It turns out the Russian national suspected of killing his wife and her daughter is an elite special ops soldier who's known as a "Russian Rambo" to his friends. And NYPD investigators aren't at all optimistic about bringing him back to face justice for the horrific stabbing murders, because Russia's constitution prohibits extraditing citizens to stand trial on foreign soil. As more details emerge about the carnage, Nikolai Rakossi is presumably sipping vodka somewhere in Mother Russia—he caught a flight out just five hours before the bodies were found, and was so confident of his escape he reportedly told the cab driver exactly where he was going in Russia.
The taxi dispatcher tells the Daily News Rakossi revealed that he was headed for Kaluga, a city about 60 miles outside Moscow. The cab picked him up the morning after the murders, which means he may have spent the night in the apartment with the two dead women. According to the hack, Rakossi had a bandage on his nose and scratches all over his face.
Rakossi's military history includes missions in Afghanistan, Africa and Vietnam, a manager of the Russian Baths in Sheepshead Bay tells the Post. "He's a big, strong man and a great wrestler," says Michael Grinberg. "He came in every Sunday and would give candy to the kids and be friendly with everyone. I thought I knew him as a friend, but now I don't think I knew him as well as I [thought I] did." It's still unknown what may have motivated the killings; Rakossi had no record of violence in the U.S., and the tenant directly below Rakossi's wife, Tatyana Prikhodko, says he heard no signs of a disturbance Saturday afternoon when she was murdered.
Tatyana's other daughter arrived from Switzerland yesterday to make the funeral arrangements for her mother and sister Larisa, who leaves behind a 3-year-old son. The boy's father, Felix Zeltser, met with police for two hours yesterday and left the station house carrying a cardboard box, telling reporters, "You know how we're doing. Hard time." A former federal prosecutor tells the Post the best investigators can hope for is to prepare an arrest warrant for Rakossi in the hopes that they can detain him if he travels to a country that does have an extradition agreement with the United States.
