A mother found dead Wednesday in a trash compactor at her luxury Manhattan apartment building apparently appeared drunk before she made the 27-story descent.
On Tuesday afternoon, surveillance cameras at the Zeckendorf Towers caught Lara Prychodko, 48, stumbling out of an elevator stopped on the 27th floor. Thirty minutes later, Prychodko is believed to have slid down a trash chute before being crushed to death by a compactor, according to the New York Post.
Police told the Post that a maintenance man found Prychodko’s body “crushed from multiple angles.” Though it’s unclear how she managed to get into the chute, police sources told the New York Daily News that her death is being investigated as a homicide.
Now, the woman’s former neighbors are saying that Prychodko had a history of substance abuse issues—something that possibly played a role in Tuesday’s fatal incident.
At least two residents of the Chelsea building where Prychodko and her then-husband previously lived told the Post that the mother-of-one possibly had a drinking problem and claimed to have often seen her stumbling in a drunken stupor.
“She would come home drunk. Like, she couldn’t walk,” one source revealed. “I don’t remember a specific time, but I remember many times (more than once a week)…this was about three years ago.”
Prychodko reportedly moved into Zeckendorf Towers two years ago, after divorcing her husband of 10 years. David Christopher Schlachet, who owns a construction company, told the Post that he has “no comment” regarding his ex-wife’s death.
[Featured Image: Zeckendorf Towers/Wikicommons]