Nanny Kills Two Children, Turns Knife On Herself
Two children are dead, and their nanny is in custody after the children's mother discovered all three of their bodies in their Upper West Side home. Police say that 50-year-old Yoselyn Ortega is in critical condition after committing the violent crime and then cutting herself.
Marina Krim made the gruesome discovery yesterday after returning home with her three-year-old daughter, Nessie. When she got to her apartment, it was completely dark, leading Krim to believe Ortega had taken the other two children, Lucia and Leo, out for a bit.
"She goes downstairs to the lobby, assuming the nanny may have gone out with the children," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a press conference yesterday. "She asks the doorman if in fact they have gone out, and he says, 'No.' She goes back up, the apartment is dark, and she goes into the bathroom."
That's when Krim found the bodies of her two children in the bathtub; they had both been stabbed. Ortega lay nearby, with self-inflicted wounds and the knife on the floor. Neighbors reportedly heard Krim's screams as she called 911 and was taken to the lobby while police investigated upstairs.
The children's father, Kevin Krim, had been away on a business trip and was given a police escort to the hospital once his plane landed. According to the New York Post, the children were pronounced dead on arrival, and their mother had to be sedated due to her hysteria.
Police are not sure what led Ortega to kill the children, or if her self-inflicted wounds were a suicide attempt. Neighbors described Ortega as "very quiet" and the ordeal as "horrifying… It's a very quiet building," they told The Post.
Leo Krim was only two-years-old, and his sister Lucia, known as Lulu, was only six. The family resides at La Rochelle on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.