Inset: Anastasia Tsefia Sudarsana (Hoover Police Dept.). Background: The Alabama location where police say Sudarsana fatally attacked a 70-year-old woman (Google Maps).
An Alabama woman is facing a murder charge after authorities say a 70-year-old woman was found dead in a community swimming pool, with investigators alleging signs at the scene pointed to a violent confrontation moments before the victim died.
Police identified the suspect as 30-year-old Anastasia Tsefia Sudarsana, who was arrested in connection with the Sept. 3 killing of the elderly woman, officials said.
In a news release, the Hoover Police Department said officers were dispatched around 9:32 p.m. to a community pool in the 2200 block of Little Valley Road after a 911 caller reported an unresponsive person in the water.
Emergency crews tried to revive the woman after arriving at the pool, but their efforts were unsuccessful. She was declared dead at the scene. Police said her identity is being withheld pending notification of her relatives.
Investigators said evidence gathered at the pool quickly suggested the death was not the result of an accident.
“Detectives responded to the scene to begin their investigation and located a person of interest near the area and determined she was an acquaintance of the victim,” Hoover police said in the release. “The evidence showed a physical struggle occurred just before the victim’s death, which is being investigated as a homicide.”
After reviewing the evidence, police presented the case to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office in Birmingham, where an arrest warrant was issued for Sudarsana.
Authorities have not revealed a possible motive for the alleged murder.
Sudarsana was transferred to the Jefferson County Jail on Friday, where she is being held without bond.
The official cause and manner of death have not been released. Police said the Jefferson County Medical Examiner’s Office will issue those findings after its investigation is complete.
Sudarsana was previously featured in a 2022 report from Birmingham ABC affiliate WBMA about her family’s escape from Ukraine following the invasion of Russian troops.
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