Russian 'Rambo' accused in double slay lied to cabbie: 'I have to fly right away. My wife is sick'

Memorials to mom-and-daughter double-slay victims at their Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, apartment building. Police van outside keeps vigil in aftermath of bloody murders.

While racing in a taxi to Kennedy Airport, the nervous Russian man with a scratched face and bandaged nose told the cabbie to hurry because his wife was ill.

The truth was far more macabre, authorities believe: Russian national Nikolai Rakossi was running for his life after stabbing his wife and stepdaughter to death one night earlier.

"He told me he needed to get to JFK right away," taxi dispatcher David Natlia told the Daily News on Tuesday. "He told the driver, 'I have to fly right away. My wife is sick.'"

When Rakossi climbed into the Empire taxicab about 11 a.m. on Sunday, the bodies of his wife, Tatyana Prikhodko, and her beautiful, blond daughter Larisa, 28, were lying dead in a blood-spattered Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, apartment, officials said.

PHOTOS: MOTHER-DAUGHTER DOUBLE-MURDER TRAGEDY

Larisa Prikhodko

"The driver said he seemed nervous and was talking gibberish," Natlia recalled. Rakossi, 56, did say he was headed for Kaluga - a city about 60 miles outside Moscow where he reportedly keeps a home.

Rakossi, described by friends as a Russian "Rambo" who served with Russian Army special operations, remained on the lam in his homeland as U.S. officials angled for his arrest.

State and Justice Department officials were working through the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, which has FBI agents on staff, to press the Russians for an arrest.

But the lack of a formal extradition treaty was likely to delay or even derail efforts to return him to Brooklyn.

A friend of the fugitive double-murder suspect said Tuesday that Rakossi was an elusive target who did tours in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Africa.

"If he doesn't want to be found, he will never be found," said Rustam Zaripon, manager of the Russian Baths in Sheepshead Bay. "As far as soldiers go, he was the elite of the elite. He's gone."

In addition to the hunt for Rakossi, police were still seeking a motive for the vicious stabbings.

Police sources theorized he first killed his wife of 12 years, Tatyana Prikhodko, 56, and then butchered her daughter Larisa when she walked in on the slaying in the E. 13th St. apartment.

The father of Larisa's 3-year-old boy, Ryan, was visibly drained Tuesday after a two-hour meeting with police at the 61st Precinct stationhouse.

"You know how we're doing," said Felix Zeltser, carrying a brown cardboard box. "Hard time."

Neighbor 'didn't hear anything'

The man who lives directly below Tatyana's Apartment 6-F said there was no indication of any violence Saturday when Rakossi was spotted entering the building at 12:40 p.m.

"It was normal," said Apartment 5-F resident Armando Petrillo, a friend of the suspect. "I didn't hear anything."

It was unclear if the suspected killer spent the night inside the apartment with the bodies, or perhaps stayed at Larisa's place three floors below.

A video camera captured Rakossi leaving the building with two suitcases on Saturday, sources told The News.

At the Russian Baths, Tim Kazakov recounted how the taxi driver told him about the scratches all over Rakossi's face Sunday morning.

"He said [Rakossi] looked real bad, but calm," Kazakov said.

The double-murder suspect insisted on meeting the cab behind the building rather than outside its front door.

"He came around the back area by the garage, and had a bandage on his nose," said dispatcher Natlia. "He paid in cash, and left a $5 tip."