FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – Police made a deadly discovery inside a Fort Lauderdale home following a wellness check, and investigators say it may be 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.
As the investigation into the double homicide continues, officers contacted the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office about a possible 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.
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 he 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.
Investigators say the suspect was in a previous romantic relationship with one of the victims found dead in Fort Lauderdale, and those two victims 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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