NYPD seeks squatters accused of killing, stuffing woman into duffle bag: Reports
Two squatters are being sought by New York City police in connection to the murder of a 52-year-old woman whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag inside her new apartment last week, according to reports.
The New York Police Department told Fox News Digital 52-year-old Nadia Vitel was found in her apartment, located on East 31st Street in Manhattan, unconscious and unresponsive inside the bag on March 14, 2024, at about 4:30 p.m. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The New York medical examiner determined the Russian native's cause of death to be blunt-force trauma, the New York Daily News reported. Her manner of death is being investigated as a homicide.
"We believe that some squatters took the apartment over and this woman came home…and walked in on the squatters that were there," NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said, as reported by the New York Post.
Police said they discovered the body after concerned relatives asked for a welfare check, having not heard from Vitel for 48 hours.
Michael Medvedev, Vitel’s son, found the duffel bag under a coat in the woman’s closet when the superintendent of her building let him look around, according to the New York Post.
The outlet reported that the woman’s son saw a foot poking out of the bag when he removed the garment.
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Police, who have not publicly identified the suspects, said the perpetrators were seen on surveillance video fleeing from the apartment after the incident and driving off in Vitel’s Lexus SUV.
The outlet also reported the duo fled across the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey, then on to Pennsylvania, where they crashed the SUV in Lower Paxton Township.
Despite a crash occurring in the township, NYPD was not alerted until the next day because the Pennsylvania police did not immediately run the plate to learn the vehicle was wanted in connection to a homicide, Kenney reportedly said.
Police also said the duo visited several local car dealerships after the crash to attempt to purchase a vehicle for $1,000.
While police have not disclosed the identity of the two suspects, police sources previously described them as a man and woman in their 20s.
"As of right now, we have probable cause. We have two subjects, we have the Regional Fugitive Task Force actively hunting as we speak," Kenny said, noting one of the squatters had been arrested previously.
Vitel grew up in Moscow, then moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma, for college, her son said at her funeral on Monday, the Daily News reported.
She landed a job as a marketer for a nonprofit after attending graduate school in Miami, then for camera company Canon and cellphone company Nokia. She loved tennis and ran tennis star Maria Sharapova's candy line, the Daily News reported.
Christina Coulter of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.