Beloved Realtor Passed Away at 62 | The Murder of Linda Stein

Content advisory: The following article discusses sensitive topics surrounding death.

On October 30, 2007, Linda Stein, a 62-year-old successful realtor who had sold properties to extremely wealthy people, was found brutally murdered in her apartment on 5th Avenue in New York City. Her body, discovered by her own daughter, was extremely shocking. The case became an instant focal point of the media due to the social status of Stein as well as the brutality found at the crime scene.

As detectives began investigating the case they realized that it was more complex than they thought because of Stein’s popularity and social status. Stein had sold apartments to famous people such as filmmakers like Steven Speilberg. Because what no one knew at the time was that the truth was far more surprising than what people thought.

The detective’s questioning started with Stein’s neighbors and staff who knew her the best. Her neighbor Marc Benecke, during questioning, stated “Linda Stein was a force of nature.” Another neighbor, Steven Gaines said, “She was only five feet tall, but when she spoke, this big booming voice came out of this woman, and if she was angry? That voice, you could hear it down the block.”

After questioning finalized with the neighbors, detectives moved on to questioning Mandy Stein, her daughter. Mandy had attempted to call Stein that day but Stein’s assistant, Natavia Lowery, answered the phone instead and told her that Stein was “Out running at this time.” Mandy had said that she had discovered her mother’s body around 10:30 PM. Detectives later said that Linda had received serious hits with 10 blows to the head, a broken spine, her neck was fractured, and she had received laceration to the face and ears.

Once these interviews were finished Detective Loffredo decided to watch the footage of the building. After going through tons of videos Loffredo discovered a moment where Natavia was walking into the building with money in her hand. Despite the fact that it was a small detail Loffredo believed that it indicated that she had taken a cab to work which contradicts her statement of walking there. Upon further research they could see Natavia going into Stein’s house making her the only person to go there the day of the murder. Natavia had originally been hired in 2007 for clerical work and to help Stein because her hands were bad.

When Natavia was brought in for questioning she said that she forgot the details of that day due to stress from the fallout with Stein. Detectives didn’t buy the story, which soon changed to Natavia confessing that once in college she allegedly blacked out and "choked" a roommate. Soon after she recanted that statement and changed it to a new story. This time, Natavia said an unknown male called her on her phone and demanded Natavia leave Stein’s door unlocked. Natavia said she did so, under threat of violence, before a man clad in black entered the apartment and beat Stein to death. However, the surveillance footage didn't show any of that.

Detectives kept pressing her until she finally said that she would confess. According to Natavia, she was triggered by Stein’s badgering and snapped, claiming she didn’t mean to kill her employer when striking her with a nearby yoga stick. However the police still thought that she was holding back information and thanks to the neighbor Benecke all of that came to light. Benecke suggested Stein confront the potential thief, which is what investigators think happened when Natavia murdered Stein. Following that line of inquiry, detectives learned Natavia was pretending to be Stein in order to open credit cards in Stein’s name. Later in court she was found guilty and sentenced 25 to Life.