Two unidentified people left a Manhattan apartment several days before the body of a 52-year-old tenant was found stuffed into a duffel bag in a closet, police officials said Friday. The person was captured on surveillance footage.
The two men, described as a black man and a black woman, both in their 20s, were seen driving west on East 31st Street in a Lexus SUV with New York license plates that the woman was driving.
New York City police identified the deceased as Nadia Vitel, 52. Officers found Kips Bay unresponsive inside an apartment at 206 East 31st Street on Thursday around 4:30 p.m.
According to sources, concerned relatives called the police after not hearing from Vitel for about 48 hours, and the police discovered the terrifying truth during a welfare check.
While waiting for police, Vitel’s son Michael Medvedev entered her apartment with the building’s manager and looked around.
As Medvedev was leaving the official residence, he looked into a closet in the entrance hall and saw a duffel bag with a coat hanging on the floor. Officials say when he took off his clothes, they could see his legs sticking out of the bag.
Police arrived and obtained a search warrant for the apartment and the junkyard in the basement of the unit. There were several garbage bags containing Vitel’s belongings.
The medical examiner’s office arrived at the scene and decided to transport Mr. Vitel’s body in a duffel bag to the morgue for an autopsy.
Officials said Vitel was moving into an apartment on Sunday. That day, she was seen on security camera footage going in and out of the apartment with her belongings and leaving the building just after 11 a.m.
Just after 2 p.m. that same day, two unidentified individuals were seen in the lobby of the complex trying to enter the building.
About an hour later, the elevator’s surveillance camera captured two people entering Vitel’s apartment.
Vitel was last seen entering the apartment around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, and the two were last seen on tape exiting the building at 5:45 p.m. It was around that time.
Officials say Vitel’s SUV’s alarm went off as it left the scene.
The motive is unknown at this time, and the cause of death has not been made public. As of late Friday afternoon, the NYPD had not formally opened a murder investigation.
