Woman Found Stuffed in Duffel Bag Was Beat to Death by Squatters Who Then Fled in Her SUV: Police

Michael Medvedev, Vitel's 19-year-old son, and his mother had one another's locations on their phones, so he knew she was in his grandmother's vacant apartment. On March 14, he gained entry with the building's superintendent.

After finding the apartment empty, it was on their way back out that Medvedev made the gruesome discovery, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.

"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 explained, per WNBC.

According to police, Vitel suffered blunt force trauma to her head, multiple facial fractures, two broken ribs, and brain bleed.

Vitel had traveled to the apartment, which had been vacant approximately three to four months, from Spain in order to prepare it for someone to move in. The upscale dwelling does not have a formal front door, but instead is accessed with a key directly from the elevator.

Two people were spotted in surveillance video fleeing the apartment after the murder of Vitel, taking off in her Lexus SUV. "We believe that some squatters took the apartment over and this woman came home," Kenny told reporters, "and walked in on the squatters that were there."

After their escape from the building, authorities were able to track the SUV through New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, where the suspects crashed it in Lower Paxton Township. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania police did not immediately run the vehicle's plates, so it wasn't until the next day they learned it was wanted in relation to a homicide.

Nevertheless, police have been able to determine that the squatters had visited several local dealerships after that wreck in an attempt to buy another car for $1,000. Police sources have described the suspects as a man and woman in their 20s, though authorities have not yet released their identities.