In a tragic and sprawling case of violence that stretched across two Florida cities, 18-year-old Ben Azivov was found deceased on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. His death was part of a horrific sequence of events that left a total of seven people dead, including the man investigators believe was responsible.
Authorities discovered Azivov's body alongside that of 46-year-old Larisa Blyudaya in a townhome located in the upscale Victoria Park neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale.
The discovery was made after police were called to conduct a welfare check at the residence. The manner of their deaths was not immediately disclosed by the authorities.
The investigation into the Fort Lauderdale homicides quickly became linked to a grim scene that had unfolded earlier the same day in Sarasota. In the gated community of Amberlea, deputies from the Sarasota Sheriff's Office responded to a call and found a man with gunshot wounds in the front yard of a home. Inside the residence, a far more gruesome discovery awaited them: the bodies of two men and two women. These victims were later identified as Olga Greinert, 49; Florita Stoylar, 66; Anatoly Ioffe, 61; and Yaroslav Blyudoy, 39.
Detectives concluded that 51-year-old Russell Kot was the perpetrator behind all the killings in both Sarasota and Fort Lauderdale. Investigators believe that after murdering the five individuals in Sarasota, Kot took his own life. A romantic relationship may have connected Kot to Larisa Blyudaya. This connection is believed to have been the link to the victims in Sarasota, though the specific motive for the attacks in that city remains unclear. The entire series of events was deemed an isolated incident by the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.
