A New York woman has been charged with attempted murder after lacing her victim’s cheesecake with poison.
The court heard how in 2016, Viktoria Nasyrova tried to kill Olga Tsvyk, who she bared a striking similarity to, in order to steal her identity, reportedly delivering her neighbour a cheesecake laced with a ‘deadly sedative’.
District attorney Melinda Katz told the court, ‘[Nasyrova] laced a slice of cheesecake with a deadly drug so she could steal her unsuspecting victim’s most valuable possession, her identity. Fortunately, her victim survived and the poison led right back to the culprit.’
According to the victim statement, she began feeling extremely unwell after eating the cheesecake brought by her ‘friend’ and lost consciousness, before another friend found her passed out in bed and called an ambulance. After returning home safe and well, Tsvyk found that her passport and other documentation, as well as several items of jewellery and valuables had been stolen.
‘I started to look to lie down on the bed. I started to look for a pillow,’ said eyelash technician Tsvyk. ‘I was realizing that I was losing consciousness and I said to her, "Vika, I’m feeling really bad." I started feeling very nauseous. I wanted to vomit. I started to vomit right by my bed onto the floor,' Tzvyk told jurors on Monday.
‘I told her, "Vika, I’m going to throw up right now.” She said, “Don’t worry about it. I will clean it up.” I remember she went to the bathroom and came back with [cleaning product] Bounty.”
Analysis of the container the cheesecake was brought in found traces of phenazepam, a ‘potent sedative’, the court heard. Investigation of the crime scene found capsules of phenazepam scattered around the house, which prosecutors deduced was to make it look like a suicide attempt.
According to US press, Nasyrova faces up to 25 years in prison on charges of attempted murder, assault and unlawful imprisonment.
It’s a case that has gripped New Yorkers since the story first came into public knowledge in 2018, two years after the crime was committed in 2016.
Incredibly, it wasn’t the first time Nasyrova has been accused of crime like this, in 2014 facing the charge of fatally poisoning a neighbour in her native Russia. After fleeing to America, insisting in a 2017 television interview she wasn’t responsible for her neighbour’s death, she found work as a dominatrix and local media has been fascinated by the story of ‘the eye-popping case of the Russian temptress with a ghastly past’ (according to the New York Post).