WITNESS SPOTTED SVETLANA

Lot worker tells cops she rode off in a taxi

 
New York Daily News; New York, N.Y.; Mar 8, 2003;

KERRY BURKE, RICHARD WEIR and TRACY CONNOR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS With Austin Fenner;

An East Side garage attendant has told police he saw Svetlana Aronov get into a taxi at the time and place where she disappeared, the Daily News has learned.

John Palacio, who works in the parking lot at New York Presbyterian Hospital's Phipps House, described Aronov perfectly - right down to the cocker spaniel she had with her, a co-worker said.

This is the first time anyone has reported seeing her leave the area, and police were taking Palacio's account seriously.

Police sources told The News late last night that they were looking for the cab driver.

"They are definitely aware of Mr. Palacio, and he has been interviewed by detectives," said police spokesman Detective Kevin Czartoryski. "They are looking into what he said he observed."

Aronov, 44, a doctor's wife who deals in rare books and art, vanished while walking her father's dog, Bim, around 2:30 p.m. Monday.

Bloodhounds tracked the Russian emigre's scent along York Ave., from her apartment building near E. 64th St. to E. 68th St., where they lost it.

Palacio, who could not be reached for comment last night, has worked for several years at the garage on York Ave. between E. 68th and E. 69th Sts.

When he saw a flyer about Aronov's disappearance, he recognized her right away, fellow attendant Frank Batista said.

"He saw her get into a cab," Batista said. "He described what she was wearing - the dog, everything."

Aronov's family was skeptical that she jumped into a cab.

"I don't see how, because she didn't have her wallet with her," said her daughter Polina, 22. "She wasn't the kind of person to just shove money into her pocket."

The family suspects Aronov was abducted, in part because she didn't leave keys for her 9-year-old, Veronica, to get into their home and she left her father stranded at Kennedy Airport.

"But I'm not discounting anything," the older daughter said.

Neither are cops.

"We are certainly not stumped," one investigator said. "There's a lot of things we are doing. But if anyone wants [us] to say, 'It's organized crime, the husband, a boyfriend' - we are not at that stage."

Police were hoping security cameras in the area had captured images of Aronov as she strolled away from her home.

But the Phipps House camera hasn't worked in some time, Batista said. A tape from a Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center doctors' residence yielded no useful clues, police said.

Detectives also interviewed an aerobics instructor at the Excelsior Gym, where Aronov worked out, about a mysterious incident there a month ago.

The teacher reported that one morning Aronov bolted from the class after a strange man was seen peering into the room.

At the gym yesterday, a longtime acquaintance of Aronov's said she appeared devoted to her husband of 25 years.

"I never saw her with any other men," the friend said.