Topless Mom Crushed in Trash Chute of Lux Apartment. Dad: HITMAN DID IT!
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 August 2023
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Five years after police rule Lara Prychodko's death as a tragic accident, her father is still pushing for answers.
Prychodko died after falling 27 stories down a trash chute. Nicholas Prychodko claims in a lawsuit that his son-in-law carefully planned, and used a hit-man to facilitate her death. The couple was in the middle of an acrimonious divorce at the time.
The chief medical examiner concluded that Prychodko died from multiple blunt force injuries and was extremely intoxicated. Prychodko's father doesn't believe that explanation. He says a hitman hired by her husband was waiting for her on the 27th floor. She was strangled and the body was disposed of down the building's trash chute.
No criminal charges have ever been filed against her husband, David Schlachet. Prychodko’s father is suing for wrongful death.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Paul Mauro - Attorney, Former NYPD Inspector; Twitter & FB: @TheOpsDesk
- Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst (Beverly Hills); Twitter: @DrBethanyLive
- Joseph Giacalone – Former NYPD Sergeant SDS and Author: “ The Cold Case Handbook” and “The Criminal Investigative Function: A Guide for New Investigators 4th Edition;” Twitter: @JoeGiacalone
- Dr. Michael Baden– Former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City and past Co-Director of the New York State Police Medico-Legal Investigations Unit- Author: “American Autopsy”
- Decca Muldowney - Reporter at The Daily Beast; Twitter: @DeccaMuldowney, Threads: @deccamuldowney_
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Cribe Stories with Nancy Grace |
| 0:14.1 | At the get-go, this smelled bad. |
| 0:18.6 | Just smelled bad. |
| 0:20.3 | You ever gone by a dump and it just smells and you're, oh, and it's just horrible. |
| 0:28.1 | Well, that's the way this investigation smelled to me. |
| 0:31.5 | The first time I heard that this gorgeous, and I don't know why they just keep calling |
| 0:36.6 | her a socialite because I'm pretty sure she was a lot more than that. |
| 0:41.7 | This gorgeous woman ends up at the bottom of a trash shoot. |
| 0:49.5 | And let me tell you, my trash shoot at our New York apartment is, oh gosh, as I was just |
| 0:55.8 | telling Paul Morro, the former NYPD inspector, that our trash shoot is, I have to fold a pizza |
| 1:06.6 | box in half. |
| 1:08.0 | I have to step on it with one foot and fold it over to shove it down the shoot. |
| 1:14.5 | So how could this grown woman shove herself down a trash shoot? |
| 1:23.6 | It brings to mind many other cases, for instance, Chris Watts. |
| 1:31.1 | He murdered his beautiful wife, Shannon, and his two little daughters. |
| 1:39.8 | He shoved their bodies into oil cylinders that were about, um, 12, 15 inches wide, and |
| 1:50.6 | it took the skin off their arms. |
| 1:55.8 | He was so intent of hiding, to hide their bodies. |
| 2:00.4 | I could give you many, many more examples, but I don't think there's any way this woman, |
| 2:09.0 | Lara Prohodko, put herself down a trash shoot and died, but guess what? |
| 2:19.8 | That's the theory that she committed suicide by trash shoot, well, guess what? |
| 2:25.7 | And the last hours, a more rational theory has emerged, and that is murder. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

