NYC squatters got engaged, spent big after stuffing slay victim in duffel bag, prosecutors say

NEW YORK — The young squatter couple accused of beating a Manhattan woman to death and stuffing her body in a duffel bag went on a wild shopping spree, got engaged while on the lam and even bought a diamond ring with the victim’s credit card to seal the deal, authorities said Thursday.

After fleeing to Pennsylvania and crashing the victim’s Lexus they stole from outside the murder scene, Halley Tejada,19, of Manhattan, and Kensly Alston, 18, of the Bronx, used the victim’s credit cards to go on a spending spree that included Apple AirPods, clothing, food, a PlayStation 5 and the ring, according to prosecutors.

Alston, despite the trouble she was in, fancied herself in love, authorities said. The couple had just celebrated her 18th birthday and wound up engaged by the time they were apprehended.

Tejada and Alston were charged Thursday in the death of Nadia Vitels inside the victim’s late mother’s apartment on E. 31st St. near Third Ave. in Kips Bay.

Tejada was escorted out of the 17th Precinct stationhouse dressed in a black shirt, gray sweatpants and flip-flop sandals.

“I’m innocent, I’m innocent,” he told reporters.

“Never,” he said before he was driven away.

Cops believe that the squatters were in Vitels’ mother’s apartment, which had been vacant for a few months, when the 52-year-old woman showed up on March 10 to prepare the pad for a family friend to live in. The victim’s arrival apparently caught the squatters by surprise and they attacked her.

Vitels’ son found his mother’s body, her foot sticking out of the duffel bag in a closet, as they frantically searched the apartment four days later.

Police believe the squatters had been there for a few days before Vitels came to the apartment after arriving from Spain.