A mother and daughter were laid to rest in Brooklyn Thursday as their suspected murderer -- the mother's live in boyfriend -- is now an international fugitive, apparently fleeing to his native Russia just hours after the slayings, according to police officials.
Hundreds of mourners gathered at the Nevsky Yablokoff Memorial Chapel on Ocean Parkway to remember Tatyana Prikhodko, 56, and her daughter, Larisa, 27. The women, both nurses, were discovered late Sunday stabbed multiple times inside the mother's sixth-floor apartment in Sheepshead Bay.
Prikhodko's long-time boyfriend, Nikolai Rakossi, 52, is suspected of killing both women and then heading directly to John F. Kennedy Airport where he bought a one-way ticket to Moscow.
Outside the funeral service, Svetlana Shifrina remembered her slain mother and sister, saying she is "in shock."
"It is completely unexpected. Unforeseen. We had a perfectly normal family. My mom was with this man for 10 years. They were married. He was a part of our family. You just never know what to expect," she said.
Shifrina said she had no idea what could have precipitated the attack. She said she has opened a college account for Larisa's young son. "He is one of the biggest victims here," she said.
The NYPD said Wednesday it was working with the State Department and Russian authorities to determine Rakossi's whereabouts.
Rakossi, a Russian immigrant who worked as a laborer in New York, was known to friends as the "Russian Rambo" because of his long career in the Russian army, including tours of duty in Afghanistan.
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Security cameras outside the Sheepshead Bay apartment captured Rakossi leaving the building with two large suitcases around 9:30 a.m. Sunday. He then caught an Aeroflot flight to Moscow at 7 p.m., landing at 12:30 p.m. Monday. He reportedly has a house outside of Moscow.
The United States and Russia do not have an extradition treaty.
According to the Daily News, the taxi dispatcher who took Rakossi's call said "He told the driver: "I have to fly right away. My wife is sick."
The bodies of Tatyana and Larisa were not discovered until five hours after Rakossi's plane took off, police said.
Valerie Pink, a colleague of Tatyana's at Brookdale Hospital, called her "a talented nurse. A very dedicated nurse for the pediatric unit. We are all grieving. We miss her very much."
The motive for the slayings was unclear. Investigators have theorized that the daughter, who lived in a separate apartment in the same building, may have been killed after walking in on the attack on her mother.
