FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – Police made a deadly discovery inside a Fort Lauderdale home following a wellness check, and investigators say it’s tied to another incident over 200 miles away in Sarasota.
Fort Lauderdale Police officers responded to the home on Northeast 15th Avenue on Tuesday afternoon. Upon arrival, a woman and a man were found dead inside.
The two victims were identified as 46-year-old Larisa Blyudaya and 18-year-old Ben Azivov.
Cellphone video shared with 7News captures responding officers investigating and gathering evidence on Tuesday night.
As the investigation into the double homicide continues, officers contacted the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office about a connection to an incident that occurred that same day.
In Sarasota, deputies responded to 911 calls about shots being fired on Tuesday afternoon. Upon their arrival, they found neighbors performing CPR on a man who was shot in the front yard.
Officials say he died shortly after.
When they entered the Sarasota home, deputies found four additional people, two men and two women, dead.
Detectives say the suspect was among those found dead inside the home from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound and his car was found nearby in the neighborhood.
The suspect has been identified as 51-year-old Russell Kot. The victims were identified as 49-year-old Olga Greinert, 66-year-old Florita Stolyar, 61-year-old Anatoly Ioffe and 39-year-old Yaroslav Blyudoy.
In total, five people were found dead in Sarasota.
Hours after the deadly discovery in Sarasota, Fort Lauderdale shared the suspect’s vehicle information with Sarasota detectives, as the car was caught on camera traveling through Punta Gorda.
Investigators say after killing Blyudaya and Azivov, Kot drove north to Sarasota where he killed the four other people before turning the gun on himself.
Neighbors in the Fort Lauderdale neighborhood remember the victims as good people.
“They seem like real nice people. It’s very unfortunate that this happened,” said Marc.
Like Marc lives across the street, he told 7News he saw a man on Tuesday morning.
“About 7 or 7:15 in the morning, I was loading my tools in my vehicle and I saw a guy running around here and he went to the driveway and hit the keypad on the garage door. The door went up and I just didn’t think anything of it. I thought she knew him and he was just a runner or something,” he said.
He added that when he heard what had occurred, he wondered if the guy he had seen earlier that day had something to do with the incident.
“Then around 3 p.m., that’s when I heard what had happened and I started tying everything together and I was like, ‘Man, I hope that wasn’t the guy that I saw,’” said Marc.
Area residents describe Blyudaya as nice and friendly. They say she had just moved to the area last August.
“She was very, very nice. Very cute. Offered us to even babysit on the weekend,” said neighbor Buse Sengul.
“She was just a happy woman. You never–never an ounce of negative energy,” said property manager Joe Askerberg.
Askerberg told 7News Kot lived in the Fort Lauderdale apartment.
“The man lived there. All I know is she had one bedroom in there and he had another bedroom in there. I’ve seen him in the house and he really never had much to say. I would always deal with Larisa,” he said.
But even a day after the crime, the property manager said it’s hard to wrap his head around it.
“He was very quiet. I’ve been scratching my head wondering how he would kind of go through this and then drive for hours and see red the whole time and commit more,” said Askerberg.
He added he did speak to the victim’s family and they are devastated.
Investigators say the suspect was in a previous romantic relationship with Blyudaya and that the 18-year-old and her had connections to those killed in Sarasota.
It remains unclear why all six victims were targeted.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a timeline of both incidents has also not been established.
Fort Lauderdale Police officials say there is no threat to the public but the investigation continues.
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