Transcript of Viktoriya Nasyrova

It takes a lot to surprise the seasoned police of the NYPD. But in 2016, a perplexing case leaves New York City detectives and the city itself in utter shock.

The media coverage for this case was off the charts. People were obsessed.

It's as bizarre a case as you'll ever see.

You have this beautiful woman just basically comatose in lingerie.

There were pills laying around. She staged the scene to make it look like it was a suicide.

As police delve in, the evidence quickly leads to more mysteries than answers.

The last thing she remembered was someone brought her pieces of cheesecake.

And investigators uncover a disturbing pattern.

She prepared fish, and I took 2 bites. That's all I remember.

The tox screen comes back as negative. It doesn't pick up on any toxin.

But a new challenge surfaces when investigators find their suspect, a notorious international seductress who's been targeting victims in at least 2 countries.

It wasn't just a poisoning. It was a stolen identity. There was a dominatrix aspect.

We found out that—

The person who committed this crime was wanted for murder.

And at that point, she got some fake documents and tried to blackmail her into working for them.

To locate their killer, multiple investigations unite.

She was trying to change her identity to hide who she actually was.

She said the Russian government tried to blackmail her.

She needed to do all of this so that she could never go back to Russia.

New York City is home to immigrants from every corner of the world, including several large Russian-speaking communities.

Russian community in Brooklyn, I mean, it's very large and very varied. Majority of the people that live there are just, regular people, you know? They work. They do their best, have a good life, you know, live the American dream. Automatically, there's this, like, you know, kinship, I guess, because you're from the same place.

On August 29, 2016, one of these neighborhoods becomes the scene of an unusual emergency.

911 gets a panicked phone call that there is an unconscious woman at her home in Queens.

On the line, A panicked landlord explains he found his tenant, 35-year-old Olga Svick, in dire condition.

First responders rush to the scene, assess the scene. Everything looks a little off.

She's found in her bedroom in really rough shape. She's not responsive. She's really not moving. She's pale white.

The landlord tells paramedics after not seeing Olga for 2 days, he checked on her and found her completely out of it.

This is quite bad. Her landlord sees pills all over the room. The heat was up extensively.

They look around, and they draw the only conclusion that this is probably a troubled woman. She killed herself.

Not a lot of people who commit suicide through pills, throw the pills all over the room. Doesn't make sense. The fact that the heat was on extremely high— it was some 80-some-plus degrees in the room— that was odd too.

You have this beautiful woman just basically comatose in lingerie. It almost looks like if you picture what a soap opera scene would look like if you staged a dramatic end-of-life scene.

[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] First responders immediately rush Olga to the hospital. Thankfully, emergency room doctors are able to stabilize her.

Olga was extremely lucky that she had somebody come down and check on her. She was extremely close to death and could have been dead within the next hour.

Olga displays weakness, fatigue, memory loss, disorientation. So they do a physical exam, try to figure out what's going on. One of the diagnostic tools that they use in the hospital is a urine screen. The test tries to figure out whether or not there's an amount of toxin within a particular range.

The test should reveal what kind of pills are in Olga's system, but the results are unexpected.

Her tox screen comes back as negative. It doesn't pick up on any toxin.

When nothing was raised in these test results, that was really curious.

When medical staff approach Olga with questions about what happened, she doesn't seem to remember anything, but insists this was no suicide. Suicide attempt.

So the doctors at the hospital, when they do their review, they're thinking at the time, what's going on? We don't know anything about Olga. Is her story true? Does it make sense? The big question at that point is, why, number one, and where's my evidence?

Olga, take 1, mark.

My first name Olga, last name is Tsvykh, T-S-V-Y-K. I was born in Ukraine, in Vinnytsia. I used to work as a travel agent, so I used to travel a lot. And when in my country in 2014, We have a war starting. I decide to just change something in my life, and I decide to try myself in United States.

Olga sought out friends in New York City who helped her find a residence.

Olga was living in a single-family home that was owned by a gentleman who lived on the ground floor.

He live on the first floor 'cause he's old, like 86 years old. And he were like my family. I call him my American uncle.

She lived in a sweet little neighborhood of Queens, got along and knew her neighbors really well.

She also found a new career in cosmetology.

I was excited to try something new. I start working as a lash technician. It was like my hobby before, but here it was my, like, main job. It was a good situation for me to work around people who talks English and with the— Russian community people. So, yeah, it was really good.

She really made a life for herself out here. And it, by all accounts, seemed that things were going really well.

Now, just 2 years into her American dream, Olga has narrowly survived a harrowing near-death experience. Medical staff are trying to determine what happened to her. But with Olga still having no memory of it, doctors find themselves at a dead end.

The urinalysis and the blood tests come up empty. They don't have a lead to really go on.

What the hospital has is someone with an altered mental status who displays weakness, fatigue, memory loss, disorientation, but clinically, and diagnostically doesn't show that anything has happened to them. So they provided Olga with fluids, they monitored her, and when her condition improved to a point, they discharged her.

I remember when I got home from the hospital, and also not all the picture, just some, some short moments.

When friends check on Olga a few days later, their concerns grow.

She was well enough to be discharged, but she's not well yet. She can't really talk that well. She can't really walk that well. She's certainly not herself. Her friend called Olga's sister, Irina, and notifies Irina that Olga's really not doing well.

When my sister got call from my friend, And she realized that something wrong with me, something not good. And she catch the first flight to New York.

When Irina arrives on August 30th and sees Olga's apartment, she's left with a sinking feeling.

She find the pills around me. Around the, um, my bed.

Irina looks in the few areas that she knows Olga keeps her valuables.

The passport, the working papers, money, jewelry. All these things are missing from her house, and she notices almost immediately.

Irina goes to the precinct and says to the police, Somebody's stolen my sister's property. So Irina is reporting a larceny.

Police open an investigation and visit Olga's house the next day. Upon arrival, Olga's sister Irina fills officers in on Olga's strange illness, stating that her sister's missing property is just the beginning of her concerns.

Her sister Irina told us there were pills all over the room. That was odd.

They think I took pills and tried to poison myself. But she knew me. She knows that— she knew that I'm never gonna do that.

Irina leads officers to speak with Olga, whose gradual recovery has helped her regain foggy memories.

I remember first when my sister came into my room with the detectives. They asked me the question, and some of them I don't remember.

When Irina started talking to her, she was getting more and more information.

Before she got really ill, the last thing she remembered was someone coming over, a client of hers, Victoria.

She came to me every 2, 3 weeks. She come all the way from Brooklyn to Queens.

Victoria tells Olga that she's going to Mexico in a few days or in a day, and she absolutely needs to have her lashes fixed. She knew that she wasn't working that day. Please, please, please, please, could she come to her apartment to get this fixed? Olga says yes.

It was Sunday. It was my day off. Usually, I don't take my client at home. I didn't listen my intuition when they say, OK, just come and I'm going to do it for you.

She was the last person who saw her before she got really ill.

At this point, the police are starting to say, we need to find Victoria.

Coming up, Olga continues to recount her brush with death.

She opened the box in front of me like this. I eat. Just for politeness.

This particular criminal, she's in the wind.

As police struggle to piece together what happened, more victims surface.

He didn't even exactly know how he ended up in the hospital.

I never thought about she's gonna drug me.

We put that out to other squads so they know, be on the lookout for this person.

With Olga's memories starting to surface, detectives have her walk them through what happened, starting with more details about the last person she remembers seeing, her client Victoria.

She was my client, I believe, more than 6 months. She was very open. She tells me that she was in a relationship She had beauty salon in Moscow. So, like, she represent herself like she's successful businesswoman.

Victoria had become such a regular that when she asked for an emergency touch-up, Olga agreed.

As a thank you for doing this solid favor on your day off, Victoria brought her pieces of cheesecake from a very famous bakery in Brooklyn.

Olga says Victoria's behavior seemed off.

We come up to my room, and she say, "You can't understand how tasty this cake." She opened the box in front of me like this, you know? And she pick one and she ate. It was like very fast. And she pick another one. And she left me just one piece. And I say, "Okay, okay, maybe she's like hungry. I don't know." I eat, not because I was hungry or something, you know, just for politeness.

Yeah.

Within a few minutes, Olga began to feel sick.

I just trying to find my bed to lying down. And I tell her, "Oh, my God, Victoria, something wrong, you know?" She started feeling weird, woozy, sick to her stomach, nauseous.

She threw up off the side of the bed.

And she tells me, "Oh, don't worry. I'm gonna clean everything." I just remember that she came to my room with the paper towels. So—

and that's it.

When Olga's sister, Irina, told her she'd been robbed, she suspected Victoria was the culprit.

I don't have my passport. I don't have my— work authorization, no my money. She left in my wallet just $17. That's it. I realized she even took my perfumes, you know.

She also believes Victoria drugged her as an attempt to cover her tracks.

Victoria, she is preparing, like,— to look me like suicide, you know, like I poisoned myself.

It was thought that this was a staged crime scene because she's very adamant in the fact that she was drugged.

Investigators discover one piece of evidence they hope could validate Olga's story.

Inside of the trash can at Olga's house, detectives find a container with the cheesecake crumbs still in it. Immediately, this container is bagged and tagged as evidence, and it is sent in for testing.

We have the wrapper. We have part of the cheesecake. We test it, and we get nothing.

That means there is no known banned controlled substance that we can pick up in this box. There was also a DNA test that was run on it. And the DNA came back initially as belonging to a female who's not Olga Zwick.

Detectives assume the DNA belongs to Victoria. But without a last name, police can't even confirm Victoria is her real name.

The issue was Victoria and Olga always met at the salon. This was the first time they met outside at her apartment. And Olga had no idea where she lived, and cops couldn't find an address.

We have a phone number for her, but she doesn't answer it.

This person doesn't seem to exist.

That's not a lot to go on. So at that point, it's simply being investigated as a larceny. And it's an open larceny.

I tell them everything what happened, but I feel like they just don't believe me. They don't trust. I think maybe they think I do drugs. Maybe I overdose something, you know?

Olga and her sister try to put the ordeal behind them, but a few days later, Olga receives a message from an encrypted phone number.

I saw the text message. It was Victoria. She asked me, "Olga, where are you? I can't reach you. What happened? Is that—" And I didn't answer.

Moments later, her phone rings.

She called me, and I pick up the phone. And she asked me, "Olga, what happened to you? I can't reach you." I say, "Victoria, you stole a lot of stuff from me. You poisoned me." And you know what her answer was? She tells me, "OK, so go to police." To Olga, the message is clear. I was scared because I feel like she wants to get done what she doesn't finish. I realized that she really wants to kill me.

It's been 1 week since Olga Svick was released from the hospital due to a mysterious illness. She believes one of her clients Victoria is the one responsible. After confronting her possible attacker over the phone, Olga comes away shaken.

So I was always, like, scared, always look around, you know? My friends, they always drive me to my house, and they always waiting for me. To watch how I get in door to the house.

With the NYPD unable to pursue her case, Olga tries her best to move forward.

Olga stayed out of work for about a week or 2 weeks, maybe more. And she ultimately returned to work sometime in mid to late September.

When I start working, It was very difficult for me. I start to take clients like one per day, you know.

One of her regular customers asked her why she had been out. And when Olga said, "I was sick and I didn't feel well," the customer asked some follow-up questions.

They say, "I just don't want to talk about it." I tell, "Ah, just, I got sick," you know. And they say, "Somebody is sick." Poisoned me.

Her customer's reaction to the news is unexpected.

This customer said to Olga, I can't believe you're saying this to me because I happen to know somebody who, over the summer, went out on a date with a woman, had dinner with her, ate food, became very sick, and went to the hospital.

She tells me, maybe this is the same person. After work, she text me, "Olga, can I give you a number?

His name is Ruben." Shortly thereafter, Olga calls Ruben. Olga relays her story to Ruben exactly how it happened and says to him, "The person that poisoned me was this woman Victoria." Ruben says to her, "I don't know any Victoria. The person that poisoned me was a woman named Anna." He sent me her picture.

And it's her. Then I was, like, shocked.

So at that point, they both think that they were poisoned by the same person.

Olga agrees to meet with Rubin to hear his story in detail. I'm here 43 years.

Came here 1980 from Russia. And I lived in a Russian neighborhood all this time.

Rubin says he met the woman he calls Anna on a Russian dating app 2 months ago in June 2016.

I was single at the time, you know, I was dating, checking girls out, and I met her, and she gave me her number. She said she came from Russia, like, long— not long ago. I start talking to her, and she was very smart woman. She said, do you like to eat? I like to cook. So I was like, of course. She said, Sunday, I'll buy some food and prepare to— and I was like, sure, why not?

The date was to be held at her apartment in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn.

Sunday, I went and bought her flowers, I bought her wine. And I went to her home.

Upon arrival, Ruben says he was surprised to find her apartment empty.

I was like, where is the furniture?

Carpet was rolled up. I was shocked, like— and she said she had a roommate. She just moved out. I was like, "Okay." And she said, "Come, come, the table is ready." It was a mini table, and I had my own wine. She prepared fish. I took 2 bites. I drank a wine. That's all I remember. I never thought about she's gonna drug me.

Rubin says 2 days later, he woke up in a hospital room.

He didn't even exactly know how he ended up in the hospital. He's there for about a week. Tests are run, but they can't really figure out what's wrong with him. The medical record lists a number of his symptoms, like memory loss, fatigue, weakness, these type of things. The medical records between Rubin and— All were almost identical.

The doctors, they took my blood, and they saying, "He's clean. He's clean." I don't understand. I just don't get it.

They give him fluids. They give him some food. They monitor him and find that he's okay to be discharged. But even at the discharge point, they don't know what happened to this person.

I remember Ruben called me. And told me the story. He really got sick. He almost got in coma. I got sick. Somebody poisoned me. He got poisoned too. Maybe this is the same person.

Ruben learned he was taken to the hospital by his sister. She said a woman brought him to the dry cleaning store he owned and claimed he'd passed out on a date.

And when she brought me back to my store, She was saying that, "Oh, he got drunk, he's this and that." She gave me my phone, but no money, of course. She took my watch. It's $800-something watch. When I got my phone back, she erased everything. She erased all the texts we did. All my phone was clear.

For good measure, when she dropped him off, Anna allegedly swiped $500 from the cash register.

The store's surveillance cameras caught the whole thing on tape.

His business had footage of Anna in his office going through personal things, going through drawers and things like that. Ruben had no memory of this whatsoever.

I saw me on the camera, but I don't remember nothing. I think it's like, wow, it was weird.

Like Olga, Ruben spent the next 2 days feeling disoriented. When he recovered, he found out Anna had stolen more than he realized.

His American Express charge card has something like $2,600 worth of new charges that he has no idea where they came from.

Where it came from.

After 2 weeks recovering from the shock of it all, Ruben decided to take action and report the crime to Brooklyn police.

He tells me that he went to the police precinct, and they think she was his girlfriend, and they, uh, broke up and this way, you know.

I left. I left. I was like, you know what, they don't want to take information, it's okay. I tried to do my own investigation because I was mad that, you know, she got me. And then I thought about it and I was like, you know what, I'm alive, it's okay. And I let it go till Olga.

Olga and Ruben feel the similarities are too strong to deny. And they hope the NYPD agrees.

We went together to the police precinct, and they realized that it's really serious.

Two victims talked about it, met in this small community, and made this happen. Really interesting. Now you have a connection that you didn't have before.

Coming up... Investigators discover evidence of a crime spree.

We start connecting different cases from different boroughs. We realized that we had numerous victims.

And they uncover a suspect on the run.

She was a wanted fugitive in Russia.

She got pictures in the car with her mother's body slumped over. Next to her in the passenger seat.

She is wanted for killing someone halfway across the world.

In September 2016, after Olga Svick and Rubin Borukhov present their stories to the NYPD, both cases are revived.

We don't know any real pedigree information for this woman, Victoria. Don't know where she works, don't know where she lives.

She used all these different names, and we have an MO, which is unusual. That poisoning thing, that's really odd, and also within a Russian community. So now we have possibly a Russian person committing these crimes.

Detectives also find it unusual that two nearly identical cases took place in different areas of the city.

It's rare that we get something in a different borough across the city. It's rare. But it's our job to be able to make those connections when we can. When something jumps out, like a poisoning, we put that out to other squads so they know, "Be on the lookout for this person." Investigators quickly discover several more crimes with similar MOs.

We start looking at all, like, grand larcenies, connecting different cases from different boroughs, and we start making what we call a pattern. We realized that we had numerous victims from other areas. There was two cases. Both of them were located in Coney Island, both in the Ocean Parkway area. Two Russian individuals who both go home with a dark-haired female.

In both cases, the victims are male, and they remember blacking out after eating or drinking.

One of the individuals was met her on a dating site and arranged to go on a date with her to a coffee shop. He ordered coffee. She had wine. Within 15 or 20 minutes, started to feel very, very sick. On the ride back, he's actually saying to her in the car, "I'm not feeling well." She says to him, "Don't worry. Let's pull over. I'll drive." They go back to his place. It's after midnight. It's at or about that point where his memory completely cuts out. The following morning, he wakes up in his bed, and cash and jewelry is missing from his house.

The victims' stories are eerily similar, except one victim says the woman was named Mara.

The other calls her Rachel. Because they're communicating on these dating apps, there's really no information other than that in terms of tracking back this person. She may or may not have been using a fake name. No phone number, no address, no other kind of pedigree information.

Whatever the woman's real name is, the men say her profile advertised more than just dating.

One of the things that she offered was to come and perform for them sort of BDSM activities that they wanted done.

These men didn't want anybody to know about, you know, they weren't open about their BDSM preferences or whatever.

Detectives know the clandestine nature of these trysts could be stopping more victims from reporting.

Maybe they won't come forward because of obvious reasons— embarrassment and things of that nature and shame. So we don't know exactly how many victims there are.

Luckily, the man who identified the suspect as Mara is able to give police the address of the apartment she took him to.

He said he went to use the bathroom. And when he came out of the restroom, he realized that his car keys and wallet were missing, and so was Mara. His vehicle was also removed from the location.

When detectives contact the owner of the apartment, she claims a friend asked her to let a woman stay there for a few days.

She didn't know the individual, but did provide us at that time with a cell phone number. We did computer checks with that number.

The computer check provides detectives with a full name and possible lead— Victoria Nassirova. Investigators learn she is a 41-year-old Russian woman in the United States on a visa.

There was a prior incident that occurred in Manhattan where she was arrested for allegedly stealing. The petit larceny is a minor crime. You get a desk appearance ticket. You get fingerprinted. If there's no warrants, local warrants for you, you will get released on a summons.

Detectives run her name through their database and find that it is also associated associated with an international record.

After running the name in our databases, they realized there is an Interpol warrant for her out of Russia. And they provided us with a photo, which was placed into a photo array.

The local victims who are willing to talk confirm Victoria Nasirova is the woman investigators investigators are looking for.

Now you got a connection here, and all of a sudden, the case gets connected back to Olga's case.

At this point, we found out that the person who committed this crime in New York City was a wanted fugitive, was wanted for murder in Russia involving a woman named Alla Alexenko. The Russian government contacts Interpol, which is a global law enforcement International Criminal Law Enforcement Agency. Interpol issues what is known as a red notice, which is essentially a worldwide wanted flyer of the highest category.

Now, all of a sudden, we have a whole different case. We have an international, uh, killer.

We activated what is called an investigation card. It's almost like a warrant. If the police department comes in contact with it, with her. She'd be detained and held for the investigation.

While detectives are on the hunt for Viktoria Nassirova, the stakes rise when they learn she's already wanted in her home country of Russia for the 2014 murder of Alla Alexenko.

Olga's case has been connected to Victoria. And now it's wrapped up in this international fugitive who is wanted for killing someone halfway across the world.

Not only is Victoria wanted for murder, but the victim's daughter, Nadia Ford, has been desperately searching for Victoria for 2 years. In 2017, unaware of Victoria's more recent attacks, Nadia seeks help from a private investigator.

Nadia Ford is originally from Krasnodar, Russia, born and raised there. I believe sometime in 2010 or 2011, she moved to the United States. She maintained a really good relationship with her mom, which is a woman named Alla Alexenko.

Nadia said that, Victoria killed her mother. She was convinced. Nadia was very instrumental in pushing the Russian authorities to investigate.

The Russian government has been unable to gain traction on the case, so Nadia hired New York private investigator Herman Weisberg.

Nadia was introduced to me by a common friend. She was crying uncontrollably. I felt very bad for her. She explained that her mother was a victim of a homicide in Russia.

Nadia tells Weisberg the trouble began in 2013, when her mother, Alla, was befriended by a much younger woman living next door in Krasnodar, Russia.

The new neighbor that had moved in turned out to be Victoria Nasyrova. As soon as— the friendship had begun, I think Nadia was a little suspect of it.

Ala was older, seemingly from a blue-collar family, humble, sort of like somebody's grandma, right? Victoria, on the other hand, was always decked out in fur coats and wore a lot of makeup and jewelry. She had much more of a luxurious outlook. Sometimes loneliness, right, is the type of thing that can motivate somebody to, make an unusual friend. And, um, I think that part of the reason why Victoria was successful in gaining Ala's trust is because Ala lived alone, and Victoria was right there. She was able to put up a front that Ala was very receptive to. And because she was a good-hearted lady, a giving type of personality, a trusting type of personality, She decided to make this friendship work. So sometime in 2013, Nadia visits and gets to meet Victoria. They spend time together. They go out. They form a little bit of a bond. Victoria later tells Nadia, "Oh, I'm thinking about coming to New York." At some point in 2014, the following year, Ala says to her, "Well, you know, if you're gonna go, could you give some things to Nadia, personal items like clothes?" clothing and things like that. So then time is passing, time is passing, time is passing, and Victoria is not going back to New York, and she still is holding on to those things.

Ala is now chatting with Nadia. If she's not going to go to New York, she might as well give me the stuff back. Ala had actually hinted to Nadia that I'm going to confront Victoria about this because this is strange.

Nadia tells Weisberg, That's the last conversation she ever had with her mother.

On October 4th or 5th of 2014, Ala goes radio silent.

Nadia Ford was very much in touch with her mom, a daily basis, regular routine phone calls. A day didn't go by where they didn't communicate.

An hour goes by, 2 hours go by, a full day goes by, and Nadia still can't get— in contact with her mom. It was pretty strange to her.

Nadia actually calls Victoria as well. She has her number. Victoria says, "Ah, I haven't seen her. She may have left with some friends. Maybe that's where she is. She turned her phone off." Nadia doesn't bite.

Nadia decides to look into the phone history of her mom's cell phone because she was the one that set up the phone for her to begin with. So she logs on online and is able to look at the call history on that phone. She recognizes the final phone number that have had any contact with her mom to be the phone number of Victoria Masarova. This raises alarm bells because Victoria didn't say anything to her about calling her or contacting her over the phone.

She made arrangements to get on a plane and head to Russia. About as fast as anybody would have. And immediately, she knows something's wrong as soon as she gets to her mom's apartment. The place has been ransacked.

There are a lot of things missing— documents, fur coats, perfumes.

Nadia discovered something else was missing— the large amount of money her mother kept hidden in the apartment.

Just before her disappearance, Alla, with Nadia's help, had sold a piece of property in Russia and had gotten a nice sum for it, somewhere probably around $50,000. She realizes that cash is missing. That discovery confirms to her that something really is seriously going on.

Immediately, Nadia contacts Russian authorities to look into her mother's disappearance. Disappearance.

In Nadia's mind, her mom is a hostage. She's been kidnapped. She's been taken somewhere. Worst-case scenario, she's dead. Nadia asked the police if they could essentially set up, like, a sting operation. They provide some undercover personnel, and they arrange to follow Nadia to the apartment where she's going to confront Victoria.

When Nadia Ford meets with private investigator Herman Weisberg in 2016, she details her investigations from the last year and a half. Nadia tells Herman that quickly following her mother's disappearance in October of 2014, She worked with Russian authorities to set up a sting operation to apprehend Victoria Nasyrova.

Nadia meets with Victoria outside of the apartment building. Seemingly, it's just the two of them. Police, however, are on site. Can't be seen, though. [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] Nadia grabs her pretty aggressively. Aggressively squeezes her and says, "Where's my mom? I know there's something going on with my mom." Victoria panics, sort of breaks away from the hold, and starts screaming, "Your mom is fine. Your mom is fine." At this point, the police are starting to come out of their hiding place. Victoria does a 180 and books it, runs into the building to get away from Nadia and the police. They apprehend her. And they bring her back to the precinct.

Russian police, they start speaking with her. And of course, she knows, "I don't know what you're talking about." She does this whole thing. So at that point, they do a lie detector test, all right? And, uh, and she fails it miserably.

Unfortunately, with no concrete evidence tying Victoria to the robbery or Nadia's missing mother, they had to let her go.

When you don't have enough, you have to let them go. That happens even over here. So you don't have enough, but you still work the case.

While the case remains open for authorities, Nadia decides she would continue investigating on her own.

Nadia stays in Russia. She is like a dog with a bone, and she's not going to give up until she finds out what's going on with her mom.

Nadya reasoned that if Victoria did kill her mother, Ala, she must have moved her body.

She was able to go to traffic cameras and kind of plot the course of Victoria leaving her apartment, which is astounding police work for somebody that doesn't do this for a living.

Nadya reviewed footage from the day Ala disappeared. Appeared and found blurry video of a car leaving her mother's home.

She got pictures of Victoria driving with— driving south in the car with her mother's body slumped over next to her in the passenger seat.

She takes that to the police. They find out the plate. The car was registered to Victoria.

The authorities track The GPS signal from Victoria Nesterova's cell phone, uh, at or about the time of Alla's disappearance, and what they find is that essentially her phone tracked a particular path that day going from one city to another within Russia. She sort of does, like, a loop where she goes to— it's this area just outside Armavir, is there for a while and then leaves.

In April of 2015, 7 months after Alla goes missing, investigators follow Victoria's trail of digital breadcrumbs and make a devastating discovery.

The Russian authorities, they ask themselves, why would she take this pit stop in sort of, like, this neck of the woods for this period of time on that particular day? So they're able to zone in on it. They— they get cadaver dogs. And after searching for an extensive period of time, they're able to find burnt remains of a human body.

They find the remains of a body. They were so far gone that they could only be identified through dental records. And that is how they realized that they had a murder on their hands and that it was the murder of Alla Alesenko.

Her body was in pieces. She was in good shape physically. But we don't know what happened to Alla.

The evidence gave Russian police everything they needed to charge Victoria with murder. But there was another problem.

That Victoria Nasarova is nowhere to be found in the city that she was living or anywhere in Russia.

Victoria had a relationship, apparently, with somebody high up in the police department. And she was getting information, so she had escaped Russia.

At that point, as we say in the business, she's in the wind. She flies out of the country.

The red notice was issued in July of 2015. This is about 10 months after Alla's disappearance.

With the search for her mother having concluded, in the worst possible outcome, Nadia returns to New York. However, Nadia says the mystery seems to have followed her home. Nadia tells Weisberg she has reason to believe Victoria escaped to the United States and is now hiding in New York.

Nadia heard from some— some of her acquaintances in Brooklyn that Victoria was in the area. She was also directed to find a Facebook account, which was a variation of Victoria's first and last name. It was kind of hyphenated, Vina, V-I-N-A, which a lot of people at that time were doing with Facebook accounts to, you know, not use their full name.

Nadia, fortuitously, comes across a photo of the person she knows to be Victoria Nazarova, and it's tagged at a location in Brooklyn. So now Nadia is afraid because, in her mind, perhaps Victoria is in New York because she wants to do something to Nadia. Nadia is in a difficult predicament. She can't go to the NYPD and say, "There's this woman who's here in New York, who I think did something to my mom in Russia. So Nadia hires Herman and asks him to look into this person.

The more she talked, the more I felt if the NYPD, if Interpol, if Russia, if nobody can catch this woman, I don't know why I'm sitting at this conference table, frankly. But I should help her by any means necessary.

Coming up— The search for Victoria heats up.

I have a tendency to look at what they're not showing me. I noticed that there was pretty unique stitching in the vehicle that she was in.

And evidence continues to mount. I sent out my surveillance teams.

I had them all split up.

He told us, look, take them all. I don't want any of her stuff here.

They came across Olgazvik's Ukrainian passport.

In March 2016, the NYPD continues its investigation into Victoria Nasirova, a Russian criminal they believe poisoned Olga Swick and several men across the city. Meanwhile, private investigator Herman Weisberg begins one of his own.

I decided to just take it on, and I became kind of obsessed with it because of how bad I felt for, uh, Ms. Ford.

Weisberg, uh, starts to piece together as much as he can as a private investigator to find Victoria. He has, obviously, some ability to research databases, so he knows that there's a red notice for her. He, um, then tries to look into her life her footprint, her online footprint.

There wasn't much there except for a Facebook account. But on Facebook, you know, it's very interesting to me that people are showing off. So when I look at anybody's Facebook page, I have a tendency to look at what they're not showing me. So I look past it, and I look into the backgrounds, or I look at the other people in the shot. I noticed Victoria liked wearing those mirrored aviator sunglasses. And I love that because I like looking in the reflection for the little things that Victoria didn't mean to put out there.

He found one picture of her, a selfie. And there was a reflection in her aviators of a car. So he started to take a close look at this— the car.

I noticed that there was pretty unique stitching in the vehicle that she took this selfie in. Also, the clock on the dashboard was a very unique shape. I had some confidence that the car would still be connected to her.

Weisberg knows that in a city the size of New York, finding a single car can be like finding a needle in a haystack. He begins with zeroing in on the specific make and model.

I chose to walk around a parking lot that had, I don't know, thousands of vehicles.

Before the end of the first day, Herman's determination pays off. He spots a vehicle that matches the interior reflected in Victoria's sunglasses.

When I stumbled upon what turned out to be a Chrysler 300, I looked at it for about, 20 minutes with my mouth open saying, "Holy— I actually just came across this car," 'cause I had given up 100 times in my mind.

The car doesn't belong to Victoria, but at least now Weisberg knows what he's looking for.

I still had to locate the vehicle in Brooklyn, but I was hoping that there were— only a few in the areas that I had triangulated. On Victoria's Facebook page, she had done what's called liking different establishments, different businesses. There was a Mexican restaurant. There was a pizza place, maybe a nail or hair salon. And they were all in close proximity to one another. I sent out my surveillance teams, had them all split up. Luckily for me, a Chrysler 300 with that interior package was relatively rare. Within 6 hours, my surveillance team found Victoria and her then-boyfriend going out shopping and using that vehicle. We watched Victoria Nassirova and her boyfriend going to pick up a flat-screen TV that they both had to carry back to their apartment building. And it was quite obvious, their use of keys to get entry, that that's where they both lived. It definitely gave me a lot of confidence that we were on the right people at the right place. It flashed through my brain like, this is the craziest thing ever. I don't know how me and my team just did this, but there it is. Boom. Done. I mean, I got her.

Now, private investigator Herman Weisberg and his team need the NYPD to finish the job and apprehend Victoria. In the midst of their own investigation, detectives receive Weisberg's fortuitous tip.

I got a phone call from a private investigator. He stated to me that he was hired by a family in Russia to attempt to locate Victoria, and he believed that he knew the location of her.

Detectives let Weisberg know they've been searching for Victoria for 7 months in response to a series of robberies and the attempted murder of Olga Svick.

I wasn't even aware at that time of what had transpired with Olga. I mean, I had my hunches about her from the beginning. That she's been up to no good for a long time here. I guess I was right about her. She don't care about anything but herself.

On March 16th, 2016, the NYPD and private investigator Herman Weisberg combine forces to zero in on Victoria Nassirova. And make an arrest.

Within 48 hours, I was meeting them in front of that location in Brooklyn where she had resided.

She was living with someone named Vladimir, who was her boyfriend at the time.

They went up to her boyfriend's apartment, asked if Victoria was there, which he replied, "Yes." They asked Victoria to step out, and they handcuffed her and brought her to the station. To the 60th Precinct.

After a 7-month-long manhunt, Victoria is finally in custody.

I asked her if she knew why she was apprehended, and she denied everything of— she had no idea what was going on.

I saw Victoria get put in handcuffs and walked out the back door. Front door. I already had Nadia's phone number ready to call her. I said, we got her. Her reaction was— was like music when you hear something like that, when, you know, you could hear the joy in her voice.

Now the challenge for investigators is to connect her to the crimes she's suspected of committing.

So the very first thing that the New York Police Department had to do is figure out, was the person responsible for some or all of their open investigations? So they arrange with each detective who's handling each of the open investigations to conduct a lineup.

We brought all the victims to the precinct. They were able to view each lineup separately, and they don't get to speak with each other.

Police ask me if I see Victoria Nasyrova in that room, and I say, "Yeah, I see her." Then they call me to Brooklyn to identify her.

I went there, and I saw her.

Victoria was identified in all these separate lineups. Cases that we had at that time. And then she was charged for grand larceny for 3 individuals.

You know, I was in shock. And at the same time, I feel relieved.

After notifying Interpol of Victoria's arrest, detectives begin building a case strong enough to convict her.

After the arrest of Victoria, we went back to Victoria's boyfriend's house, and we asked for consent to search his apartment. He was very shocked and almost depressed. He said they were having a little trouble and that she had moved out and was just recently moved back into the apartment. In March.

Victoria's boyfriend Vladimir says the reason for their breakup was his dog, Joey.

Joey had died of very mysterious circumstances just weeks prior. Victoria, during the course of her relationship with Vladimir, made it known that she didn't really like the dog, in part because Vladimir was so close with this dog. Everywhere that Vladimir went, the dog went.

One morning, he woke up and the dog was no longer with him.

There was talk about her poisoning her boyfriend's dog. It's not a far stretch for me to think of what happened.

When investigators tell Vladimir about the people Victoria allegedly poisoned, he agrees to help.

Vladimir gave the police the permission for them to search some personal bags that she had in his home.

She had just moved back into his apartment. It was so recent that her bags were still packed. He told us, "Look, take them all. I don't want any of her stuff here." Victoria's luggage provides them with a treasure trove of evidence. As we're going bag by bag, we found Olga's jewelry that Olga described that was removed from her during her crime.

They also came across Olga's vik's employment authorization card and her Ukrainian passport.

Tucked inside Olga's passport, officers find a recent photo of Victoria. And they're struck by how similar the two women look.

They're not 100% twins, but they can be mistaken for each other. I believe she was trying to change her identity to be Olga, to hide who she actually was, maybe because of the Interpol warrant.

Prisons in Russia are— Pretty notorious for being grim and horrific places to serve out your time. And she did not want to face the murder charge for Alla Alesenko's death.

But detectives know that to get away with it, Victoria needed Olga out of the picture permanently.

You can't steal somebody's passport because they're gonna go and report the passport stolen, and Victoria's smart enough to know that. It's my belief that Victoria used the poisoned cheesecake to make it look like it was a suicide. She staged the scene with other pills laying around. She staged the scene by changing Olga's clothing into lingerie, so if the police or anybody had found her dead, they would have immediately thought suicide.

It's a perfect setup. You have Olga, who's in her own home. No one was watching.

That's how brilliant Victoria Nasyrova was in that she thought of almost every single detail to make this the perfect crime. What she didn't think about was the likelihood that Olga would survive.

Coming up— An international killer becomes a New York tabloid star.

You don't get a case like this every day.

She's a pathological liar, you know.

And the story she tells is stranger than fiction. She told me herself she would meet men on BDSM websites. After her arrest, Victoria Nasirova is held without bail in Rikers Island. She refuses to speak to investigators about her alleged crimes, but seems more than willing to tell her story to reporters.

The media coverage for this case was off the charts. People were obsessed with this case. Obsessed, particularly in New York, because you had all of these added elements. It wasn't just a poisoning. It was a stolen identity. There was a dominatrix aspect. She was from another country. She was also beautiful. You don't get a case like this every day.

Over the next few months, Victoria gives the media all the headlines they could ask for.

I met her in 1992. Um, several times at Rikers. Victoria is, um, very charismatic, very talkative. No, she tells me she didn't do anything. She said she's been framed. She's innocent.

Part of the allure comes from the tale Victoria spins about her past. She comes from southern Russia.

She came of age in the '90s, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Out in the south, it was hellish, hellish life. People had nothing, you know? People didn't have food. You go to the store, and there's nothing there, you know? You just survive.

Victoria's stories include her being forced to join a Russian crime syndicate in her 30s.

She told me that she was doing, like, off-the-books kind of cosmetology work. She couldn't get a mortgage, so she got some fake documents. At that point, the Russian government came and tried to blackmail her into working for them. She said what she would do is she would go and get, like, incriminating information against, like, arrest somebody, and then she would help people— the Russian police, like, blackmail people for money. She said that she kept very meticulous records of all her assignments for this organization. It's all also shrouded in this sort of conspiracy and mystery.

Victoria claims she tried to get out several times, but she knew too much for Russian police to let her go. So they framed her for murder instead.

She said at that point, they killed this Ala, the mother of Nadia, her neighbor. And they set it up to make it look like she did it. And they started an investigation against her. And she keeps telling me different versions of the same story where she ended up in the US to try to get away from these people.

While hiding out in the US, Victoria admits she supported herself by working as a dominatrix.

She told me herself she would meet men on BDSM websites.

And she would say in interviews that she sort of fulfilled their needs and provided a service service. She almost acted like she was doing kind of like a positive thing for these men.

However, Victoria denies poisoning or robbing any of her clients. She also denies trying to kill Olga to steal her identity.

She told me that Olga had sold her her Ukrainian passport because Victoria was too scared to use her Russian passport.

She talked openly about the day that she went over to Olga's house and telling the media that Olga was already feeling sick and she was unwell prior to her getting to the apartment. The reason she gave for why she was targeted for this crime as the potential perpetrator was that she was being framed by the Russians.

She's a pathological liar, you know. She always makes some new fairy tale.

For prosecutors, Victoria's press interviews are a preview of defense strategies she might try in court. And they're concerned that without evidence she poisoned Olga, those strategies might work.

To convict somebody, you need proof beyond a reasonable doubt. And there was this open question of, what was it that poisoned Olga? The preliminary tests show that there's no controlled substance in the container.

The same can be said for the NYPD's other case cases against Victoria.

It was a very strange situation that each victim explains the same symptoms. Ruben spent numerous days in the hospital being observed, and they didn't find anything with him. But there was something there that was making each of these individuals pretty much tranquilized for a day or two. The NYPD lab catalog was not big enough to determine the type of drug that was in that cheesecake. So the police department and the district attorney's office spoke, and they said, "Well, maybe we have to broaden our horizons." A federal agent can test it on their system. Systems, which isn't just the United States narcotics. So I was very excited to hear, because they were able to break it down a little bit more, and the federal agent was actually able to identify what was used, and it could have killed every single one of these victims.

[SPEAKING SPANISH] One of the greatest challenges to the investigation into Victoria Nasirova has been proving attempted murder without a murder weapon. But the Department of Homeland Security has access to technology the NYPD does not.

When the cheesecake container is tested by the Department of Homeland Security, it comes up positive for phenazepam. Which is something that the New York Police Department doesn't have in their bracket of controlled substance because it's not a controlled substance in the United States. This is why that first test came up negative.

Phenazepam is a benzodiazepam, kind of a depressant, that was developed in the Soviet Union, and they call it Russian roofie.

It has depressive effects on the human body. It's used primarily to treat seizures, epilepsies, and things like that. If taken in large doses, can cause the heart to slow down to a point where it arrests, and it stops.

When investigators see the list of side effects for the drug, which include amnesia, they understand why the victims had a hard time remembering anything.

When she was given these drugs, it would give her enough time to go through their apartments to find or locate any jewelry or certificates without them waking up or catching her.

A detail of the crime scene in Olga's apartment suggests Victoria meant to do more than just take. Knock her out.

Why would the first witnesses say that in late August, when it's hot out, Olga's heater was turned on to the max, and the windows were closed, and it was incredibly hot in the room?

Extreme heat intensifies the effects. So it stands to reason that the heat was ratcheted up as high as it could go in the apartment. Heat of summer, of the end of August, so that it could make the effects more intense and work faster.

Once we had that fenazepam, there's more light shining on Victoria that she tried to kill Oprah.

Detectives finally have a murder weapon, and they can also prove Victoria was the one who used it.

Victoria's mouth was swabbed, and there was a comparison done between the results of that mouth swab and the results of the DNA on the cheesecake.

So with her DNA there, it locks her into her being the one who touched and was able to handle that container.

Once it was known that phenazepam was in the container, then that became the bow. On top of the case to allow the police department and the Queens DA's office not only to charge Victoria with larceny, but also charge Victoria with attempted murder, because this was an attempt to kill somebody and steal their identity.

During her arraignment, Victoria pleads not guilty to all of the charges against her. Prosecutors start preparing for trial. But despite the new evidence, they hit a roadblock.

We came into a lot of trouble going into court with trying to get the male individuals to come and testify. We have to now put you on a stand, and you have to tell your story in public to people that you don't know. Some of them decided that they no longer wanted to go forward and prosecute.

The Brooklyn cases were falling apart, and the Brooklyn DA's office wanted to get something for them.

She was originally charged for grand larcenies. They were downgraded, and she pled guilty to, uh, petty larceny and misdemeanors.

For drugging and robbing 3 men in Brooklyn, Victoria is sentenced to just 90 days in jail, time she's already served while awaiting trial.

We have no legal authority to charge the Russia investigation. So now the only case that remained was Olga's attempted murder case in Queens.

But due to the COVID pandemic, the trial for attempted murder is delayed several years. In the meantime, Victoria notches a major legal victory against the City of New York.

She didn't have an easy time when she was at Rikers waiting to go to trial. She was assaulted inside of the prison and ended up suffering a bunch of different injuries to her body.

A local news station obtains graphic footage footage of the attack on Victoria and airs it on the evening news.

She ended up suing, claiming that the guards were negligent in stopping the attack, and they were negligent in protecting her.

So she ended up suing Rikers for $5 million. She got $325,000.

The money that Victoria was awarded from what happened to her in jail That turns everybody's stomach that I've spoken to, including mine.

After Victoria spends 6 years behind bars, in 2023, a trial date is finally set for the attempted murder of Olga Svick.

We start preparing, and more closer to the date, For the trial, I got more scared. I realized that I have to see that person who wants to kill me. I don't want her to be out, outside, around people. I was very scared.

On January 30th, 2023, opening arguments are made in one of the most highly anticipated trials in the country.

This seems pretty wild.

You know, a sexy, like, vixen trying to kill somebody by feeding them poisoned cheesecake. Meeting, like, guys online, robbing them, BDSM. It's got everything, right?

But when Victoria enters the court, she no longer resembles the seductress whose photos have tantalized tabloid readers for years.

I just look at the woman. She changed. You know, she got more weight. And she was like a regular woman.

Several of Victoria's alleged victims are called to testify, including Olga.

Then Dino started asking me questions. I was worried about everything, you know? Oh, about the process, 'cause I never do that before.

Olga came off as a very convincing witness. She came off as credible. She came off as sincere, as did Ruben as well.

I did testify. I said everything true, like she could have killed me. She hurt, like, she hurt a lot of people. She did a bad thing. And if nobody stops her, she would have been keep doing it.

The trial lasted for about a week and a half. It was really emotional. And to see these survivors, I think, really tugged at the heartstrings of the jury.

From the very beginning, we looked at this as Victoria Nasarova attempted to kill Olga Zwick. But you can't stop the story there. Your jury's going to say, "Well, why? Why would she need a new identity?" We said to the jury, "There's something very serious going on. There was a red notice that was put out for this woman, and she fled Russia." We simply alert them to the fact that there was something very serious going on in Russia. We never said anything about a murder. Whether she did something wrong or didn't do something wrong, She knows that she's wanted, and she knows, quite frankly, that she's wanted by a government that doesn't afford her the same constitutional protections that we have here. So now her time is running out in the United States. The valid visa that she had entered the country with was due to expire on September 4th, 2016. She needed to do all of this so that she could never go back to Russia.

[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] The defense insists the state's evidence against Victoria is almost entirely circumstantial.

We had the results of the DNA on the cheesecake. But the defense is looking at the fact that there are no third-party witnesses. The only person that's saying that Victoria Nasarova was there is Olga Zwick. So there are no eyewitnesses. There's no surveillance tape. But I think that ultimately the jury saw past those arguments.

The jury takes only an hour and a half to reach a verdict.

Victoria Nasarova was convicted of attempted murder in the second degree, attempted assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, unlawful imprisonment, and petty larceny.

She was sentenced to 21 years behind bars, with credit for time served. So she can be out in roughly 15 years. When she was sentenced, Victoria had a full-out outburst in the middle of court and cursed out the judge.

What a gem.

This woman is a menace to society.

It's as bizarre a case as you'll ever See, it'll be unlikely that we'll ever see another murder or attempted murder with a piece of cheesecake.

Victoria is paying for her crimes in the United States, but justice for another crime still awaits overseas.

I sat next to Nadia when, um, the sentence was given. By Judge Holder, about the 21 years, I think she saw that as a win, but there'll never be a win until Victoria pays the price for taking her mom's life.

Presumably, after Victoria's sentence, the federal government will work out some arrangement with Russian authorities to extradite her directly to Russia, and if that case is successful, is still pending. She should be prosecuted for the murder of Al Alexenko.

From what I've come to know about Nadia Ford's mom, she was a very giving person. She seemed like she was one of those people that people describe as everybody's mom. And I guess she had a little bit more than Victoria had, and Victoria turned out wanting that, whatever she had, for herself. This is a person that is dangerous. This is a person that doesn't belong outside of jail.

I could not sleep for months.

I would spend hours crying myself, thinking about what happened to me. In the beginning, I just hate her. But after time, I— start questioning myself, and I start more studying about psychology, and I forgive her, like really forgive her. I not say that she's a good person. She is dangerous. She in the right place. I forgive her for—

For what?

Just for myself, 'cause I wanna live my life and enjoy without thinking of her.