Lara Nadia Anike Prychodko was born on June 23rd, 1970, in Toronto, Canada. Not much is known about her early life, but she is remembered as having been a “vivacious and caring woman, who was deeply loved”, by her friends and family across Canada, the USA, and Europe. Her father recalled that she was very protective of her younger siblings.
At some point in time, Lara went to the Etobicoke School for the Arts and then went on to the University of Toronto, and was vice president of her sorority. She would go on to model in New York City, and then became a conference event organizer for major corporations, such as WebMD.
Her father recalled her as being “extremely sociable”, with great interpersonal and networking skills, which “made her so successful”. Her sister Talya remembered her as, kind, generous, and found the good in everyone. “She was a beautiful soul”.
In 2003, she married a man named David Schlachet, who owned a construction company in Manhattan, New York. Somewhere around 2006 they had a son together.
Around 2014 or 2016, her and David decided to divorce, which was described in news articles as, “acrimonious”. The process was taking at least two years. Sources state that the two fought over millions of dollars worth of assets. Real estate in expensive living areas were listed. One source states that it was Lara who decided to file for divorce.
One source says that while going through her divorce, she was dating CEO Wayne Gattinella.
In 2015, though another source states 2012, Lara lost custody of her son, because of a DUI charge. She had been granted overnight visitation rights after a meeting with a counselor, and was scheduled to see her son on July 11th, 2018.
Various sources state that in the last few days of her life, Lara was in good spirits, as her favorite team had beat out Belgium in the World Cup Semi finals, had anticipated regaining custody of her son. She was last seen around 4:10 to 4:20 pm, July 10th, 2018, entering her building at 1 Irving Place.
Not even an hour later, a 911 call would be made at Zeckendorf Towers as a mangled body in the garbage compactor was found. It was unknown how, but Lara Prychodko had managed to fall 27 flights to her death down the trash chute, which was just “steps away from her front door”. One source states that her body was “crushed from multiple angles”.
Lara’s death was considered an accident, and the New York City Medical Examiner deemed her cause of death as “multiple blunt impact injuries”. Her blood alcohol level was 0.29. High enough to nearly be considered alcohol poisoning. Lara’s manner of death was listed as “undetermined”.
The circumstances of Lara’s death were immediately brought into question by her family, who found it to be extremely strange. Her father even pointed out, that if she wanted to commit suicide, “who would do it that way?”.
The trash chute at Zeckendorf Towers was about 15 by 18 inches. Lara Prychoko was 5’10 and 130 pounds. Her father stated, “It’s simply impossible. It’s ridiculous, and what baffles me, is the only people that seems to give this preposterous idea some credence, are the investigating authorities.”.
Lara’s case actually caught the attention of Dr. Michael Baden, who was New York City’s former medical examiner. He was quoted saying:
“I’ve never seen a drunk person be able to go into a narrow chute and go feet first down 27 stories, that’s extremely unusual”. He looked at the autopsy report and stated, “My opinion is that there’s enough information that should be investigated as a homicide.”.
Crime scene photos showed a pale line around Lara’s neck with blue coloration, or cyanosis. Dr. Baden suggested that Lara could have been strangled to death before being put into the trash chute. Autopsy photos also showed very little internal bleeding anywhere but Lara’s neck, suggesting that she was dead before reaching the trash compactor.
After Lara’s death, her estranged husband immediately took control of all the properties, and drained her bank accounts.
Only a few articles about her death were posted in 2018. On July 12th of that year, the Daily News posted: “Woman chute death eyed as homicide”. It stated that initially, Lara’s death was being investigated as a homicide case. In this article, it states that Lara’s body was found around 4:55 pm by a custodian for the building.
Surveillance footage showed that Lara was walking alone in the hallway “like there’s nothing wrong” for a short time before her death. Her handbag was found discard by an elevator on the 27th floor.
On December 20th, 2018, the Daily News posted an article stating that Lara’s death was not foul play. Here, the medical examiner stated that there was no suspicion of foul play, and she had died of “multiple blunt impact injuries”.
In articles from the New York Post, it was divulged that Lara had been convicted in 2012 for driving intoxicated, and had been battling a drinking problem that was brought on by a “growing brain tumor”. Attorney Eric Seiff stated,
“I know she was absolutely convinced the pain and dependency she was experiencing that had her drinking, was directly related to the growing brain tumor.”.
In this article it stated it stated that multiple sources believed that Lara had been suffering from health issues. Her lawyer stated that she had turned her life around, and regularly passed professionally monitored drug and alcohol tests.
He was quoted again:
“I have not been aware of a single test that she failed the last year. For the last six months [the tests] have been professionally supervised.”
At the time of her death, Lara and her estranged husband had been in mediation, which had been postponed for a month.
Another article from the NY post stated that someone had seen Lara’s estranged husband, David, before the police confirmed that the body in the trash chute was Lara’s. Supposedly, he was “acting normally. He wasn’t like sad or anything.”.
Which wouldn’t seem odd at first, until you remember that Lara was supposed to have visitation with her son, and of course, never showed up.
On the other hand, residents in the area that David lived, in Chelsea, stated that it seemed like Lara had a drinking problem, and regularly saw her stumbling drunk when she used to live there.
One person was quoted:
“She would come home drunk. Like, she couldn’t walk. I don’t remember a specific time, but I remember many times [more than once a week].”
At the time of her death, Lara hadn’t lived in her apartment building for very long, and wasn’t well known to those around her.
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In an article from 2020 the New York Post revealed some more details about Lara before her death.
On Memorial Day 2018, May 28th, she had apparently sent an email to her lover Wayne Gattinella. Apparently he was still married at this point too. Her email said:
“I just woke up missing my beautiful amazing son whom I’ve lost because of my love of you.
You said you would take care of private school, but you are not. My child deserves the same privilege yours do. ”.
This was sent at 6:05 am that day. The article from New York post stated that Lara also wanted him to leave his wife of 40 years.
Gattinella owned a lot of expensive reality in New York, worth millions and millions of dollars. He ended up renting a two bedroom apartment with Lara according to a January 2018 rental agreement. Seven months after he signed the least, Lara was found dead. The rent was $6,500 a month.
This article was the first to point out that Lara shared the apartment with Gattinella.
One of Lara’s friends stated that there was no way Lara could have thrown herself down the trash chute. The friend also stated that the atmosphere at the apartment was “toxic”, and Lara was “constantly drinking and fighting with Gattinella about his marriage”. Despite this, the friend said that Lara was full of plans for the future.
At the time, Lara was getting ready to launch a line of skin care products. The friend was quoted again saying, “She told me she was going to have one last big party and then get sober. All she wanted was to get her life back.”.
This last party was at Ibiza, Spain, and then Paris, France, where Lara traveled with Gattinella to celebrate her 48th birthday. Before the trip, Gattinella’s wife had learned of the relationship though, when she found a charge for a gym membership on her husband’s credit card statement. The membership was of course, for Lara.
It was recalled that Wayne Gattinella was “always buying her expensive things.”. They had luxury vehicles, expensive clothes, and “ate at the best restaurants in Manhattan”.
Before Lara’s death, there was tension in their relationship, with him becoming rude to her after his wife discovered the gym membership. When this happened, he refused to call her. One friend stated that the relationship between the two went on for nearly a decade, and Lara had become tired of being the mistress.
In a separate email from May 28th, 2018, Lara sent Wayne an email saying:
“I can never get to you, so I’m so over this system. You either stop having me blocked (everyone knows it’s just you who can’t admit) or go back to a hidden phone. Your choice, but if you were honest now I don’t think it would be as dramatic, they all know.”
Apparently, Gattinella was never named a suspect in Lara’s death. Months after Lara died, Gattinella’s wife filed for divorce, it was finalized in 2020.
In 2023, Lara’s father filed for a wrongful death suit against her estranged husband, but nothing seems to have ever come from this.
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A celebration of Lara’s life was held at the Jerrett Funeral Home in Toronto, on July 27th, 2018. In an obituary for her, her family asked that donations in Lara’s name be made to The Acoustic Neroma Society of Canada, and/or Planned Parenthood.
