NEW YORK -- A nanny suspected of killing two young children she was looking after and then stabbing herself is in critical condition in a city hospital, as authorities continue to investigate a situation that is every parent's nightmare.
NEW YORK -- A nanny suspected of killing two young children she
was looking after and then stabbing herself is in critical condition in a
city hospital, as authorities continue to investigate a situation that
is every parent's nightmare.
The horror started for the children's
mother, Marina Krim, when she and a third child returned to their
apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side Thursday evening. Puzzled by
the darkened home, she returned to the lobby to ask the doorman if the
nanny had gone out with 1-year-old Leo, just learning to walk, and
6-year-old Lucia, known as LuLu.
She
was told they hadn't left, so she returned upstairs. A search led to
the bathroom, where the children's bodies were in the bathtub and the
nanny lay wounded nearby. It's unclear how many times the children were
stabbed.
"There was some kind of screaming about, 'You slit her
throat!'" said music therapist Rima Starr, who lives on the same floor
as the family, and said she heard screams coming from their apartment at
around 5:30 p.m.
The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, who was found near a
knife, was hospitalized in critical condition and was in police
custody. The children were pronounced dead at a hospital.
The
children's father, CNBC digital media executive Kevin Krim, who had been
away on a business trip, was met by police at the airport on his return
and was given an escort to the hospital where his loved ones had
gathered.
The couple's apartment building sits in one of the
city's most idyllic neighborhoods, a block from Central Park, near the
Museum of Natural History and blocks from Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts. The neighborhood is home to many affluent families, and
seeing children accompanied by nannies is an everyday part of life
there, making the idea of such violence even more disturbing to
residents.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said it's unclear
how long the nanny had worked for the family and the police
investigation was ongoing. No charges had been filed.
Starr, the neighbor, said she believed the nanny had been hired just recently.
"I met her in the elevator, the day before yesterday, and was making small talk," she said.
After
police arrived, she said, the mother remained in the building's lobby,
screaming hysterically and clutching her surviving child.
On a
webpage devoted to a recent family wedding, the eldest of the children,
Lulu, is described as loving "art projects, ballet, and all things
princess." The youngest, Leo, was said to be just learning how to walk.
The
family had moved to New York from San Francisco within the last few
years. The children's father was named general manager of CNBC's digital
media division in March, after working previously in digital media at
Bloomberg. Their mother had a cooking blog and taught art classes to
young children.
The family lived in a stately, late 19th-century
apartment building where one three-bedroom unit currently available for
rent has an asking price of $10,000 per month. They had a greyhound,
retired from racing, named Babar.
Associated Press