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Nadia Vitels had just returned from Spain and was going to her deceased mom's former home to clean it up for friends visiting New York City, the NYPD explained in a press conference.
"We believe that some squatters took the apartment over, and this woman came home to get this apartment set up and walked in on the squatters that were there," NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
There was a violent attack and after Vitels was dead, the squatters put her body into a duffle bag and shoved it into a small closet, according to the NYPD. The squatters, a young man and woman, were seen on security footage leaving the apartment and getting in her Lexus, the NYPD said.
This all happened on or before March 13, authorities in Central Pennsylvania explained.
An unnamed teenage girl and a 19-year-old man, Halley Tejada of NYC, crashed Vitels' Lexus in the 5000 block of Jonestown Road in Lower Paxton Township around 4:26 p.m. on March 13.
According to various news outlets including NBC, the squatters fled in Vitels' Lexus into New Jersey before crashing in Pennsylvania.
Regarding what happened when police came to the crash scene:
"The officer conducted an NCIC inquiry related to the vehicle’s registration number, which came back as a valid registration with no suspicious circumstances[...] It was discovered that there was no current insurance coverage for the vehicle and Lower Paxton Township Bureau of Police had the vehicle towed from the scene."
The next day the building super found Vitels dead and her dog alive in the apartment in NYC, the NYPD explained.
On March 16th, the Lower Paxton Township officer "was completing his formal crash report, [and] he again ran the registration plate through NCIC. At that time it was determined the NYPD entered the vehicle into NCIC on March 14th, 2024, after the time of our crash investigation. [The] officer immediately contacted the NYPD and advised them of [the] interaction with the vehicle and its occupants." That's when authorities in Pennsylvania learned about Vitels' murder. An arrangement was made to tow her vehicle to NYC as evidence in the homicide case.
Nadia's funeral was held Gutterman’s Woodbury Chapel 8000 Jericho Turnpike, Woodbury, NY at 10 a.m. on March 18, according to her obituary.
On March 19, Tejada was charged with Felony Receiving Stolen Property, court records in Pennsylvania show. The minor has also been charged, officials said in the release on March 22.
"A Detective to the United States Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force began working jointly with the United States Marshal’s Middle District to locate the two," police said. At 10:07 a.m. on Friday, March 22, the pair was found by United States Marshals in the 200 block of Liberty Court in York City. They were taken to the Lower Paxton Township Bureau of Police Station for additional questioning by the Lower Paxton Township Bureau of Police and NYPD Detectives," as stated in the release.
According to officials in Pennsylvania, a PA press release was only issued to explain that it is unknown if the pair arrested in PA were being charged with homicide in NYC; "The Lower Paxton Township Bureau of Police would like to clarify the factually incorrect information released by the NYPD regarding the criminal homicide of Nadia Vitel[s]."
No homicide charges have been filed — in either state — against Tejada or the teenage girl he was with as of 5 p.m. on Friday.
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