Rita Gluzman

Along the banks of the Pasea griver, police make a terrifying discovery. We're talking about large hefty bags filled with body parts, roughly 65 pieces. We just couldn't believe what we were looking at. As the mysterious scene begins to unravel, details surrounding the victim emerge. What did the guy in the bags do to make him cut him up in such a way? There was suspicion at first that perhaps the Russian mob was involved. He had made some very, very important discoveries. He was considered to be an asset for the Soviet Union. She had quite a bit of influence over him and his situation here in the United States. The key to unlocking this ghastly crime lies in a tangled story of jealousy and greed. Things started to add up that something nefarious really did happen. There's a very consistent theme that she's very controlling, very manipulative and very vindictive. If she couldn't have him, nobody could. (Music) April 7, 1996. It's 10 a.m. on Easter Sunday. And officers in East Rutherford, New Jersey are looking forward to a light day of patrols. I had coffee with the other guys on my shift and we'll have to 10 o'clock. I headed down towards the west and the town towards the industrial complex. Since this was Easter Sunday, you know, it's a holiday. Very, very little activity was taken place. (Music) Officer Freeman drives through the area to make a routine check and spots something strange. I headed down towards River and that's when I came upon a out of blue car with a trunk open. As I approached this vehicle, I noticed several things. Number one, the front license plate was bent so I could not read it. The second thing is there were garbage bags and I could see the ties, the yellow ties, sticking out of the trunk. To my left, there was a dumpster. And I'm thinking to myself, if this car is backed up and it's got garbage bags in it, why wouldn't the person who's operating the car be dumping the garbage in that dumpster? (Music) Something was definitely wrong. And up from the river bank comes the gentleman, bearded gentleman. He came about halfway up, stopped, looked at me, and the fear of God was in his eyes. (Music) I unsnapped the holster. Just in case I had to use my weapon. I called him up, I said, "Come over here." And as he started walking towards me, I kept an eye on him and I opened one of the bags in the trunk of the car. I look inside and I see what I perceive to be human intestine. (Music) I was like, "Well, I don't know what I got here, but it looks like body parts. This guy might have murdered somebody." I watched him come up and as he was walking slowly, I'm observing him. And he had a late-text glove on his hand. And I also noticed some droplets of blood on one of his workshoves. I motioned him to stand at the rear wheel of his car. And I said, "Give me a drive, his license." I looked at it and his name was Volatomia Zelenin. He was Russian. I said, "What are you doing here? What's in the bags?" And he just kind of looked up in the air. I assumed that he didn't speak English. I really didn't want to ask him a lot of questions until he was handcuffed. He had this look about him that he might try to overpower me. He was definitely eerie. I got my portable radio, I called for a backup. I said, "Listen," I said, "I think I got a body in a trunk of a car, so you better send me everybody." Minutes later, backup patrols arrived and the man is taken into custody. We handcuffed him and put him in the car. And I read him, Miranda warning. I did ask Volatomia how many bodies were in the bags. And he answered one. And with that, he started to motion his head to the left. And he said, "More parts." I said, "What?" He said, "More parts." And there was a car parked maybe 40-50 feet away. We opened up the trunk and there was a couple more bags in there. You could see like a scalpel, a pair of pliers, an axe, belts, shoes. You could make out the piece of what would appear to be skull, but missing the ear. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that I would encounter such a horrific scene. He realized that he's obviously caught this whole demeanor change that he wanted to get this off of his chest. Mr. Zalented told the police that the victim was Yakov Gluzman. Dr. Yakov Gluzman was a 48-year-old scientist, world-renowned for his breakthroughs in cancer research. He and his wife Rita Gluzman had known each other since they were children. Yakov Gluzman was born in Ukraine in 1947. When Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union Rita Gluzman was born in 1948 in Ukraine. She was a brilliant woman, she was highly educated, a scientist as well. While Yakov attended Moscow State University, him and Rita kept in touch and after a brief courtship got married in 1969. Their first act as man and wife was to plan an escape from the Soviet Union. Both Rita and Yakov were Jewish and at that point in time there was a lot of discrimination against the Jewish population in communist Russia. Rita had petitioned to get the family out of the Soviet Union and go to Israel and eventually she was allowed to go but Yakov because he was a scientist was not allowed to leave. He was considered to be an asset for the Soviet Union and so he could not leave the country. Yakov however told Rita please leave because she was pregnant with their child. In 1970 Rita immigrated to Israel where she gave birth to the couple's only child, a son. But she was determined not to leave her husband behind. Rita Glozman came to the United States where she launched a protest in front of the United Nations and a hunger strike drawing attention to the plight of her husband. She even lobbied a membs of Congress and wrote to the President of the United States. Desperate to reunite her family after 22 months apart, Rita's hard work resulted in an emotional reunion. Yakov Glozman is allowed to join Rita in Israel at long last and they lived in Israel for several years pursuing postgraduate education. In 1977 the couple immigrated to Long Island, New York. Yakov was hired to do his postdoctoral work at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, one of the world's leading research centers. I was a colleague at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory with Yakov, a family that lived on the campus and an apartment. Yakov really enjoyed the idea of living on the campus and being able to spend time with his son. He was a gentle giant as the way I remember him. A lot of fun but very serious scientists when it came down to it. This was a very interesting time in cancer research because it was known that viruses could cause cancer. And everybody was interested in what are the genes inside the lab. these viruses that can cause cancer. By the early 80s, Reader was raising their son who would have been 10, 12 years old. In 1987, Yakov Glossman gets an offer from a major pharmaceutical concern, headquartered in Pearl River, New York, looking for cures for cancer, and has paid a very nice salary. Yakov's new job paid so well. He and Reader were able to buy an expansive home. The home was in Upper Settle River, New Jersey. This area was a very affluent neighborhood. There were multi-million dollar homes, very large, almost mansion type of homes. Sometime after the Glossman's resettled, Reader decided to start a technology company. And it was an electroplating concern known as ECI technologies. ECI technologies was a business that was involved in electronic components for other businesses. For more than a decade, the Glossman's lived their American dream. With their son grown, they focused on expanding their business and traveling together. We met in Jamaica at the end of 1995. She talked about how much she loved her husband. She said more than once how brilliant he was. They were just a loving couple. But now their dream life has turned into a nightmare, with the discovery of Yakov's alleged remains in the trunk of a car. Within an hour, the East Rutherford Industrial Park becomes the site of a massive murder investigation. This brought a huge response from numerous other police agencies. They brought in forensic teams. They brought in scuba diving teams to go into the river, to search for additional body parts. There was no way at that point in time in this early stage in the investigation to confirm exactly what Vladimir Zanlin had told the police. Hoping to confirm the victim's identity and learn more from their suspect, detectives transport him to the station. Was it Russian mafia? And I'm thinking what was going through his mind? What did the guy in the bags do? To make him cut him up in such a way. I mean, it was brutal. Coming up, the prime suspect makes a horrifying confession. He was trying to cut up the body into such more pieces that couldn't be identified. And he claims he didn't act alone. While he was in the bathroom, he hurled her yell out to him. He's still breathing. While murder suspect Vladimir Zanlin is brought in for questioning, divers search the river for any additional evidence. There was a bag left on a rock down at the river bank. Obviously, you know, he got some stuff into that river. We're going to have to find it. The paeic is very polluted and murky. It was a cold day. Divers did heroic work. The divers managed to recover several more body parts that are assumed to belong to the same person found in two vehicles at the scene. We contacted the medical examiner's office and they took possession of all the bags to be positively identified. We're talking about large, hefty bags filled with body parts. Roughly 65 pieces of this man. And there weren't small pieces. There were parts of his arm, parts of his hand, his fingers, eyes, the heart, liver. There's a fairly gruesome, ugly situation. Now, police need more information from their suspect. Once back at the East Rutherford Police Department, detectives were speaking with Vladimir Zanlin with the assistance of the interpreter. The brutal nature of the crime has led to speculation about the Russian mafia. However, it turns out Vladimir and Yakov were friends. Vladimir's Zanlin is the cousin of Rita Gluzman. Rita and Yakov were very instrumental in bringing Zanlin from Russia back in 1993. Vladimir Zanlin had lived in the former Soviet Union. His wife had been murdered during a robbery of a check caching company that she had worked at. He had told authorities though that she was the victim of an anti-Semitic murder and that was the basis for his seeking political asylum in the United States. Rita basically took Vladimir under her wing. She provided for him. Rita got him a job at ECI Technology, got him on apartment in Fairlawn. She had quite a bit of influence over him in his situation here in the United States. According to Vladimir, he had no reason to kill Yakov, but Rita did. Vladimir Zanlin told the police that for several months his cousin Rita Gluzman had been complaining to him that she and Yakov Gluzman were going through the divorce. He knew that the divorce was bitter. He told us that Yakov had moved out back in 1995 and got his own apartment. He had enough of her lavish lifestyle and he was a very frugal man. Vladimir says Rita feared the divorce would mean the end of her business. Rita kept telling Vladimir Zanlin that if ECI technologies went under that she would lose everything. Once the divorce became a reality, she was going to do anything she could to protect the assets that she had. Rita Gluzman had come to Vladimir Zanlin sometime in February of 1996 asking for his help in murdering her husband Yakov. He had at first declined. Rita reminded him that his livelihood and his immigration status in the United States depended entirely on his employment at ECI. Rita had been threatening if Vladimir did not help Rita kill her husband. She was going to go to the authorities and tell them that his political asylum application was falsified and that he would then be thrown out of the country. Cornen, Mr. Zanlin, he felt like he had no other option. He did not want to go back to where he came from. He felt that that was a dead sentence. Vladimir says the plan was simple. He told the police that Rita still had access to the apartment that Yakov Gluzman was living in. The plan that they came up with was that they would lay and wait inside the apartment that they were armed with axes, hatchets, and knives. And when Yakov Gluzman came home, they would attack him. Yakov Gluzman worked late on Saturday, April 6th, returning home to his apartment after 1145 at night. The door opened and Vladimir said that he had both hands on the axe. He hit Yakov in the head with the axe and he made a sound and he dropped down and hit him again and then Rita came around the corner and started attacking him. Rita Gluzman had a hatchet and Rita was furiously hitting him with the hatchet at the top of his head. However, things didn't go quite the way they anticipated. Vladimir says during the frenzy Rita cut his hand with her axe and he went into the bathroom to bandage it. While he was in the bathroom he heard Rita yell out to him, he's still breathing, he's still breathing. Vladimir came out of the bathroom, looked down at Yakov and said there's nothing I can do now. Rita then took the life and began to use it, stabbing Yakov Gluzman in the torso area. Once they were sure Yakov was dead they began covering their tracks. Vladimir's job was to dismember him. Vladimir was in the bathroom doing what he needed to do in in the bathtub while Rita sanitize that apartment. The Vladimir said that Yapa was a fairly large person and that they couldn't really just carry him out of the department. So he had no other choice but to dismember the body, to put him into different bags. He was trying to cut up the body into such small pieces that it couldn't be identified. So that's why he cut off the ears, he cut off the nose. The fact that one person could do that to another human being shocks the conscience so much. By now it's about six o'clock in the morning and they drag those bags downstairs and these are heavy bags. According to Zelenin Rita told him to put the bags in the trunk of Yakov's car. So they were able to use Yakov's car as well as Zelenin's car to put all 11 bags of body parts and tools into the trunk of both cars. Vladimir says they planned to dump the bags in the river but Rita made a stop for medical supplies along the way. They stopped at a CVS store and they board a tremendous amount of bandages and gosses and band-aids to take care of Zelenin's hand. And then they proceeded to drive both vehicles to the ECI technology's parking lot. Upon arrival they left Yakov's vehicle there and then Zelenin drove Rita back to the house in Upper Sado River. And then he returned back to ECI technologies where Yakov's car was to dump the body parts in the Pacific River. That's when he was found by police officer Richard Freeman. Based on his confession Vladimir is charged with murder. Now detectives must determine if Rita is the mastermind or another potential victim. We knew what Zelenin was. We had no idea where Rita was. We didn't know if his statement was accurate. We need to corroborate what he says. She was possibly a witness, possibly a person of interest, possibly dead even. After the arrest of Vladimir Zelenin, New Jersey police are focused on locating his alleged co-conspirator Rita Glozman. Given what Vladimir had said about what he had done to Yakov, the police were concerned that perhaps he had done something also to Rita. Officials tried to find Rita Glozman at the Glozman family residence in Upper Sado River. Once the search warrant was authorized by the judge, we entered the residence and we proceeded to search. They were unable to find Rita Glozman there or anyone at the Glozman household. But police do find some incriminating evidence. We knew that one of the knives and the bag of tools was a handle knife. I realized that there was a block of handle knives on the kitchen that were missing several of them. Part of my search is always securing the trap from the washer because usually when you wash an item with blood, there's blood left in the trap. But in order for me to do that, I had to remove the dryer first. In the vent of the dryer on the wall, there was an envelope. I wanted to know, why is this envelope so well secured in here, so well hidden? It turned out to be a couple of business cards and phone numbers ripped from a phone book that was seized as evidence. When detectives are finished at the house, they try to find Rita at her company. That her company, ECI Technology, the workers there all said they had not seen her. So what was decided was a nationwide alert would be put out to all law enforcement agencies, both state and federal, to see if they could locate Rita Glozman. Their next stop is the alleged crime scene, Yakov Glozman's apartment. As we were walking into the building, like you could see some small amount of smeared blood on the door jam. But when detectives go inside, they find the place is spotless. There was no obvious signs that a murder had taken place, so it was very difficult at that point in time to really determine whether or not what Vladimir Zelens said was actually true that a murder occurred there. However, after the police did some forensic investigation and spoke with neighbors, things started to add up that something nefarious really did happen in this apartment. I did go downstairs to the apartment directly below Yakov's apartment and I spoke to a female there. She told me that in the middle of the night, she heard hammering upstairs and she was wondering what that had could anybody be doing at this time of night. In the morning, another neighbor told the police that they had looked out their kitchen window and observed what appeared to be a female in a male going to the vehicles just like Vladimir said. She saw them dragging the bags, putting them in the trunk. The woman had her head covered and she was kind of careful to keep her head down and not to be seen. We're always trying to be as discreet as possible, but they weren't. Unfortunately, the witness can't say for certain the woman was Rita, but her testimony corroborates much of what Vladimir told police. The most important thing left to confirm is the identity of the victim. On April 9, two days after the body parts were found, a medical examiner determines they are missing a piece. We tried to basically rebuild, if you will, the body with all the parts. There were 65 pieces at that point, and by doing that, we were able to realize that we were missing his left forearm. We contacted the Bergen County Police Diving Team again and they went back and they found it. Even with a full body, identification proves difficult. All fingerprints, all tips of all the fingers, have been severed off. There was suspicion at first that perhaps the Russian mob was involved because the modus operandi matched theirs. Vladimir was meticulous in what he did to diminish the ability to identify him. Fortunately for the medical examiner, Vladimir is led and also committed one huge mistake in that he did not remove and cut the jawbone with the teeth. The medical examiner was able to use dental records to make a positive identification of Yakuya Kluzman. Nearly every detail of Vladimir's confession has not been verified. The one piece still missing is Rita. That's about the time that the bureau started to get involved. They came to us because we had the resources to start to cover the New York metropolitan area in a way that the local jurisdictions don't have the capacity to do. We put out all points at all the airports, contacted all the transportation agencies. Some of the information that was returned was that Rita Kluzman's vehicle had entered La Guardia Airport at about three o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday. You have to get a ticket when you pulled in and then that would trigger a camera to read a license plate. Is she hiding out? Is she fleeing? The car then exited a short time later. As media coverage of the brutal crime spreads across the tri-state area, another witness comes forward. Pictures of Rita Kluzman were flashed on television screens and newspapers throughout the tri-state area. Ultimately wound up at a CVS pharmacy and spoke to a clerk who said that he had recognized Rita's picture in the newspaper as being a woman who came in to buy bandages, at her near the time after the murder had occurred. The clerk's identification of Rita seems to remove any doubt she was involved in her husband's murder. It became pretty apparent that Vladimir Zelenin's statements were checking out and that he was telling the truth. She was not a victim. she basically. through the coop. We had no idea where this woman was. Coming up, investigators find evidence that reveals a woman's scorned. How dare he find someone else, someone younger than her. She wanted to take him for everything she could. The investigation into the murder of Yakov Gluzman is entering its fourth day. And the alleged mastermind Rita Gluzman is still missing. While the search continues, police build their case by examining the couple's finances. Rita had quite a life before Yakov announced that he wanted a divorce. Yakov Gluzman was making about $170,000 in the mid-1990s. Rita was making somewhere in the neighborhood of $80,000 from her work at ECI. Yakov had made what he felt was a very generous settlement offer for their divorce. He was going to give up his share of the house. And he was also going to give up some of his 401ks. Despite Yakov's attempts at diplomacy, Rita refused his terms. We realized she wanted to take him for everything she could. The couple's divorce attorneys tell investigators a key point of contention was ECI technologies. The company they founded together. She wanted that company to be signed over to her. She wanted complete control of it. He didn't know the financial situation of the business. And he was trying to determine that before he made his settlement. And she was precluding that from happening. The company's financial records give detectives insight into why Rita was so hesitant. Rita Gluzman, as the president of ECI Technologies, used her position to full advantage. She used the company to pay the mortgage on her home, to pay mortgages for her sister and her mother. She had expensive cars that were leased through the company. She was eating out at fine restaurants, buying furs, jewelry, expensive clothing. All these things that she really couldn't afford were being paid through ECI technology. She was spending upwards of $20,000 a month. She was milking the company. But greed wasn't the only thing driving Rita to kill her husband. Yakov's phone records reveal many of his calls were to a phone number from Israel. Yakov Gluzman had met a young researcher in Israel and tripped there in 1994. And the tomb began a friendship that would later matriculate into an extramarital affair. He was not seeing her while he was still living in the home with Rita. He was separated. When Rita found out, the woman says she was furious. How dare he find someone else, find someone younger than her? And basically, if she couldn't have Yakov, nobody could. Rita's suspicious of what was going on at Yakov's apartment. So she hired a private investigator. Detectives call the numbers from the business cards in Yakov's laundry room. And when they find Rita's private investigator, he tells them everything he did for her. The private investigator referred her to a couple of technicians and she had them place a recording device in the home. He says Rita used the information she gathered to wage war on her husband. Rita discovered that Yakov is working either to bring her here to the United States or to go back to Israel to be with her. He was determined to maintain this relationship. She was determined to destroy it. We learned that Rita Glozman paid a private investigator in Israel to follow her husband. And he was photographed with this woman. Those pictures were sent back to Rita in New Jersey via her courier account. Those pictures turned up at the Glozman family in Israel. Looking to ruin his entornishous reputation and a family's reputation, that they didn't pay $100,000. [MUSIC PLAYING] It was her intent to blackmail Yakov Glozman. However, she was mistaken because Yakov had introduced her to the family in Israel. They liked her and they were very pleased that Yakov was dating this young woman. With her blackmail attempts thwarted, Rita ratcheted up her efforts to destroy Yakov's relationship. Rita was asking these investigators in Israel to do really crazy things like plant cocaine on Yakov's girlfriend to prevent her from getting here, to infect her with the AIDS virus in a drink. She was just really getting very desperate. A month later, in December 1995, Yakov filed for divorce. Four months after that, he was murdered. [MUSIC PLAYING] On April 12, 1996, investigators get a tip that changes everything. Coast we have a laboratory as a big international center for scientific conferences and for training scientists and courses. So we have these cabins on the North Shore of Long Island, where people would stay, and they were not used except during the summer. One of our security people saw a light on in one of these cabins, and investigators saw someone living there in colder police. The woman was Rita. Then they arrest her for trespassing. Rita knew the grounds really well. She knew the bungalows. And I don't think she believed that anybody would really be looking for her there. Rita is apprehended without incident. Inside the cabin, police find evidence she'd been planning her next move. They observe various items like travel books to countries like Switzerland, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. And they found hair dye that Rita had changed the color of her hair. She was obviously planning to leave. Although the evidence appears to be stacked against Rita, prosecutors know convictions aren't guaranteed. One of the major hurdles that we were facing was how could we bring a case against both Vladimir Zelenin and Rita Glozman in this matter, given that we only had Vladimir Zelenin's confession? And then we started to think about charging her with this novel new law. After only six days of investigation, New Jersey police have apprehended both suspects in the gruesome murder of Yakov Glozman. As the mastermind, his wife Rita faces an array of charges, including interstate conspiracy, extortion, and illegal wiretapping. She has also charged gender-relatively new law passed in 1994. So it's decided that the US attorney and the district attorney would make a joint prosecution and charge Rita under the Violence Against Women Act, which made it a federal crime to cross state lines and abuse espouse resulting in death. Initially, the law was designed to protect women. Vladimir Zelenin is offered a plea deal in exchange for testifying against her. In exchange for his cooperation against Rita Glozman, he would receive a reduced jail sentence by a few years. Without him, there's no case against Rita. Nine months later, in January 1997, Rita stands trial in federal court. The theory in the prosecution of Rita Glozman was that Rita was very concerned that if the divorce went through and Yakov backed out of ECI technology, she would then lose the business and the lifestyle that had brought her. This was not an aggrieved wife who was about to be divorced because her husband's having an affair, but rather a cold, calculating individual who did not want to lose the lifestyle that she was accustomed to. Rita snapped because she was going to lose everything. She was going to lose her kingdom. I have seen people killed and dismembered to a degree, but not 66 pieces. There's a very consistent theme that she's very controlling, very manipulative, and very vindictive. The main event, if you will, was their cross-examination of Vladimir Zelenev and his involvement in the murder of Yakov Kluzman. It was an intense session, but at the end of the day, the defense really was not able to damage Vladimir Zelenev and his version of events. On January 29, 1997, the jury reaches a verdict. Rita Kluzman was found guilty of all the charges surrounding the incidents that happened in New York and New Jersey. The judge did send the sir to life in prison without parole. Vladimir Zelenev is sentenced to 22 and a half years. The hardest part of this case was trying to understand why Vladimir Zelenev committed the crime the way he did. As a human being, you just have this feeling of this has to be a different way to resolve this issue that he faced. Vladimir is released in 2015, and five years later, despite her life sentence, Rita gets a chance for early release. She had beginning stages of Parkinson's disease. While in jail, she had suffered a number of many strokes. The judge in July of 2020 grants Rita Kluzman compassionate release. She's 72 years old. She was given a compassionate release, which I find pretty ironic because she snuffed her husband's life out. So I don't really feel as if it's fair that she's allowed to live in freedom. More than two decades after his murder, Dr. Kluzman's memory lives on in his work and in the hearts of his friends and colleagues. He always be remembered here by those who knew him as a fantastic person. As an amazing intellect, as a as a as a gentle child, that's the way I remember him. And I will carry that memory for as long as I live. [MUSIC]