was found dead in a trash chute maintains that she was murdered | Daily Mail Online
''Investigators determined that Lara's mysterious and unusual death was a tragic accident, but Nicholas Prychodko maintains that his daughter was brutally killed that evening.

'What could have happened to her?' Nicholas told NBC's Dateline.

'Was it a suicide? It’s not possible. That’s not Lara. Was it an accident? I very quickly became convinced that there was only one plausible explanation for what took place. And that’s homicide.'

Lara Prychodko with her father Nicholas Prychodko who believes that she was murdered

''New York City's former chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden also claimed the mother-of-one may not have accidentally fallen in the chute, and that her body showed signs of strangulation.''

''At 4:40pm, a maintenance worker stopped by the trash chute after it became jammed. That's where he found Lara's body 'crushed from multiple angles.'''

'The circumstances around the death are unclear; however there is no suspicion of foul play,' the office said.

But Nicholas refuses to believe his daughters death was simply drunken accident.

He told Dateline that the trash chute at Zeckendorf Towers was around 15" by 18" with a door and that Lara was tall at 5'10".

''Baden reviewed autopsy notes, X-rays, lab tests and crime scene photos before sending a letter to the Prychodko family less than a year after the incident.

He determined that Lara 'may have died because of homicidal ligature strangulation and was then placed in the garbage chute.'

The new report also suggested that alleged strangulation 'may also explain why there was little bleeding from the lacerated viscera and torn blood vessels noted at autopsy.'

Baden also mentioned a photo from the crime scene that showed Lara without her shirt.

'Lara’s blouse is torn from her body and that to him is an indication that there could have been a struggle against the assailant,' said Nicholas.''

 

[dotr]

The mysterious death of Lara Prychodko
''The bizarre circumstances surrounding Lara's death caught the attention of New York City's former medical examiner, Dr. Michael Baden. "I’ve never seen a drunk person be able to go into a narrow chute and go feet first down 27 stories, that’s extremely unusual," Dr. Baden explains. He agreed to take a look at the autopsy report pro bono. "My opinion is that there’s enough information that is should be investigated as a homicide," Dr. Baden concluded.

Gruesome crime scene photos show a pale line around Lara's neck with blue coloration above or cyanosis. Dr. Baden says that suggests Lara could have been strangled to death before being put into the trash chute. Autopsy photos also show very little internal bleeding anywhere but Lara's neck. Suggesting the 48-year-old was dead before reaching the compactor, according to Dr. Baden's report.''

 

[dotr]

Two years after woman was found dead at bottom of Manhattan trash chute, father maintains she was murdered
July 11, 2020
By Andrea Cavallier
''Lara grew up in Toronto, Canada where she attended the Etobicoke School for the Arts and then went on to the University of Toronto. Her father said she was very protective of her younger siblings.

“Although you can imagine that she could also be a little bit bossy at times,” Prychodko said, laughing. “She had this happy childhood. I remember spending summers at the lake -- renting cottages by the lake going fishing, canoeing, swimming.”

Right after college, Lara moved to New York City. Lara held many jobs as she worked toward success in the city. She became an event organizer and worked with corporate organizations, including WebMD, where she met CEO Wayne Gattinella, whom she was dating at the time of her death, according to her friends and family.

“Lara was extremely sociable,” her father said. “She had great interpersonal skills and networking skills, which is what helped to make her so successful.”

Lara’s sister, Talya, who still lives in Toronto, told Dateline the two were extremely close.

“She was my best friend,” Talya said. “She was kind and generous and found the good in everyone. She was a beautiful soul.”

This thread concerns a Toronto man whose body was also found in a garbage chute, including links to other cases, fwiw..
Noting this comment from seasoned LE ..

Man dies after falling down garbage chute in Toronto highrise
''A veteran police officer at the scene said that he’s heard of children falling down garbage chutes, but that this is the first time he’s heard of this happening to an adult.

Neighbours in the building expressed disbelief that a grown man could have fit inside the narrow garbage chute.''

Ws thread
Death of man who fell down garbage chute is 'suspicious, Toronto.

 

[Bohemian]

Another case of death in a garbage chute:

Australia - Phoebe Handsjuk, 24, found dead in Melbourne apt building, 2 Dec 2010

 

[dotr]

Another case of death in a garbage chute:

Australia - Phoebe Handsjuk, 24, found dead in Melbourne apt building, 2 Dec 2010

Well that is interesting, coincidence that the man PH was dating at the time was an event planner, Lara had also worked in event planning.

 

[7Niki3]

Another case of death in a garbage chute:

Australia - Phoebe Handsjuk, 24, found dead in Melbourne apt building, 2 Dec 2010

There is a podcast named “Phoebe’s Fall” that is dedicated podcast about this specific case. I listened to it years ago and liked it very much, especially considering the odd manner of her death.

 

[MajorHoople]

Manhattan woman who died falling down trash chute 'strangled by hitman', says father | Daily Mail Online

"The father of a wealthy Manhattan woman who fell to her death down a trash chute in what police ruled was a freak accident when she was drunk is claiming that she was in fact strangled by a hitman hired by her estranged husband to stop her from taking her money in their divorce.

Lara Prychodko, 48, was discovered dead on July 10, 2018, by a maintenance worker after plummeting from the 27th floor of the Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square.

She had last been seen stumbling around drunk in the apartment building. Police ruled her death an accident but her father, Nicholas Prychodko, has long suspected foul play.

On Tuesday, he filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her estranged husband David Schlachet, claiming that he had a hitman strangle her and throw her body down the chute."

 

[dotr]

Wondering if Lara was in fact "drunk," or was she actually drugged, imo, speculation.
https://nypost.com/2021/02/25/dad-of-trash-chute-victim-now-claims-she-was-killed-by-a-hitman/
Feb 25 2021

The death of Lara Prychodko, seen above with her husband in 2006, was ruled an accident in 2018 -- but new evidence casts doubt on that narrative, with her father claiming she was killed by a hitman

''The Manhattan Supreme Court wrongful death suit — filed Tuesday by Prychodko’s father, Nicholas Prychodko, and financial advisor Lance Meyerowich on behalf of her estate — offers no proof of the claim.

But it alleges that Prychodko’s estranged husband David Schlachet paid someone to off his 48-year-old wife because he stood to lose as much as half of an approximately $6 million fortune upon the couple’s finalization of their contentious divorce.

No criminal charges have been filed against Schlachet in connection to the case.

Prychodko was found dead July 10 in the basement garbage room of her luxury Union Square building, less than a month after she celebrated her birthday in Paris with family and friends.

Cops at the time said she was last seen alive on surveillance video, in which she appeared to be drunk and stumbling about.''

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Nicholas Prychodko made the allegations in a lawsuit filed in a New York civil court this week, obtained by The Daily Beast. In the suit, he claims his daughter, Lara Prychodko was strangled in 2018 by her husband, David Schlachet, in a “brutal act” that was carefully planned.

The couple was going through an acrimonious divorce at the time, the lawsuit claims, and Schlachet faced losing millions of dollars. A month before Prychodko’s death, the lawsuit says, Schlachet, a wealthy construction boss, met with a hitman and offered to pay him to kill his wife.

Her father always doubted that version of events. Mr. Prychodko sought out the help of Dr. Michael Baden, former New York City chief medical examiner. Baden reviewed the autopsy, crime scene photos, X-rays and lab tests, according to the New York Post. He concluded that Lara Prychodko “may have died because of homicidal ligature strangulation and was then placed in the garbage chute,” according to a letter viewed by the newspaper in 2018.

"I’ve never seen a drunk person be able to go into a narrow chute and go feet first down 27 stories, that’s extremely unusual," Dr. Baden later told FOX5.

Father of Woman Killed In Trash Chute Says it Was Murder

Patrick McMullanThe father of a woman who died after falling 27-stories down a trash chute at a luxury New York apartment now says she was murdered by her husband and an unidentified hit-man.Nicholas Prychodko made the allegations in a lawsuit filed in a New York civil court this week, obtained...

uk.news.yahoo.com

 

[dotr]

Lara Prychodko and David Schlachet shared a son, who is now 17.Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Dad of NYC woman found dead in trash chute claims her husband had her killed

Lara Prychodko, 48, was initially thought to have drunkenly fallen 27 floors to her death at the luxury Zeckendorf Towers amid health problems and a contentious split from David Schlachet.

nypost.com

''Attorneys for Schlachet objected to the 2021 litigation on the grounds that neither Nicholas nor Lance Meyerowich had legal authority, or “standing,” to sue.

A judge agreed, dismissing the case in July 2021.

But on April 6, a judge in Manhattan Surrogate Court gave Prychodko and Meyerowich limited authority to represent her estate and act as guardians for the property of Lara’s now 17-year-old son.

On Tuesday, the pair again sued Schlachet and the hitman, who they’ve identified only as “John Doe,” in Manhattan Supreme Court, repeating their claims Schlachet “was financially motivated to kill Lara Prychodko.”

''Even though Schlachet filed his own wrongful death claim against the owners, operators, and managers of Zeckendorf Towers — where disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner once lived — that complaint doesn’t address how Lara “could have opened the garbage chute, pushed herself through its small opening, and dived down the chute – all by accident,” Prychodko noted in court papers.

The new lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and to disqualify Schlachet as a beneficiary of Lara Prychodko’s estate.''

 

[dotr]

Nicholas Prychodko: Dad of socialite Lara Prychodko found dead in trash chute claims husband killed her

Lara Prychodko and her estranged husband David Schlachet were in the middle of a bitter divorce battle when she was found dead on July 10, 2018

meaww.com

By Srinija Grandhi April 30 2023 rbbm

This is the second time Nicholas Prychodko has sued his son-in-law David Schlachet in the years since his daughter Lara Prychodko died (Nicholas Prychodko/Facebook, Getty Images)

''Lara, 48, was discovered dead at the bottom of a trash chute in her apartment building in New York City on July 10, 2018. She was initially thought to have died after falling 27 floors from Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square while intoxicated. Lara and her estranged husband Schlachet were in the middle of a bitter divorce battle when she died. According to the New York Post, the couple was fighting over assets such as two properties in Southampton, an apartment in Chelsea, a penthouse in Williamsburg, and a loft in Toronto.

Who is Lara Prychodko's father?​

Lara's father Nicholas Prychodko submitted the shocking allegations this week in a New York civil court, as per documents obtained by The Daily Beast. He alleged in the lawsuit that David Schlachet, the husband of Lara Prychodko, strangled her in 2018 in a "brutal act" that was intentional.

Nicholas disagreed with the city's medical examiner's office, who found no evidence of foul play in Lara's death. To investigate Lara's remains, he recruited Dr Michael Baden, a veteran medical examiner for New York City. In a letter to the family, Baden said that Lara "may have died because of homicidal ligature strangulation and was then placed in the garbage chute."

Lara's husband hired hitman to kill her​

In February 2021, Nicholas filed the first case and named Lance Meyerowich, the family's financial advisor, as a plaintiff. According to the case filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Lara's husband hired a hitman to kill her. According to court documents, Nicholas and Meyerowich also asserted that Schlachet reportedly planted malware on Lara's laptop to track her.''

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Lara Prychodko, 48, died less than a month after she celebrated her birthday in Paris and on the Spanish island of Ibiza with friends. Her body was found at the bottom of the trash chute after it plummeted from the 27th floor of the Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square, where she was living at the time. “It feels like a made-for-TV movie, it’s just surreal,” Lara’s sister, Talya, told Dateline in a recent interview. We began covering the case in 2020.

Now Lara’s father, Nicholas Prychodko, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that his daughter’s ex-husband, David Schlachet, and an unidentified hit man “conspired to and, through their concerted efforts, did, in fact, murder Lara Prychodko.” In the suit, Prychodko alleges Schlachet installed software on Lara’s computer to track her whereabouts, which enabled the hit man to lie in wait, strangle her to death, then dispose of her body down the building’s trash chute. According to the lawsuit, the couple had been going through an “acrimonious divorce.” Lara’s father claims Schlachet was under “intense financial pressure” and expected to lose millions of dollars to his ex-wife in the divorce settlement.

In a response to the lawsuit filed in June, David Schlachet’s attorney denied the allegations, stating that the hit man (identified only as “John Doe” in the lawsuit) is a “wholly fictitious person.”

Wrongful death lawsuit filed 5 years after Lara Prychodko was found dead at the bottom of Manhattan trash chute

The 48-year-old’s manner of death was listed as “undetermined.” Her father is determined to seek answers and get justice for his daughter, who he believes was murdered.

www.nbcnews.com