A New York City artist has been identified as the mystery woman who was brutally murdered Monday at an upscale Hamptons spa and resort that caters to stars like Kate Hudson and Katie Couric.
Sabina Rosas, 33, of Brooklyn, was found dead in a guest room at Shou Sugi Ban House — the apparent victim of an unspecified act of violence, Suffolk County police said Tuesday.
Details about Rosas’ death remained murky more than a day after a spa employee found her body in one of 13 private guest studios at the luxury resort in Water Mill, an upscale hamlet in the Long Island town of Southampton.
The shocking murder belied the serene atmosphere cultivated by the $1,000-a-night spa tucked along a quiet stretch of Montauk Highway – and took locals by surprise.
“It’s just so unusual for this area, and that area in particular,” said Jean Wong, 56.
“It’s very ironic because you go to such a place for relaxation and comfort. What could have led to a murder?’
A Buddha statue stood at the end of a long gravel driveway leading to the resort, which was cordoned off with crime scene tape Tuesday afternoon.
A Suffolk County Police Department van and a Southampton City police cruiser pulled into the driveway around 4 p.m. and left half an hour later.
Before Rosas was murdered, Shou Sugi Ban House was featured in Vogue detailed a 2022 soirée hosted by actress Kate Hudson and attended by Stella McCartney and Katie Couric.
Police did not provide details about what brought Rosas to the resort.
Rosas herself appears to have lived a somewhat nomadic life, often affected by political unrest as she pursued creative endeavors.
Her husband – who splits his time between Coney Island and Miami – had flown in from Florida on Tuesday to speak to police on Long Island about her death, his roommate told the New York Daily News.
“I think everyone is in shock,” the roommate said.
Rosas was an artist who was part of the nonprofit Harvestworks’ 2021 Technology Immersion Program, the report confirmed.
Her biography on the nonprofit’s site says she was originally from Tajikistan, but fled to Turkmenistan in 1993 during a civil war after the fall of the Soviet Union.
She moved to Crimea in 2000 and returned to Tajikistan in 2003, where she studied painting, the biography said.
In 2009, Rosas moved to the U.S. to study art and eventually came to Forest Hills a year later, the bio said. She graduated from Purchase College with a bachelor’s degree in new media.
Rosas spent the past year in her native Tajikistan, her husband’s roommate told the Daily News.
The murder brought the kind of attention – and fear – that was foreign to many Hamptons residents.
“I was driving by earlier and saw these news trucks and thought, ‘Oh, what did Justin Timberlake do this time?’ because the only newsworthy thing happening here has to do with celebrities,” said Lisa Stach, 43.
“This is obviously not the kind of city where a lot of murders happen, so it’s very shocking. I feel terrible for the victim and her family,” Stach added. “It makes you think if you’re not safe there, where are you safe?”
— Additional reporting by Dorian Geiger
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