Ilana Yushka (Russian: Илана Юшка, Ilana Yushka) was an author and daughter of a prominent Russian mobster. She wrote a best-selling book about her father's activities which partially resulted in his conviction on charges relating to his activities.
History
As a child, she was a student at Chase Academy. While there, she had a brief crush on fellow student Sylvie Clark for approximately two weeks. Also at Chase, she went on a joyride with someone who was identified as Martha Strick. It was later found out that this person was actually fellow student Kenneth Strick dressed in women's clothing.
After her father's incarceration, Yushka decided to write a new book about her time at Chase Academy for profit and publicity. Apparently, Yushka also planned to reveal that a ten-year-old Kenneth Strick had killed his pregnant mother with ant poison. Upon learning this, Strick killed Yushka to prevent her from disclosing this fact.
Strick decapitated Yushka, placed a necklace she recently purchased in her mouth, and mailed it to her publisher. He liquefied the rest of Ilana's body with lye and dumped her bones into the Hudson River. It was discovered by Robert Goren that members of the Russian mob had put a hit on Yushka, likely fearing that her new book would incriminate other mob figures, but Strick killed her before the hit could be carried out.
Detective Goren determined that Strick's motive for killing Ilana was to keep Martha from learning that he was responsible for their mother's death. At the Stricks' childhood home, Goren convinced Kenneth to confess by providing him with an alternate motive - a "convenient fiction". When Martha and ADA Ron Carver arrived, Kenneth told his sister that he had indeed killed Ilana to prevent her from publishing a "book of lies and distortions" about their mother. (CI: Maledictus)