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Two squatters who took over NYC home of woman found beaten to death, stuffed in duffel bag sought for murder: cops
Published March 21, 2024, 4:35 p.m. ET
Two squatters are being sought over the gruesome murder of a 52-year-old woman whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag inside her late mother’s upscale Manhattan apartment last week, police said Thursday.
The victim, Nadia Vitel, was savagely beaten by the two perps when she discovered them holed up inside the 19th-floor apartment on East 31st Street last week, according to cops.
Having just flown in from Spain, Vitel had gone to her late mom’s apartment — which had been vacant for roughly three to four months — to start prepping it so a family friend could move in.
“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.
The brutal beatdown left Vitel with blunt force trauma to the head, multiple facial fractures, a brain bleed and two broken ribs, cops said.
The perps — who the NYPD haven’t identified publicly — were captured on surveillance video fleeing the apartment after the slaying and making off in the dead woman’s Lexus SUV.
They fled across the George Washington Bridge through New Jersey to Pennsylvania, where they ultimately crashed the SUV in Lower Paxton Township, cops said.
The NYPD wasn’t alerted until the following day, though, because Pennsylvania cops didn’t immediately run the plates and see that the vehicle was wanted in a homicide, Kenny said.
Cops said the squatters, who remained on the lam Thursday, had visited several local car dealerships in the aftermath of the wreck to try and buy a new car for $1,000.
The developments come after Vitel’s son, Michael Medvedev, 19, made the grim discovery of his mother’s body when he went to the apartment with the building’s super on the afternoon of March 14 after not hearing from her in 48 hours.
He knew she’d been at the apartment because they tracked each other’s locations via their cellphones, police said.
“As they’re getting ready to leave, the son opens up the closet door near the front door and discovers the duffel bag with a foot sticking out,” Kenny said.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long the perps had been squatting in the apartment before the victim found them inside, or how they even managed to gain access in the first place.
“The apartment itself is very unique in that there’s no front door to apartment. You take an elevator up and then you key your way in. The elevator is actually your front door,” Kenny said, adding “it’s an upscale apartment.”
While cops haven’t 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, adding that one of the squatters has a prior arrest to their name.
Two squatters who took over NYC home of woman found beaten to death, stuffed in duffel bag sought for murder: cops
The victim, Nadia Vitel, was savagely beaten to death by the two perps when she found them holed up inside the 19th-floor apartment on East 31st Street last week, according to cops.
nypost.com
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