'You slit her throat!': 2 kids found stabbed dead in NYC home; wounded nanny, knife nearby
NEW YORK, N.Y. - A mother returned home to her luxury apartment building in New York City to find two of her small children stabbed to death in a bathtub and their nanny, with self-inflicted stab wounds, lying near them, police said.
The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, was found near a knife. She was hospitalized in critical condition Thursday and was in police custody, and authorities said she is suspected of killing the children, who were pronounced dead at a hospital.
The couple's apartment building sits in one of the city's most idyllic neighbourhoods, a block from Central Park. The neighbourhood is home to many affluent families, and seeing children accompanied by nannies is an everyday part of life.
Music therapist Rima Starr, who lives on the same floor as the Krim family, said she heard screams coming from the family's apartment at around 5:30 p.m.
"There was some kind of screaming about, 'You slit her throat!'" she said. "It was horrible."
The children's mother, Marina Krim, had entered the dark apartment with her 3-year-old and initially thought her other two children were out with the 50-year-old nanny, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. She went downstairs and asked the doorman at her building whether he'd seen them leave.
When he said no, she went back upstairs and discovered her 2-year-old son, Leo, and her 6-year-old daughter, Lucia, known as LuLu, in the bathroom, Kelly said. It's unclear how many times the children were stabbed.
The nanny was found on the bathroom floor with stab wounds to her neck, and a kitchen knife was close by, police said. There was no water in the bathtub, they said.
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 family's neighbour, 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.
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Associated Press writer David B. Caruso contributed to this report.
