Nicholas Prychodko: Dad of socialite Lara Prychodko found dead in trash chute claims she was strangled by estranged husband intentionally
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY: According to court documents, a distraught father has made a shocking claim that his socialite daughter, who was discovered dead in a trash chute, was killed by her construction executive husband. This is the second time Nicholas Prychodko of Canada has sued his son-in-law David Schlachet in the years since his daughter Lara Prychodko died.
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.
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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.
Lara's father claimed that Schlachet was about to lose up to half of his $6 million in assets if he divorced Lara. The action was dropped in July 2021, however, after Schlachet's lawyers opposed the suit, claiming that neither Nicholas nor Meyerowich had the legal capacity to sue, which the judge agreed with.
Schlachet 'financially motivated to kill Lara'
A judge in Manhattan Surrogate Court granted Nicholas and Meyerowich limited permission to represent Lara's estate and serve as guardians for the assets of her now-17-year-old son on April 6, 2023, which was almost two years later.
The two filed a second lawsuit against Schlachet and the hitman in Manhattan Supreme Court recently. They again claimed in court documents, claiming Schlachet "was financially motivated to kill Lara Prychodko."
Lawsuit demands unspecified damages
Schlachet brought a wrongful death lawsuit on his own behalf against the Zeckendorf Towers' owners, managers, and operators. The case, however, does not address how Lara "could have opened the garbage chute, pushed herself through its small opening, and dived down the chute - all by accident," according to records.
The lawsuit demands unspecified damages as well as the removal of Schlachet as the beneficiary of Lara's estate, as per The Sun.