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.
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