Squatters Busted 200 Miles Away After Mom Found Stuffed in Duffel Bag in NYC
U.S. Marshals busted a pair of teen squatters on Friday morning who were wanted for the brutal killing of a woman whose body was found stuffed into a duffel bag in a Manhattan apartment last week, multiple outlets reported, citing police sources.
Nadia Vitels, 52, had flown into the U.S. from Spain to prepare the Kips Bay apartment owned by her late mother for a family friend to move into, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Thursday. Police believe Vitels was beaten to death by the squatters when she found them living in the property.
Those squatters were located Friday morning and arrested in York, Pennsylvania, after they crashed a stolen Lexus in a nearby township while fleeing authorities, Pix 11 and the New York Post reported.
The Post, citing police sources, identified the suspects as Halley Tejada, 19, and Kensly Alston, 18. The NYPD has not announced charges for the duo, but the New York Daily News reported that authorities are working to have them extradited to New York and charged with murder.
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“We believe that some squatters took the apartment over and this woman came home… and walked in on the squatters that were there,” Kenny said, according to the Post. Vitels’ 19-year-old son became worried when he didn’t hear from her in 48 hours and knew she’d been to the apartment because they tracked one another’s locations on their phones, police said.
He then went into the apartment with the building’s super on March 14. “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.
An autopsy found that Vitels died from blunt force trauma to the head, and a medical examiner ruled her death a homicide. The apartment had been vacant for months before the killing, according to CBS News, with police sources telling the outlet that the squatters were not known to Vitels. Authorities believe the pair had snuck into the apartment on March 10, two days before Vitels’ arrival, WPIX reports.
The two suspects were caught on surveillance camera fleeing the scene and escaping in Vitels’ Lexus. Police say they drove through New Jersey to Pennsylvania, where they crashed in Lower Paxton Township, about 190 miles from Manhattan. The squatters were later found to have visited “multiple car dealerships trying to purchase a car for $1,000 which they [were] unable to do,” Kenny said, according to the Daily News.
The Post added Friday that the duo allegedly used Vitel’s credit cards throughout Pennsylvania, which helped authorities locate them there.
The chief said that neighbors heard the apartment building’s garbage chute opening and closing repeatedly on the day of the killing, and that authorities later found “a lot of the victim’s property” when authorities checked through the garbage in the basement.
Police and building staff are still trying to establish how the pair were able to access the 19th-floor apartment. The super, Jean Pompee, told the Daily News that camera footage “didn’t show them trying different floors” and asked how it could be that they knew Vitels’ mom’s apartment was empty.
“The apartment itself is very unique in that there’s no front door to apartment,” Kenny said, according to the Post. “You take an elevator up and then you key your way in. The elevator is actually your front door,” he added, describing the apartment as “upscale.”
Pompee speculated to the Daily News that the suspects may have tried to throw Vitel’s body down a garbage chute so it’d be mangled by a compactor.
“The duffel bag that she was in, it wasn’t so big,” he said. “I’m only guessing but I think they might have thought about throwing her down the chute. The chute falls down to the basement and there’s a compactor in the basement.”
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