EXCLUSIVE: Senior Home Slaying! Holocaust Survivor Nina Kravtsov, 89, Was Fatally Beaten With a Wheelchair Foot Pedal by Dementia-Stricken Roommate, Galina Smirnova, 95
Holocaust survivor Nina Kravtsov, 89, was fatally beaten by dementia-stricken roommate Galina Smirnova.
Nov. 22 2025, Published 10:00 a.m. ET
Holocaust survivor Nina Kravtsov, 89, was fatally bludgeoned with a wheelchair foot pedal by her dementia-stricken roommate at a New York City nursing home – and staffers found the blood-drenched 95-year-old suspect washing her hands in a sink, lawmen said.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Galina Smirnova was charged with second-degree murder and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and has entered a not guilty plea.
Criminal Complaint Details Revealed
A dementia patient allegedly beat her 89-year-old roommate to death with a wheelchair foot pedal inside a Brooklyn nursing home.
According to a criminal complaint, personnel at Seagate Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Brooklyn, New York, had observed Kravtsov "alive and asleep in her bed" on September 14 and noted: "Nothing in the room was in disarray."
But the complaint states that an hour later, a witness found the victim "in her bed, nonresponsive, covered in blood, and with gash marks about her face and head."
The report said Smirnova was spotted cleaning her hands, with her hospital gown and legs streaked with blood – and a wheelchair in the room had both of its footrests removed.
Officials said Kravtsov had facial, head and skull fractures and was pronounced dead hours later at a local hospital due to blunt force trauma.
Heartbroken family demands justice after their elderly loved one was found brutally beaten and unrecognizable.
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A retired nurse from Ukraine, Kravtsov was widowed at 19 after losing most of her family during the Holocaust. She emigrated to the U.S. with her daughter, Lucy, and settled in Brooklyn with her child and new husband in 1979 – and came to Seagate after experiencing a stroke in 2020.
Randy Zelin, an attorney representing Kravtsov's family, said: "She is supposed to be cared for and protected and looked after... and instead she ends up with her head and face bashed into the point that she was unrecognizable."
Lucy admitted she is "devastated" by her mother's violent end.
Smirnova – who appeared in court with her wrist cuffed to a wheelchair armrest – was being held without bail at Elmhurst Hospital's prison ward.
