Mystery surrounds death of Connecticut doctor found at Glastonbury country club golf course

GLASTONBURY — Officially, little has been said about a doctor found dead on a golf course over the holidays, some 100 feet from where her SUV was partially submerged in a pond.

The discovery at the Glastonbury Hills Country Club has residents and members of the medical community wondering what happened to the mother of two.

Dr. Nailia Vodovskaia, 50, was a physician at Connecticut Valley Hospital, a state-run psychiatric hospital in Middletown. She was married and lived near the golf course.

“She was very nice,” said Lindsay Marilyn, a neighbor on Country Club Road who saw Vodovskaia at a few parties in the neighborhood. She was on the quiet side, Marilyn said.

Marilyn was one of many people puzzled by Vodovskaia's sudden death, and wants to know what happened to the doctor.

A hunter called 911 after discovering Vodovskaia’s Acura SUV in the golf course pond around 9 a.m. on Dec. 28, police said. Her body was found some 100 feet from her SUV, on a golf cart path.

The SUV had traveled across the grass, leaving tire tracks, before going partly into the pond, Glastonbury Police Lt. Kevin Szydlo said.  

Szydlo said investigators were waiting for the final autopsy results to determine the precise cause and manner of her death, which police called "untimely." A staff member at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Thursday confirmed that more tests were needed.      

Of the detectives working on the case, Szydlo said, “Hopefully, when they get the remainder of the test results, they’ll be able to put together a picture of the circumstances surrounding her death.” Investigators also are still reviewing evidence from the scene, he said.

Police said from the beginning that they have no reason to believe there is any risk to the public.

Death notice posted online, then disappears

There is no obituary for Vodovskaia. On Wednesday morning, notice of her death was posted on the D’Esopo Funeral Chapel website with minimal information, saying only that she was a medical doctor, born on April 9, 1974, who died on Dec. 28. By Wednesday afternoon, there no longer was any reference to Vodovskaia’s name on the site.

Lionel Lessard, D’Esopo general manager, said services would be private, at the family’s request, and no more biographical information would be released.

Vodovskaia’s mother, Nailia Bikmamatov, declined to comment. Vodovskaia’s husband, Robert Scandura Jr., also could not be reached.

A longtime friend said Vodovskaia was going through a rough time after a cancer diagnosis.

Carlos Ramirez said Vodovskaia had texted him only two days before her death, and had been receiving chemotherapy after a cancer diagnosis, he said.

He first met her in the late 1990s, Ramirez said, when he advertised a room for rent in his New Jersey home. Vodovskaia responded that she needed a place for her mother to stay, and they have been friends ever since, said Ramirez, who now lives in Texas.

“She practically raised my son,” he said.

Since then, Vodovskaia had two children of her own, Ramirez said. A neighbor said the oldest is about 13.    

Ramirez said he contacted Glastonbury police after learning she had been found dead and told a detective about the recent conversations.

The UConn Health website shows Vodovskaia had completed the UConn Health/Hartford Hospital Neurology Residency Program and had a medical degree from Kyrgyz State Medical Academy in her home country of Kyrgyzstan.

She began working as a staff physician at Saint Francis Hospital in 2010, and began working at Wallingford-based Masonicare Health Center in 2015, evaluating older adults through geriatric assessments, according to the Hartford Business Journal.

In between those jobs, Vodovskaia began working in January 2011 at the Hartford Headache Center. She was fired from that job in 2013 and sued to recover damages for “negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress in connection with her termination,” according to court documents.

The documents state that the defendants pressured her to write a false complaint against an office worker so they could fire the employee.

In addition, Vodovskaia, who also is referred to as Vodovskaia-Scandura in the court documents, alleged that the defendants “made defamatory statements to several patients by claiming the plaintiff engaged in improper conduct and lacked professional integrity,” according to the documents.

The trial court ruled in favor of the Hartford Headache Center, and the Appellate Court upheld the decision.

On July 8, 2016, Vodovskaia began working at Connecticut Valley Hospital as a principal physician after being hired by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said Krystin DeLucia, communication and legislative program manager. 

No one at the hospital could be reached to talk about Vodovskaia.

Anyone with information about the case can call Sgt. Brandon Ritchie of the Investigative Unit at 860-633-8301.