The father of a Manhattan woman whose body was found at the bottom of a trash chute in her Union Square building insists in court papers that her husband had her killed.
It’s the second time Nicholas Prychodko, of Canada, is suing son-in-law David Schlachet for the July 10, 2018, death of his daughter, Lara.
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 Schlachet.
Authorities deemed her death accidental, but Nicholas Prychodko didn’t agree with the findings, and hired former New York City medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden to examine his daughter’s remains.
Baden concluded the woman “may have died because of homicidal ligature strangulation and was then placed in the garbage chute,” according to a letter the famed forensic pathologist wrote to the family.
Schlachet hired a hitman to do the dirty deed, Nicholas Prychodko contended in a bombshell 2021 Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit he filed against his son-in-law in February 2021.
A family financial advisor, Lance Meyerowich, joined the suit as a plaintiff.
The pair also alleged Schlachet installed software on her laptop to track her movements.
The construction company boss stood to lose as much as half his $6 million in assets in his divorce from Lara, her father has alleged, as the pair battled over their shared property including two Southampton homes, a Chelsea apartment, a penthouse in Williamsburg and a loft in Toronto.
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.
A lawyer for Schlachet didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.
