Teen squatters wanted in death of NYC mom found in duffel bag are busted in Pennsylvania after fleeing in her car

https://nypost.com ^ | 3/22/2024 | Joe Marino , rGeorgett Roberts

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wo fugitive squatters eyed in the slaying of a woman whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag in a Manhattan apartment were busted in Pennsylvania on Friday morning, police sources told The Post — as grisly new photos emerged of the bloodstained closet where the victim was stashed.

Halley Tejada, 19, and Kensly Alston, 18, were tracked down by US Marshals in York, west of Philadelphia, just before 11 a.m. and taken into custody, the sources said.

It came a little over a week after the body of 52-year-old Nadia Vitel was found hidden in her late mom’s 19th-floor apartment on East 31st Street last week.

Investigators believe the suspects had been squatting in the upscale apartment and beat Vitel to death when they came face to face with her there, the NYPD said Thursday.

The mom suffered blunt force trauma to the head, multiple facial fractures, a brain bleed and two broken ribs — and her body was then dumped in the duffel bag and stuffed in a closet.

A bloodstain remained Thursday on the floor of the closet where her body was found and one of the walls of the apartment had a huge crack, grim photos of the crime scene show.

The suspects were seen on surveillance video fleeing the apartment in the wake of the slaying and taking off in the dead woman’s Lexus SUV, according to cops.

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