Two people seen leaving NYC apartment of woman found stuffed in duffel bag: sources
Two unidentified individuals were captured on surveillance footage leaving a Manhattan apartment just days before the 52-year-old tenant’s body was found stuffed in a duffel bag in her closet, police sources said Friday.
The pair, described as a black male and a black female both in their 20s, were then spotted getting into the dead woman’s Lexus SUV with New York license plates and driving west on East 31st Street.
The NYPD has identified the deceased as Nadia Vitel, 52, who officers found unresponsive inside her Kips Bay apartment at 206 East 31st St. around 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
Cops made the grim discovery during a welfare check prompted by concerned relatives who called the police after not hearing from Vitel for approximately 48 hours, sources said.
While waiting for police, Vitel’s son Michael Medvedev entered her apartment with the building superintendent to have a look around.
As Medvedev was about to leave the residence, he peeked inside a front hall closet where he saw a duffel bag on the floor with a coat draped over it. He removed the garment and saw a foot sticking out of the bag, sources said.
Police arrived and obtained a search warrant for the apartment and the unit’s basement trash area, where several garbage bags containing Vitel’s belongings were located.
The Medical Examiner’s Office arrived at the scene and decided to transport Vitel’s body in the duffel bag to the morgue for the autopsy.
According to sources, Vitel was in the process of moving into the apartment on Sunday. She was seen on security camera footage that day repeatedly entering and exiting her apartment carrying her belongings before departing the building shortly after 11 a.m.
Just after 2 p.m. that day, the two unidentified individuals were seen in the complex’s lobby trying to enter the building.
About an hour later, an elevator surveillance camera saw the duo entering Vitel’s apartment.
Vitel was last seen entering her apartment on Tuesday at approximately 11:30 a.m. The two individuals were last sighted on tape exiting the building around 5:45 p.m. that evening.
An alarm was activated in Vitel’s SUV when they left the scene, according to sources.
There is no known motive at this time and no cause of death has been made public. As of late afternoon Friday the NYPD has not officially launched a homicide investigation.
