April 02, 2022
In late 2016, Olga Tsvyk opened the door of her apartment in Queens, New york to the sight of one of her customers, a 42 year old woman named Viktoria Nasyrova, whom she knew as a client at the salon she worked at. Nasyrova had pleaded with the beautician to fix an “eyelash disaster” she was having and requested that she visit her in her home for an appointment.
They weren’t close friends by any means, but the pair had been acquainted for the past 6 months as Viktoria had booked routine appointments for eyelash extensions at the salon. Olga had no idea why her repeat customer even bothered to make the long drive from Brooklyn to Queens when she could easily find a salon closer to her area, but Nasyrova insisted.
The 35 year old beautician even went as far as to comment it was “stupid” for her client to go so far out of her way for the service, but continued to save her enthusiastic customer from “eyelash nightmares” as she called them. So when Viktoria Nasyrova showed up at her apartment one day with a gift to say thank you, Olga accepted it- after all, not many people would say no to a free cheesecake. After eating the dessert Tsvyk felt suddenly unwell and eventually started vomiting.
Aware of her favourite beautician’s sudden sickness, Nasyrova returned with a bowl of chicken soup. Although the two weren’t close they did have a few things in common- one of those things was their ability to speak Russian. Olga was originally from Ukraine, and Nasyrova moved to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn in 2013 from the small southern town of Krasnodar in Russia. Not only did the women share a common language, they were also quite similar in appearance. Both were fair skinned with dark hair and had similar bone structures as you can see in the image below.
Under the watchful eye of Nasyrova, Olga finished eating the soup and slowly slipped into a state of unconsciousness. As she drifted in and out she could hear rummaging around her room, her surroundings turned into blurred shadows as she eventually blacked out.
She was found by her friend in the same room a few days later in a coma. Olga was sprawled out on her bed, dressed in underwear and surrounded by phenazepam pills- a scene clearly set up to look like a suicide. The pills were a type of tranquilizer manufactured in Russia and were found in both Tsvyk’s system and the cheesecake and soup. It was becoming increasingly clear that Nasyrova had attempted to poison the 35 year old Ukrainian woman, but why exactly?
The only evidence pointing in the direction of a possible theory for the motivation of the crime, were several missing items from the victims apartment, including her passport, work ID, money and a gold ring.
Viktoria Nasyrova wanted to steal her identity.
It took the authorities over half a year to track down Nasyrova. When they did eventually detain her they uncovered the life of luxury she had been living and how she afforded it. She apparently used Russian dating sites to lure men and would drug and rob them. She’d invite them over, cook for them, and suddenly they’d wake up with empty wallets and bare wrists. She robbed everyone she had the opportunity to rob, and even poisoned an ex-boyfriends beloved pet dog. Of course she denies it.
She’d then go on shopping sprees and when she couldn’t afford something, she’d simply take it. She was arrested for stealing $500 fur coats while in the USA and displayed such disregard for her actions that police began to wonder what other crimes she had committed.
It was eventually learned that she was a fugitive, wanted in Russia for the alleged murder of her elderly neighbour in October of 2013- a few months before she fled to the US. The victim was a woman in her mid-fifties named Alla Alekseenko, whose charred body was discovered buried in the town of Armavir. Armavir just so happened to be where Nasyrova spent her childhood . Unsurprisingly, valuable items and a large sum of money was found missing from the victim’s house- $50,000 to be exact, Alekseenko’s life savings.
A text message from Alekseenko’s cell phone was sent to her daughter telling her not to worry and that she would reveal her whereabouts soon enough. The only problem was that traffic surveillance cameras had captured an image of Viktoria Nasyrova’s vehicle, and sitting next to her in the passenger seat is what is believed to be the corpse of Alla Alekseenko. In an interview Nasyrova laughed at the accusation that she drove around with a dead body in the passenger seat, commenting: “this is too stupid.”
It’s quite likely that Nasyrova used this money to escape the consequences of her crimes back home, but how exactly was she able to get away with the alleged murder in the first place?
This article states that Nasyrova seduced the detective working on the case and slept with him in order to escape the charges.
The victims daughter, Nadezda Ford, was not about to let Nasyrova get away with murdering her mother, and contacted a private eye named Herman Weisberg. She too lived in the US and was already aware that her mother’s killer was residing in New York City, however didn’t have the knowhow or resources to track her down and make her face the consequences of her actions back home. A woman known by her alias “Mitzvah Lady” shelled out the cash needed to cover the costs of hiring Weisberg who began the tedious hunt for the Russian seductress. Social media provided the clues that eventually lead the investigator to his target. A clandestine online profile with a fictitious name hosted images of Nasyrova dressed to the nines and sitting in luxury vehicles. One of those vehicles had a specific style of stitching unique to a Chrysler 300 and the dashboard was reflected in the killer’s mirrored shades, which eventually lead the PI to Nasyrova.
Impressively, he was even able to locate the street reflected in her Ray Ban's by identifying two manhole covers and a pole on a Brooklyn street.
Viktoria Nasyrova looks very different these days at her new home on Riker's Island, East Elmhurst, as an inmate at the Rose M Singer Centre. Gone are the furs, makeup, lash extensions and heels which have been replaced by a wrinkled grey jumpsuit.
She is currently awaiting trial and claims she has been violently beaten at least once.
November 19, 2024
