In March 2024, Nadia Vitel‘s late mother’s Manhattan apartment had been empty for a few months when she dropped by to prepare it for a family friend to move in. Days later, Vitel’s son hadn’t heard from his mother, so he checked on her, CNN reported.
Security cameras captured Vitel, 52, inside the building on March 10. That same day, two teenagers, 19-year-old Halley Tejada and 18-year-old Kensly Alston, both from New York, were also seen entering the building shortly after Vitel arrived. A few days later, Vitel’s son entered the residence with the building superintendent and made a horrific discovery: A foot sticking out of a duffel bag, concealed in one of the apartment’s closets.
Jean Pompee, the building superintendent, later said, “[Vitel’s son] pointed to the closet, he said he believed that there’s a body in the bag. And all of her clothes were down, so you really couldn’t see the bag. You could see partially, a little bit.”
There were squatters in the apartment
According to New York police, Nadia Vitel, who lived outside the U.S. in Spain, likely surprised the two teenagers inside her late mother’s apartment, who had been illegally occupying the residence for up to four months. Halley Tejada and and her accomplice, Kensly Alston, allegedly slammed Vitel against the wall, and she died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Vitel’s body was then stuffed in a duffel bag before the two suspects stole her car and fled. Some of Vitel’s items were also found in the building’s garbage area. Tejada and the teenage boy were later arrested in Pennsylvania when they crashed the vehicle. Alston reportedly gave a fake name at the scene of the crash, and Vitel’s car’s plates have also now been linked to another New York homicide.
After Vitel’s mother died, the superintendent of her later mom’s apartment, Jean Pompee, said he thought no one lived in the apartment, although he had been warned about potential squatters in the building. It’s unclear how Tejada and Alston gained access to the building.