Nikolai Rakossi Heads To Trial In Russia For 2011 Murder Of Wife, Step-Daughter In Sheepshead Bay

Nikolai Rakossi, the husband and step-father of two women brutally murdered in a Sheepshead Bay apartment in 2011, is now on trial in Russia after four years, an international manhunt and unprecedented collaboration between Russian and American law enforcement agencies.

Rakossi is accused of the stabbing deaths of his wife, Tatyana Prikhodko, and her daughter Larisa in their 2299 East 13th Street apartment in April 2011. In the hours after the murder, he boarded a plane to Russia where he lived free for more than two years until his arrest in 2013.

Russia does not extradite its citizens, leaving friends and family of the victims aghast that the killer would go free. But following a close collaboration between authorities of both nations, evidence from the Sheepshead Bay crime scene will now be used to try and put Rakossi behind bars on the other side of the world.

As part of the investigation, the NYPD passed along a trove of footage and photos of the crime scene, DNA evidence and witness statements. Russian investigators made several visits to New York.

The Daily Mail reports:

A Russian investigator traveled to New York ahead of the trial, said Zinaida Kaminskaya, spokeswoman for the Tula Region Investigative Committee, told MailOnline.

‘Let me highlight our fruitful cooperation with US law enforcement during the investigation of this murder.

‘The Americans provided all possible help, and forwarded us all the necessary documents.

‘Our investigator went to New York and gathered all the information he needed there and his American colleagues were of great assistance.’

He checked the crime scene and interrogated witnesses, believed to include those who saw first saw the carnage when the double homicide was discovered.

‘New York police gathered a lot of evidence – blood, fingerprints, DNA was extracted, knives were found. All this evidence was passed to Tula investigators,’ said a source.

The leading Russian investigator – whose name was not released – commended the Americans for their co-operation despite the crisis in relations between Washington and Moscow.

‘They are good team workers, we appreciated the way they operated,’ he said.

‘They were waiting for us in New York, People were invited to come at the dates when we were there, all was prepared, no failures.

Prosecutors will argue that Rakossi was a frequent drinker, whose denials of his wife’s repeated requests for a divorce ultimately turned violent.

A Russian investigator told the outlet that Tatyana Prikhodko had been seeking a divorce since 2006. Since he wasn’t a citizen, if he refused to leave the United States Prikhodko could’ve been forced to support him if she pressed for divorce, putting her home in jeopardy. Rakossi refused.

Witnesses told investigators the two often fought. The Investigative Committee – the Russian counterpart to the FBI – concluded that on the night of the morning, Rakossi came home drunk and became angry when she insulted the memory of a dead friend.

‘First he hit her with his fists, then he stabbed her in the head and body. The woman died from injuries on the spot.

‘At that moment the woman’s daughter came to her mother’s home.’

Larisa had a flat in the same building, opened the door with her own keys, and evidently saw her mother’s blood-splattered body.

‘In order to hide the murder of her mother, the accused also beat the daughter and stabbed her head and body multiple times.

Rakossi stayed in the apartment that night, and in the morning boarded a plane to Russia.

Prikhodko’s surviving daughter, Svetlana, has since pressed the authorities to find justice for her family despite the jurisdictional obstacles. She has maintained a Facebook page to coordinate support.

‘It is going to be a jury, so there is no guarantee on the verdict here, specially if he will be doing his tearful performances and passionate promises that it wasn’t him,’ she told reporters last year.

‘But I do hope that there will be enough evidence to proof that it was him. I wish this case was closed once and forever, as it is a non-stop nightmare.’

Rakossi faces life in prison if convicted.