A Woman Scorned: The Rita Gluzman Story

Like a Refugee

By the time authorities in Bergen County reached Gluzman's palatial home the next day, she was already gone. So was her passport, sparking fears among prosecutors that perhaps she had fled overseas, maybe to Israel, or Switzerland or England, all countries where she had friends. Perhaps, the cops fretted, she had gone back to Russia, which would, for them, create a bureaucratic nightmare if they tried to extradite her. Authorities sent an alert to airports -- there are several international terminals within easy driving distance of Bergen County -- but came up empty.

Perhaps, authorities would later speculate, Rita Gluzman had planned to flee the country, but decided to lie low for a while until investigators let down their guard. Perhaps, as her lawyer would later put it, she simply wanted to flee to a place where she had once felt safe, a place where she had spent some of the happiest days of her life.

Whatever the reason, as Zelenin was being held in Bergen County, Rita Gluzman was driving east in her car, heading across the George Washington Bridge, bound for Long Island.

It was clear that she expected authorities to be looking for her. Along the way, she stopped briefly in Amityville and stole a set of New York license plates from a parked car so that her car with its New Jersey tags wouldn't be so obvious.

Though it had been more than five years since she had last set foot on the grounds of the laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor, Rita Gluzman still felt comfortable with the place and she knew her way around. Without anyone catching sight of her, she found her way to a small bungalow, just like the one she had once lived in with her husband. She popped out a screen in one of the windows and struggled to get inside. Then, she just hunkered down while authorities in Rockland County, N.Y., and Bergen County, N.J., launched a dragnet for her. She pondered her next move.

Although investigators in both jurisdictions had not yet publicly declared Rita Gluzman a suspect in the death of her husband, there no one doubted she had planned the slaying, participated in it, and was now fleeing from police. They issued a public alert for her, saying they just wanted to talk with her.

But what might have seemed like an open-and-shut murder case was far from it.

Investigators who had combed through Gluzman's Pearl River apartment had found a few odd traces of forensic evidence, but it had not yet been tested, and even once it was, there was no guarantee that the evidence would incriminate Rita Gluzman. After all, it had been Zelenin who had been wounded in the attack. There was a good chance that when the tests were completed, the only thing they'd be able to prove was that Zelenin had been present at the apartment during the murder.

Even if they could find a stray fingerprint from Rita Gluzman, the cops knew that a smart defense attorney could explain it away, saying it could have been left there during one of the periodic thaws in the chilly relationship between the couple.

And the lawyer Gluzman's family had retained -- Michael Rosen -- was one of the smartest defense attorneys around. A suave, white-haired man with a smooth manner and a chilling smile he reminded many who saw him of movie star Richard Widmark -- Rosen has made his name defending reputed mobsters.

Of course, there was Zelenin's confession. But even that was problematic for prosecutors in Rockland County. Under New York state law, a murder case cannot be based on the testimony of an accomplice unless there are other witnesses or other compelling evidence. There were no other witnesses, Rockland County authorities knew, and at that moment, there really wasn't any other compelling evidence.

Even if they could build a circumstantial case to support Zelenin's testimony, a monumental task, under New York state law they could have only charged her with second-degree murder. If she were convicted, the most severe sentence they could expect was 15 years.

New Jersey authorities complained that they too were hamstrung. Because the murder had been committed in New York, the best Bergen County authorities would be able to do would be to charge her, as they had charged Zelenin, with conspiracy to commit murder. In all likelihood, they feared, the best they'd be able to prove was that, by buying the bandages for Zelenin, Rita Gluzman was an accessory after the fact.

To cops on both sides of the border, it was starting to look as if Rita Gluzman was likely to get away with murder even if they could find her.