Viktoria Nasyrova, a 42-year-old Russian native, allegedly tried to poison a woman who looked like her back in 2016 with tranquilizer-laced cheesecake, so she could steal her identity.  The Brooklyn resident thought the poisoning would resemble a suicide and staged the women’s unconscious body to make her scheme believable.

“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 Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. “The victim and the defendant resembled one another – both have dark hair, the same skin complexion and speak Russian.”

Although the extent of the connection between the two was not immediately clear, authorities said the women were friends, and on August 28, 2016, Nasyrova allegedly visited the victim, Olga Tsvyk, at her Queens home and offered her the cheesecake as a gift.  The 35-year-old Tsvyk, took the bait, eating a piece of the cake tainted with the Russian-made tranquilizer, phenazepam, and immediately began to feel dizzy and sick to her stomach, before she ultimately lost consciousness.

“The woman ate the cheesecake, fell ill and laid down,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.  “Before passing out, the woman’s last memory is of seeing the defendant sitting beside her inside her home”.

He continued, “The following day, the victim’s friend happened to discover her unconscious lying in her bed, dressed in lingerie with pills scattered around her body – as if the woman had attempted to kill herself.”

Thankfully Tsvyk survived but she later realized not only did her friend attempt to steal her identity, but she managed to steal other belongings.  Tsvyk had been robbed while she was unconscious.  She reported that her passport, employment documents, and a few other valuables were missing from the home.  A test of the leftover cheesecake revealed the dessert was drugged.  Investigators took Nasyrova into custody.

Nasyrova, first arrested in March 2017, was indicted Wednesday on ten charges, including second-degree attempted murder, first-degree burglary, and first-degree attempted assault.  She is scheduled to re-appear in court May 25 of this year.

Attorneys, in looking further into her background, discovered iNasyrova is also wanted for drugging and killing a woman in her native country.  She fled to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, in order to escape charges there.

Nasyrova was reportedly able to slip from the clutches of law enforcement by seducing the lead prosecutor of the Russian-based investigation.  Nasyrova fled to New York after dodging a 2014 murder charge in the death of Alla Aleksenko, 54, whose burned body was uncovered by authorities in a western Russia grave.  Once she settled into her new home, Nasyrova allegedly managed to live a luxurious lifestyle for some time by drugging and robbing wealthy male victims she was involved with.  But, she evidently needed another identity altogether.

“I’m glad Viktoria’s behind bars at this time because I think she really didn’t have concern for anyone else but herself.  She’s a very ruthless person,” Brown said.  With a lengthy track record of similar offenses, there’s no telling when and if she would have stopped.

Nasyrova is facing up to 25 years behind bars if convicted of each of the charges.

Sources:

Woman accused of poisoning lookalike with cheesecake, stealing her identity

Woman used poisoned cheesecake in identity-theft ploy: Officials