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MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) — Two squatters allegedly beat a woman to death and stuffed her in a duffel bag in a closet after she walked in on them in her dead mother’s Manhattan apartment last week, authorities said.
Police found Nadia Vitels, 52, in the closet with her foot hanging out of the bag in an apartment on the 19th floor of 206 East 31st St. in Kips Bay at around 4:30 p.m. on March 14, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny. The woman had several facial fractures, a brain bleed, and two broken ribs. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Vitels may have been dead for a few days before the family urged the building superintendent to check on her, police said. Her son made the initial gruesome discovery after sweeping the space.
“The (victim’s) son opens up the closet door near the front door and discovers a duffel bag,” Kenny said on Thursday.
The apartment had been vacant for a few months since the victim’s mother passed away. Vitels was in town from Spain to set it up for a family friend before she was brutally killed, police said.
“We believe that some squatters took the apartment over and this woman came home to get this apartment set up and walked in on the squatters that were there,” Kenny said.
The squatters, a man and a woman, were seen going in and out of the building, and neighbors heard the garbage chute opening and closing on the day of the murder, Kenny said. Authorities found Vitels’ belongings in the garbage in the basement.
It was unclear how the squatters gained access to the luxury building, where the elevator acts as the apartment’s front door, Kenny said.
After the attack, the suspects allegedly stole the victim’s Lexus and fled to Pennsylvania, where they crashed the car, according to the NYPD. But local police did not run the plates until finding the abandoned car the following day, police said.
The squatters were last seen on surveillance video trying to buy a new car for $1,000 at several Pennsylvania dealerships, according to Kenny.
There have been no arrests. A murder weapon was not recovered.
Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the New York City area for more than a decade. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
