Weapon of choice: a slice of poisoned cheesecake.
Viktoria Nasyrova, a tall, dark-haired, Russian beauty, is going to prison. The 47-year-old convicted of attempted murder in New York, on February 9, 2023.
Queens DA Melinda Katz says Nasyrova “laced a slice of cheesecake with a deadly drug so she could steal her unsuspecting victim’s most valuable possession, her identity.”
Too bad for Nasyrova, her intended victim — actually her beautician — survived, and the Russian — most killers are dumb — left her DNA all over the cheesecake.
Here’s how it went down:
Nasyrova visited Olga Tsvyk in her Forest Hills, Queens, home on August 28, 2016, requesting an emergency eyelash repair. And she came bearing gifts — slices of “some famous cheesecake from a famous bakery.”
The women were close. This wasn’t a typical customer-beautician relationship. Indeed, Nasyrova and Tsvyk more than friends — they were like sisters. The resemblance was astounding, and more than that, they both spoke Russian.
So, after the eyelash repair, the women settled down to the cake.
Nasyrova downed two pieces of the cheesecake herself. The third slice went on a plate for Tsvyk. That was the one laced with a Russian tranquilizer, Phenazepam.
Tsvyk felt okay for about 20 minutes, but then started vomiting. She passed out on the floor.
While she was down, but not out, Nasyrova ripped off Tsvyk’s passport and cash. Then, before throwing Phenazepam pills around the woman’s body, she dressed Tsvyk in a nightgown. She wanted to make it look like Tsvyk had tried to commit suicide.
A friend found Tsvyk the next day and called 911.
Tsvyk recovered, but doctors say she was only minutes away from a life-ending heart attack.
So far, the police weren’t involved. But as soon as she returned home, Tsvyk noticed her passport and some cash missing. Thinking back to what happened when she ate the cake, Tsvyk became convinced Nasyrova had tried to kill her.
She called the NYPD, and the investigation began.
It didn’t take detectives long to hone in on Nasyrova as their prime suspect. She might have taken the time to filch Tsvyk’s passport and cash; but Nasyrova neglected to pick up the cheesecake container.
Not only did it have Nasyrova’s DNA all over it; crumbs of the cheesecake left in the container tested positive for phenazepam.
Nasyrova has always insisted this whole thing was merely a misunderstanding.
“The last time I saw Olga, she was already not feeling good,” Nasyrova told the New York Post.
Nasyrova will be sentenced on March 21, 2023. She faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.
And, she might consider herself fortunate if all she does is a quarter-century in a New York State prison.
The Russians want to put her on trial for the 2014 murder of a woman named Alla Alekseenko. Russian police talked to Nasyrova about the killing, but let her go even though she failed a lie detector test, and she was seen on a traffic camera, driving, with the dead woman’s body propped up beside her.
How’d she get away with that? Allegedly, she seduced the lead detective in the case and he helped her escape.
That’s when Nasyrova became an international fugitive using the names “Rachel” or “Mara” while plying her trade as a dominatrix.
“We mutually satisfied each other’s primal instincts,” Nasyrova said of her customers. “I was giving them what they weren’t getting at home. You know what I’m talking about. Men who want to be women, but they can’t openly declare it.”
Nasyrova denied the Russian charges in a CBS interview.
As for the accusation she tried to kill her Olga Tsvyk with a slice of poised cheesecake —-
“I know whom you mean,” said Nasyrova. “I know this young woman. I can tell you I did not force her to eat it.”
Now, by this paragraph you know Nasyrova is not a criminal genius. Could it be that others have tried to steal the identities of people who looked like them. doppelgängers, if you will.
You bet!
Take for instance the case of Lois Ann Riess, a grandmother who killed her husband, then stole the identity of her next victim….
Gambling. Addiction. Murder.
Granny's a killer? Absolutely. The FBI has to stop her before somebody else dies.
Her husband's killed in Minnesota. Her doppelgänger's murdered in Florida. Now, she’s found a new friend in Texas. Looks just like her. Will this doppelgänger be the third victim or will police be able to stop this rookie killer before anyone else dies?
Federal investigators know she's lost tens of thousands of dollar gambling. Is her love of casino games and gaming a demon forcing her to kill?
Her Own Demons: A Shocking True Crime Story is the tale of two families destroyed by murder and gambling.
It’s an emotional rollercoaster, a true crime story about a woman who's never had more than a traffic ticket, but who is now, suddenly, on the run from the law.
Not only will you ride along with this woman as she goes from being a happy homemaker, a recreational, legal gambler, to a killer on the run; you’ll be side-by-side with federal agents racing to find the maniacal murderer before she can kill again.
Her Own Demons: A Shocking True Crime Story that could happen to someone you love.