new york — Law enforcement officials are revealing more details about a Manhattan murder mystery.
The Joint Fugitive Task Force is searching for two suspects after the murder of 52-year-old Nadia Vitels inside her mother's apartment in New York City.
It happened in the Kips Bay area. Officials said the suspects were illegal occupants.
Victim finds squatters in mother's vacant apartment, sources say
Police sources said Vitels was killed after traveling from Spain to New York City to prepare an apartment for a family friend. The house had been vacant for months after his mother died.
Police sources said that when Vitels went to the apartment, he did not know that two squatters were living there. When she arrived, surveillance video showed her walking back and forth from the apartment.
Police believe that after Vitels arrived, the two suspects returned to the apartment, startled her and beat her to death.
Her body was found stuffed into a duffel bag in the front closet of her 19th-floor apartment on 31st Street. Superintendent Jean Pompey let her worried family into the apartment on March 14 because he could not reach her.
“The man pointed to the closet and said he believed there was a body in the bag,” Pompey said. “And her clothes were all pulled down, so you couldn't see the bag at all. You could see it in parts, just a little bit.”
medical examiner Her death was ruled a homicide due to blunt force trauma to the head..
Police officials said they have identified two squatters who are believed to have bludgeoned her to death. The people said they did not know Vitels, but that she may have been living in the apartment before Vitels or someone else moved her in.
Two suspects can be seen on video stealing her Lexus from the street in front of her and fleeing. The car was later involved in an accident in Pennsylvania, police officials said.
According to officials, the two suspects went to a used car dealership to buy a car after the accident. They remain on the run.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline. 1-800-577-Tips (8477)or for Spanish, 1-888-57-Pista (74782)). You can also submit tips through our website or via DM on Twitter. @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
son mourns mother's death
Boxes addressed to the apartment were left in the lobby of the building last week when Vitels moved in.
“She was very excited to move to the city,” said Vitels' son, Mikhail Medvedev.
CBS2 spoke with the proud and smiling Vitels of 2021. She opened up her garage as a warehouse for her son's new business. At Monday's funeral, the son, who had to unexpectedly say goodbye to his mother, expressed gratitude for believing in him.
“She not only wholeheartedly supported my entrepreneurial spirit, my crazy venture ideas, but also helped me with funding at an early stage,” Medvedev said.
Medvedev told mourners that his mother grew up in Russia, played tennis, worked hard and traveled.
“She was very beautiful, very smart, very selfless. She was very resourceful, very smart, very resourceful,” Medvedev said.
