Police Hunt Squatters After Mom Beaten to Death and Stuffed in Duffel Bag

Police are searching for a pair of squatters in connection with the brutal killing of a woman whose body was found stuffed into a duffel bag in a Manhattan apartment last week, authorities said Thursday.

Nadia Vitels, 52, had flown into the U.S. from Spain to prepare the Kips Bay apartment owned by her late mother for a family friend to move into, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. Police believe Vitels was beaten to death by the squatters when she found them living in the property.

“We believe that some squatters took the apartment over and this woman came home… and walked in on the squatters that were there,” Kenny said, according to the New York Post. Vitels’ 19-year-old son became worried when he didn’t hear from her in 48 hours and knew she’d been to the apartment because they tracked one another’s locations on their phones, police said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.