A Russian woman has been arrested for attempted murder in the US after she tried to poison and kill another woman who looked just like her. When a friend arrived and found the victim passed out she called the police. Testing revealed that she had apparently overdosed using a Russian tranquiliser Phenazepan. At the time she had been found in lingerie, lying on a bed surrounded by the pills.
However, when the woman woke up she told officers her last memory was of feeling ill after eating a cheesecake brought over by a friend. Forensic testing soon revealed that the cheesecake was loaded with the same tranquiliser as the pills, and it became apparent the woman had been poisoned.
POISON BY CHEESECAKE: A #Brooklyn woman is accused of poisoning a look-alike lacing a cheesecake, then stealing her ID. She's wanted in #Russia for murder @CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/5hwd9ArcIx
— Magdalena Doris (@MagdalenaDoris) 1 March 2018
“The woman ate the cheesecake, fell ill and laid down. Before passing out, the woman's last memory is of seeing the defendant sitting beside her inside her home,” said Richard Brown, the District Attorney for Queens.
A close investigation of her apartment revealed her passport was missing, alongside some other items of value.
Viktoria Nasyrova, aged 42, soon became the primary suspect. She had visited the woman and brought the cheesecake intending to use her passport to flee the country.
“This is a bizarre and twisted crime that could have resulted in the death of a Queens woman, whose only fault was that she shared similar features with the defendant,” Brown added in a press release.
Bizzarely enough Victoria Nasyrova was wanted by the Russian government for poisoning another woman in her native country. So it seems she has a pattern! She had fled Russia to New York and was looking to flee the US before law enforcement caught up with her.
Woman 'tries to poison her lookalike with a cheesecake to steal her identity' https://t.co/QMoPUDUeut
— The Independent (@Independent) 1 March 2018
The two women shared a number of features in common, which meant that she was an ideal candidate for Victoria, who could steal and user her passport to leave the country. Both women had fair skin, dark hair, and both spoke Russian, and also had facial features that were very similar.
Thankfully the woman has recovered after a short stay in hospital, and Victoria has been arrested and is facing 25 years in prison.
