Stein footage shows broker never left home day of murder

The late Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Linda Stein had suspicions that someone was stealing from her, according to Friday’s testimony from a close personal friend of Stein, who was found murdered in her Upper East Side apartment in 2007. Mark Benecke, who reportedly sold homes with Stein, told the court that Stein confided in him that she believed she was being ripped off by someone she knew. The next day at 1 p.m. Benecke said he called her apartment — from which she also worked — but that this assistant Natavia Lowery, who stands accused of murdering Stein, answered the phone. Benecke alleges that Lowery said Stein had left the apartment to take a walk, but security tapes show that Stein never left her apartment that day. What the footage does show, however, is Lowery leaving the building and returning numerous times, at one point carrying Stein’s purse. See above for footage from the Gothamist.