SVETLANA SEARCH GOES ON

New York Daily News; New York, N.Y.; Mar 10, 2003; RALPH R. ORTEGA and MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS;

Detectives searching for a missing East Side woman pored through taxi cab receipts and cell phone records yesterday - as her parents prayed she would return home.

Svetlana Aronov, 44, has been missing since Monday afternoon, when she took her cocker spaniel, Bim, for a walk and vanished at York Ave. and 68th St. - four blocks from her home.

A parking lot attendant told cops on Friday that a woman fitting Aronov's description had gotten into a yellow cab with a dog around 2:30 p.m. Monday.

That's just about the same time cops think Aronov - the wife of a doctor who was also a dealer in rare books and Russian artifacts - disappeared.

Police sources said detectives were questioning cab companies yesterday and also trying to track down a friend of the Aronovs' who drives a cab.

At the same time, investigators were combing through cell phone records to see if anyone has placed calls from the missing woman's cell phone, which she took with her on the day she disappeared.

Mass in her honor

Meanwhile, Aronov's parents, Anatoli, 65, and Lilia, 67, attended a Mass for their daughter at Christ the Savior Russian Orthodox Church on the upper East Side.

Parishioners greeted the couple with embraces and whispered words of condolences as the priest asked his congregation to keep Svetlana in their daily prayers.

"We prayed for her and her family," said Kathia Negorny, who attended the services. "We hope God will bring her back one day alive and healthy."

The missing woman's husband, Dr. Alexander Aronov, said he plans to return to work this morning to calm his nerves.

He has a private practice with offices in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and Murray Hill, in Manhattan.

The couple had planned to ski in Italy this week.

"I have to work. It will be positive for me. I'm not a basket case," Aronov said yesterday. "I'm not the praying type, but I don't know where to go anymore.

"I'm just hoping for some happy resolution to come out of all this."

[Illustration]
Caption: Svetlana Aronov