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Nanny Stabs Two Children to Death on West 75th Street, Police Say

By DNAinfo Staff | October 25, 2012 6:16pm | Updated on October 26, 2012 10:27am

UPPER WEST SIDE — A nanny working for a prominent television executive stabbed two of his young children to death in their luxury West 75th Street apartment Thursday evening and then turned the knife on herself in a nightmare scene that left neighbors stunned, officials said.

Marina Krim, the doting mom of little Lucia Krim, 6, and Leo Krim, 2, made the horrifying discovery just after 5:30 p.m. in the second floor apartment at 57 W. 75th St., just off Central Park West, after returning home from a swim lesson with her daughter, Nessie Krim, 3.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters Marina Krim, who is married to CNBC digital media senior vice president Kevin Krim, found her apartment dark and seemingly empty and went to ask the doorman if her two other children and the nanny, identified as Yoselyn Ortega, 50, had left, Kelly said.

When she returned to the apartment, she found her young children in the bathtub with multiple stab wounds and ran out of the apartment screaming, said Lucianne Minihan, whose husband, Michael, is the superintendent at 57 W. 75th St.

"The whole building heard it," Lucianne Minihan said. "She was screaming at the top of her lungs. She was screaming, 'Help me! Help me!'"

Hearing the screams, the superintendent raced upstairs, went into the apartment and saw blood everywhere, Minihan said.

He heard a strange grunting noise, looked through a bedroom doorway, and saw the nanny stabbing herself, according to Minihan.

The super ran out of the apartment, closed the front door and yelled at his neighbors to call the police. He held the door closed until police came, Minihan said.

Ortega was taken to New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical but stable condition with self-inflicted wounds to her throat, police said. Charges have not yet been filed.

The horrific crime sent shockwaves through a neighborhood where many parents rely on nannies to help raise their children.

"It brings to the surface the fears every parent has when leaving their children with anyone but family," wrote an Upper West Side mom on her blog. "We can do all the background checks in the world, and we know that most caregivers are amazing and loving, but it's the random, horrific incidents like this that stay in our heads as we walk out the door and leave our children."

The children were pronounced dead at St. Luke's Hospital and their mother was taken there for trauma, according to NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

Cops found a kitchen knife on the bathroom floor, police said.

Marina Krim's love for her young children was detailed in an online diary, which was loaded with smiling photos of a thriving, happy-looking family.

Pictures show the Krim children, who moved to New York about two and a half years ago from San Francisco, embracing their lives in New York, with Lulu munching on a hotdog and Nessie stopping at pay phones on Broadway to make pretend phone calls.

Lulu Krim attended the dual-language Spanish program at the highly-regarded neighborhood school P.S. 87, according to the diary.

"One of the best parts of my day is after I drop both girls off at school and have 3 precious hours with little Lito all to myself," Marina Krim wrote. "Ok, I'm near getting cheesy I adore this boy so much!!!"

Leo had just celebrated his second birthday last month.

Marina Krim's latest entry was made just hours before her grisly discovery.

"Leo speaks in the most adorable way possible," Krim wrote. "Firstly, he speaks super clearly, so you can understand every word is he is saying."

The family had employed Ortega, nicknamed "Josie," for two and a half years, family member said.

Earlier this year, the Krims visited Josie's "amazing familia" in the Dominican Republic, where the nanny's relatives nicknamed Nessie “Rapida y Furiosa" (Fast and Furious) and several posts show the childrens' hair styled by Ortega.

Neighbors at Ortega's Harlem apartment building were shocked by her alleged crime. Ortega has lived in the neighborhood for at least 20 years, neighbors said, and has a son in his 20s. Four sisters of Ortega's also live in the building, neighbors said.

"She's a nice polite woman, calm, never aggressive, a good person, never violent behavior, nothing ever extreme," said neighbor Andre Valdez, 39. "I'm surprised, it's absurd. I don't even believe she would do something like this."

Detectives left the apartment building about 11 p.m. Thursday with several of Ortega's family members, who covered their faces with jackets.