Loved Ones Mourn Murdered Women At Morning Funeral, "Suspect" May Escape Prosecution In Russia

Loved ones gathered at Nevsky Yablokoff Memorial Chapels this morning for the final goodbye of Larisa Prikhodko, 27, and her mother Tatyana Prikhodko, 56, who were both stabbed to death over the weekend, while authorities remain pessimistic that the likely suspect in the case will ever step foot on American soil again.

About 250 people attended the services where the mother and daughter, both nurses who lived in separate apartments at 2299 East 13th Street, were laid to rest, and they remembered the pair as “amazing human beings” who “loved life,” according to the New York Post.

Svetlana Shifrina, Larisa’s sister, said her mother and sibling “loved their families, their friends, their work. They loved to live. And they still do, it’s just they live differently now.”

“They’re still alive in my heart,” Shifrina added at the closed-coffin service.

Police are still gathering evidence in the case and have not yet officially named a suspect, though all eyes appear fixed on the elder victim’s boyfriend, Nikolai Rakossi, 52. The New York Post has learned that Rakossi recently lost his job as a day laborer and, when police entered the apartment, found it littered with vodka bottles – though Sheepshead Bites has been told that Rakossi was not usually a drinker.

Following the murders, which police believe occurred Saturday evening, Rakossi may have spent the night at the apartment. The next day, Rakossi was caught by security cameras leaving the building with suitcases. At around 3 p.m. he turned up at an Aeroflot airline counter with an injured hand and broken nose, and purchased a $1,600 ticket to Moscow.

Rakossi is not yet officially a suspect in the case, authorities told the Daily News.

“We are still in the process of compiling evidence,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. “Obviously, we want to talk to that individual. We have not, as yet, come to the point where we have probable cause to expect an arrest.”

But with Rakossi in Russia, where he’s believed to have an apartment outside of Moscow, foreign officials are already saying extradition is out of the question. A spokesman for the Russian Embassy noted his country’s constitution bars the extradition of any citizens under any circumstances.

Rakossi may face prosecution in Russia if New York authorities provide “verifiable and correct” evidence, he said.