Dad of woman found dead in trash chute thinks daughter was ?murdered?
By Sara Dorn July 13, 2018 | 6:59pm | Updated
Nicholas Prychodko, father of Lisa Prychodko, leaves the medical examiner's office following his daughter's death. Erik Thomas/NY Post
The father of the woman who fell 27 floors to her death down her luxury building?s trash chute doesn?t believe the police theory that it was a drunken accident ? and is convinced that someone killed her.
?She was brutally murdered in a sadistic way. She would have never done this to herself,? said Nicholas Prychodko, whose daughter Lara, 48, was found dead Tuesday evening in the basement compactor.
Prychodko was last seen alive on video surveillance stumbling drunkenly from an elevator on the 27th floor of the Zeckendorf Towers around 4:20 p.m., police said.
Thirty minutes later a maintenance man found her body ?crushed from multiple angles? in the compactor, police said. The only other clue about her fate was her purse, which was found abandoned back up on the building?s 27th floor, according to police.
Police sources told the Post on Wednesday they believe she either jumped or fell down the trash chute.
But Prychodko thinks that theory is ?inconceivable. It?s incredulous. It?s preposterous.
?She had no reason to go into that area. She had just gotten off the elevator.?
Prychodko, who is in New York from the family?s native Canada with his other daughter, Lara?s sister, to visit the medical examiner?s office, said he is in contact with police and ?they have asked us not to talk about the details of what they know.?
?I can?t get into the details of why circumstantially I?m convinced it wasn?t possible, because it?s part of an active investigation.?
NYPD spokesman Lt. John Grimpel said Friday that ?detectives are actively investigating her death.?
He said there is ?no evidence at this time that she was murdered.?
Prychodko also dismissed the possibility that her death was a suicide.
?In our family in Canada . . . nobody believes Lara could ever do anything like this to herself, either by accident or suicide,? he said. ?My daughter never spoke of suicide. She is a great believer in self-help.?
Prychodko said he last spoke to his daughter on the phone the day before she was found dead to finalize plans for the family vacation they planned to take to Canada.
An attorney for Prychodko, Eric Seiff, who was representing her during her contentious divorce battle with her construction boss husband, David Christopher Schlachet, also spoke to Prychodko the day before she died and said she sounded ?upbeat.?
Schlachet could not be reached for comment.