A Russian woman has been charged with poisoning a Queens woman with a poisoned cheesecake. The suspect, Viktoria Nasyrova of Brooklyn, had also tried to make it look like a suicide attempt after stealing the victim’s passport, cash and property.
Queens district attorney, Richard Brown, commented “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.”
The 42-year-old suspect was first arrested March 2017 and was arraigned on Tuesday on attempted murder with the poisoned cheesecake, burglary, assault and other charges.
Nasyrova approached the victim’s home Forest Hills, Queens, back in August 2016 with the poison-laced cheesecake. Brown said, “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.”
The 35-year-old victim wouldn’t be found until the following day by a friend. She was “dressed in lingerie with pills scattered around her body as if the woman had attempted to kill herself,” according to Brown.
The victim was treated at hospital. When she returned home, she found that both her passport and employment authorisation cards were missing, along with jewelry and some money.
Law enforcement agents at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed after testing that the poisoned cheesecake was in fact laced with a Russian tranquilliser called Phenazepan.
Nasyrova has also been accused of drugging and murdering another woman in her native country, although she denied these charges in an interview with CBS. The suspect is due to appear in court May 25; if convicted, Nasyrova faces up to 25 years in prison.